Author: Root Rot
Faces of Death (1978)
Directed by: John Alan Schwartz
As a kid I was really into horror movies and the gorier they were, the better. For me Face of Death was the true “video nasty” . Growing up in a small town in the mid 80′s, video stores where limited; most were mom and pop owned and operated. The one I remember most vividly was Donner Video. Donner Video had an amazing horror video selection, comparable to Netflix. I rented every horror movie I could get my hands on. At the age of 12 I was reliant upon my parents to get to and from the video store, which meant my video choice required my mom’s approval. While my choices were generally approved, Faces of Death was the one movie to receive a, “no way”. The, banned in 40 Countries warning, was the deciding factor. My mom’s disapproval of Faces of Death made viewing it more important than losing my virginity; however, I wasn’t too discouraged because there were other options.
At the time I knew a kid that had every off the wall video in his collection. At school on Monday at I asked him if he had a copy, to my excitement he said that he did. Now, all I had to do was pay him $5, and the movie would be mine that Wednesday. When Wednesday came I met my friend in the bathroom after school to recieve the much anticipated movie, only to my dismay the VHS he handed me wasn’t Faces of Death. He said he was unable to find his copy of Faces, so instead he made me a copy of the most horrible horror movie he had ever seen. I was disappointed and excited at the same time. I rushed home knowing my mom and dad were still at work. What I saw was indeed horrible; I had never seen anything like it before. It was the classic 1976 Blood Sucking Freaks. My Faces of Death quest was on hold until the age of 15.
After driving my mother crazy every Friday for three years, she finally gave in. I rented my White Whale and made a production of the viewing. After watching it, I remember thinking “that’s it”? I had expected a lot more. As a result, Face of Death was filed as one of my disappointing memories.
Years later In 1999 the Blair Witch was all the craze. A lot of people believed that the events in The Blair Witch really happened. While I was viewing it, I could not stop thinking “mondo film”. By now I was extremely knowledgable in the Mondo genera of film. 20 plus years before The Blair Witch, films such as Mondo Cane, Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox and my old friend Faces of Death had the same inpact on audiences.
After viewing Faces of Death many times since, I have developed a new-found respect for the film. Much like the audience reaction to The Blaire Witch, people continue to believe the film Faces of Death is completely real. True, Faces included scenes of death taken from stock news footage, but to my knowledge the spotlighted 
death scenes such as the electric chair, the satanic orgy and the infamous monkey brain scene are not real. This style of film was introduced by the Italian film Mondo Cane (1962) and then made famous by the Italian Cannibal genera of the late 70′s and early 80′s. Though I have only seen a few of them, Faces of Death includes many sequels and has been poorly copied. What I find most interesting about the film is that even in the year 2010, the urban ledges regarding Face of Death continue. The legends that I am aware of include that in Japan, Faces of Death made more money than Star Wars and that the director obtained all the funding for Faces by buying the writes to Amos and Andy for $1.00 and turning them over for thousands. I have no idea if these rumors are true, nor do I care.
As a film alone, Faces of Death is not that great, at best a (C-). On the other hand, the name Faces of Death deserves an (A+). Not only does the film’s name sicken people, but there is much controversy surrounding the film that’s still talked about today.
To the director of Faces of Death (John Alan Schwartz) I say , Thanks for all the awesome memories. Sadly, there has been talk of a Faces of Death remake. If you have not seen this movie I say it’s a must see due to its contribution to the horror community. My final suggestion is to watch this film while eating a big bowl of spaghetti….. have fun..
Related Links
The official Faces of Death website
Related Witch’s Hat links
Follow-up to the Movie Review of Faces of Death 1978
Other Witch’s Hat movie reviews
Question or comments
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Great review Root Rot, loved the anecdotal info a’la the bathroom bootlegging quest, Mom’s disapproval -awesome. Believe it or not, FoD is one of those films I STILL have not seen, crazy! As a teen there was a short list of films I NEEDED to see based on how depraved I’d heard they were: I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left, Cannibal Holocaust, and Faces of Death. Somehow, only FoD has eluded me in the 27 years I’ve been a horror geek. It’s time to remedy this toot sweet. Keep ‘em coming, sir, good stuff.
Thanks for the feedback. You must see Faces. There’s a link at the bottom of the review.
Root Rot, an outstanding review. More than that, you actually brought me back to the by-gone days when renting something like Faces of Death meant something. It was an adventure. It was a risk. It was something little kids weren’t supposed to watch, which made it exponentially cooler. I thank you for the stroll down memory lane, and my pocketbook hates you because now I can’t simply rent this movie, I’. going to have to go out and buy.
Thank you Mr. Latch for the kind words. It was indeed a good memory. The other movies that were on my moms no no list were Nightmare on Elm St and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Always good stuff.
Thank you Mr. Mike I’m honored hearing that from you.
very nice man, i know alot of people think FOD is fake and im sure alot of it is, but i could give 2 shits about it. its just a great film for that era. films like cannibal holacaust set the tone for these types of films. i think the reason people enjoy your reviews so much rootrot is you have a way with tearing apart a film but enjoying it also, you make good points on certain parts of films that make people say “ok, it may suck but i still think i wanna see this”. also, im a big fan of blair witch, what i never understood is that people thought this was real. come on man, yes the victims familys are gonna just say “sure show my son or daughter in the last horrific moments of their life, no problem”! please. anyway, i will always have a special place in my heart for FOD, classic shock. nice job as always my friend
misfitboy
Why thank you sir! I review movies based on how I feel. If a movie sucks, I probably will not bother with a review unless someone request one (ie May). I am not a fan of The Blair Witch but I respect the film. Blair Witch was shot on a zero budget on gained one hell of a rep on the internet before the film was out in theaters.
always found this underwhelming…but it did have some disturbing scenes.
I couldn’t agree more. thanks