Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Michael_Elliott Faceless (1987) *** (out of 4)After his sister has acid thrown into her face, Dr. Flamand (Helmut Berger) and his assistant (Brigitte Lahaie) start kidnapping women so that their faces can be placed on the sister. They end up kidnapping a model (Caroline Munro) so her father (Telly Savalas) hires a private investigator (Christopher Mitchum) to track her down.FACELESS is a very interesting film for director Jess Franco because throughout the decade he was making ultra low-budget movies and porn films. This here was considered his "comback" as he was given a very high budget, a great cast and familiar material to work with. The EYES WITHOUT A FACE/THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF subject matter is something the director dealt with throughout his career and when you put everything together he turned in a good movie here.I think the best thing the film has going for it is the terrific and familiar faces. Berger and Lahaie are both extremely good here displaying the coldness they have. You've got Mitchum who does a good job paying homage to the type of roles his father would have played. Savalas is fun in his few scenes here. As for Munro, she basically just has to be tied down to a bed and scream but it's still fun to see her. Fans of Franco will also enjoy seeing Howard Vernon playing Dr. Orloff and Lina Romay has a brief cameo as well.The film's higher budget allowed Franco to make a professional looking film and it looks just that. This film certainly proved what Franco could have done if he had the budget. I know some fans don't like this "classy" look but it's still interesting to see what he could do. The film also benefits from having some gory special effects with several scenes of faces being taken off their victims. While the effects aren't always believable they're at least gory enough to keep you entertained. There are some flaws including the non-stop playing of the title song as well as there being a few too many scenes so some editing would have helped.Still, FACELESS is a very interesting film for the Spanish director and it's certainly worth watching.

JoeKarlosi FACELESS (1994)Yet ANOTHER film about a doctor restoring his wife's face via skin grafts and abductions of beautiful girls. This one delivers the goods - that is to say there is lots of nudity, blood, and gore effects for those looking for it. One of director Jess Franco's better and more involving undertakings that I've seen (and I've seen a lot of bad ones). This also benefits from having an "all star cast" as far as these things go, with the likes of Caroline Munro, Anton Diffring, and Telly Savalas. Not great or even good, but decent. ** out of ****

Witchfinder General 666 "Faceless" of 1987 is cult director Jess Franco's demented and ultra-gory 80s take on a classic Horror topic. In the heyday of European Gothic Horror some of the greatest genre films dealt with a mad scientist who was murdering young women in order to restore the life or beauty of one particular woman. Some of the most brilliant films with such a theme are Georges Franju's masterpiece "Les Yeux Sans Visage" ("Eyes Without a Face", 1960), Giorgio Ferroni's "Il Mulino Delle Donne Di Pietro" ("Mill of the Stone Women", 1960), or Franco's own "Gritos En La Noche" ("The Awful Dr. Orloff", 1962). With "Faceless", Franco brings this popular Horror-theme back, with less atmosphere, but with tons of more sleaze and demented gore. According to this site, the film is a remake of Franju's film, but it has just as many resemblances to "The Awful Dr. Orloff" (which, then again, was very clearly inspired by "Les Yeux Sans Visage").I have been a Jess Franco fan for many years now, especially of his earlier films, and my expectations for this one were quite high, simply because it has been recommended to me by fellow Franco-fans on several occasions as the best of his newer films. It must be said that Franco's impressive repertoire of 180+ films includes masterpieces and stinkers alike, and while "Faceless" definitely ranges in the better half of his output, I cannot deny that I was a tiny bit disappointed. As explained earlier, I am a big fan of Gothic Horror from the 60s, and Franco's films about the theme, "The Awful Dr. Orloff" and the sequel "Miss Muerte" ("The Diabolical Dr. Z", 1966) are doubtlessly the best ones he ever made. "Faceless" is a welcome return to this great premise, but while I reckon the difference in styles between the early 60s and the late 80s, I would have loved the film to be a little more atmospheric and in the style of these old films, in short: a little more 'Gothic'. That being said, "Faceless" is definitely a film that Franco-fans should not miss out on.Helmut Berger plays the ruthless prominent plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Flanard who, after his sister has been deformed by a disaffected former patient, has no scruples whatsoever in his dedication to restore her beauty... The cast includes several cult-actors including Helmut Berger, Telly Salavas, Franco-regular Howard Vernon (once again as a man called Dr. Orloff), Anton Diffring, who plays a demented Nazi-scientist, Christopher Mitchum (Robert's son), Caroline Munro and Pornstar/Exploitation actress Brigitte Lahaie, who plays the Doctor's mistress and ruthless assistant. The most spectacular aspect about "Faceless" is probably its ultra-demented nature and the truly gruesome gore-effects. Several scenes, such as the 'face-removal' sequence are sometimes hard to digest, even for trained Exploitation/Gore fans. Sadly, the film hasn't got the great style and atmosphere of Franco's early 'Mad Scientist' films, which were moody, creepy and accompanied by gloomy, Franco-typical scores. This film's score is its most annoying aspect, the same (TRULY terrible) 80s song is re-played over and over again. While I don't share the enthusiasm that fellow Franco fans seem to have about "Faceless", I will be the last one to deny that it is more than worth watching. Especially the gore-enthusiasts out there should have a blast. Recommended to Jess Franco fans.

lost-in-limbo A wealthy father hires a private eye to go to France and track down his missing daughter. Her disappearance can be attributed to a plastic surgeon's secret set-up, in which he and his assistant kidnap young ladies and keep them in the clinic's basement. A year ago his sister was disfigured by acid and now he's doing his best to restore the beautiful face she once bestow with the help of an ex-Nazi surgeon. While, that's going on, the private eye is getting closer to finding the connection between the missing girls and the doctor's hard work.When I hear the name Jess Franco, I think of sleazy euro-trash by reputation. Although some might classify it as art. Now I finally got around to watching one of his films and "Faceless" wasn't bad at all. Actually I found it quite intriguing, although at times rather bland to begin with, but it gets better in the latter half by rallying up tension and ghastly makeup effects with surprising results and an oddly unexpected conclusion. Mixed into the straightforward material is an inventively malevolent idea (taken from 'The Awful Dr. Orloff') covered with manipulative erotic overtones and cold sadism. It was hard to take it all rather seriously because of the nature of certain reactions, developments and questionably hokey FX. Despite this factor the far-fetch storyline and splatter element was quite fun and extremely out-there in providing some uncomfortable moments (like what was going on in the operation room). The script was okay, but that's where I thought it got bland and was reasonably stiff when it went for that melancholy vibe.On hand Franco chips in with a very 80's soundtrack that has that silky touch that goes down well with the flick's upbeat tempo and overall style. He definitely has a fine eye for detail. The budget shows up immensely, especially with the make-up, but more so with the calibre of actors involved on the project. Telly Savalas is only in an effectively special guest appearance. It's the classy Helmut Berger and very enticing Brigitte Lahaie that stick in mind. Their chemistry and villainous nature just oozes off the screen. Caroline Munro also provides a valuable addition to the line-up. Anton Diffring, Florence Guerin, Howard Vernon and Christopher Mitchum (who likes his gum) are all reasonable too.This Euro joint by well renown Franco is well worth a look and a good stepping stone into his long career