Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Brian Berta Currently, I've never given a movie a 1 star rating before. I've given out a 3 star rating before to a movie but never a rating this low. This is mainly because even some of the worst movies I've ever seen had at least a few things good about them. But I have always wondered when I'll be able to find a movie that is so bad that regardless of how hard I try, I would not be able to find anything in it which is even somewhat good or entertaining.I think that I've found one.This awful disaster of a movie is distractingly violent, super offensive, and full of shock value. I can safely say that this is one of the worst movies ever made.This documentary really has no plot. It's just a montage of people and animals dying gruesome and bloody deaths and the narrator also gives disturbing commentary detailing how they died.The only point to this film is to shock and disturb the viewer. It's a hard movie to watch because the movie featured gruesome deaths just for the sake of it. There was not a single moment in this movie that contained any power and I didn't feel engaged at all throughout its entirety. I enjoyed Come and See because it had power with its massacre scenes and it had intelligent violence which stayed with me long after viewing it. Faces of Death on the other hand is nothing more than just 105 minutes of endless and tiring shock value.Also, there is one thing that really infuriates me about this movie more than anything else. It is that the movie often plays goofy and uplifting music while it shows footage of people being brutally murdered (also, most of the deaths displayed here are in fact real). Most of those people died brutal deaths here and it downright disgusted me how the movie uses the goofy music to make them sound like some kind of a sick joke. However, the movie actually offended me in this case. It proves that the directors clearly don't care at all for any of the people or animals who brutally died in this movie. This clearly has some of the worst, unfitting music ever in cinema history.I've actually seen some people give this movie a 5/5 rating. I've read many of the reviews by them but none of them have been able to justify this movie's flaws at all and none of them have been able to convince me that this movie isn't complete garbage yet. For the entirely of this one guy's review, he rambled on for how much of this movie was fake and how much it diminishes the movie's impact because of it. Yet, that idiot gave this movie a perfect rating. I have no idea know what those people see in this movie and I don't know why they think that this movie is a masterpiece. If you think that this is a masterpiece then go watch Come and See. Then tell me that this is a masterpiece.So in conclusion, this is an awful movie. It's just a montage of shock value and the movie handles them very poorly by throwing in super unfitting music which I found to be highly offensive. There was not a single moment in this movie that even somewhat interested me and I was extremely glad after this movie ended. This is the worst documentary I've seen and this is also the worst movie I've ever seen as well.

tomgillespie2002 The morbid human fascination with on-screen death and all things grisly began as early as 1962, with the release of the hugely successful Mondo Cane, a 'documentary' that explored the bizarre traditions and practises of obscure sub-cultures that were, at the time, relatively unknown to Western audiences. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or and even received an Academy Award nomination, and this success spawned a rather repulsive sub-genre known as mondo films, which generally exploited audiences ignorance and their undeniable thirst for death. Thankfully, mondo quickly became unfashionable and had all but died out by the early 1970's, with the exception of a few z-grade obscurities that passed under the radar. Yet it seemed that audiences weren't done with their lust for real cadavers, and the genre saw a resurgence in 1978 amidst an influx of midnight movies and cheap, gory horrors. This came in the form of Faces of Death, the cinematic equivalent of slowing down while passing a car accident.We are first greeted by Dr. Francis B. Gross (Michael Carr), a surgeon who talks directly to camera and ponders the various 'faces of death' he has experiences throughout his career - that being the various ways in which a person can meet their doom. We are then taken on a journey throughout Gross's 'career', in which we meet an African tribe, a Satanic ritualistic cult, a man being eaten alive by a crocodile, slaughterhouses, a pitbull fight, and state executions, amongst others. It is presented as a genuine documentary, with the various vignettes trying to be palmed off as being genuine footage. The vast majority is fake and rather terribly done, and some is genuine, resulting in the more disturbing aspects of the film.I've always been somewhat reluctant to watch Faces of Death, as although I was assured by Marc that the majority of the film is laughable, I have always found scenes of real violence genuinely unsettling. With the rise of the Internet occurring in my teens, I found myself unable to resist the lure and treated myself to endless photographs of gunshots, stabbings and car accidents, yet maturity seemed to have muted my curiosity. Yet after finally sitting through the (somewhat exhausting) 100 minutes of Faces of Death, I was dumbfounded by the approach of director John Alan Schwartz and his complete ineptness in the staged scenes, cancelling out the impact of the real footage, and making the entire film disappointingly laughable.While it may have convinced audiences back in 1978, the film has badly dated. While it may still boast the tag of 'banned in 46 countries!', it is now desperately tame. Of course, there are some distressing scenes in the genuine footage (mainly in the scenes of seal clubbing and the suicide of Mary Ellen Brighton), Schwartz makes many mistakes in the staged scenes. I mean, did it not occur to him that a shot from inside an active gas chamber may just give the game away, or narrating "in the country of Africa..." may cause the film to across as, well, plain stupid? Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh, as although the film is rather risible, it is still one of the most popular cult horror films of all time, and Dr. Gross's occasionally amusing narration does make some interesting observations, and at least attempts to form a coherent narrative. Time will tell as to where Faces of Death will remain in horror history, but for now it will remain a subject of curiosity, and nothing more.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

nerdshighsociety This infamous nasty came into the British publics eye when it was banned by Mary Whitehouse and her merry men, due to the fact it had Breached the terms of the "obsence publications act", the tabloids described it (along with other nasties) as "destroying our youth", but I beg to differ. Granted this film is not for everyone, it is incredibly dark, disturbing and powerful. The audience of this film should be one of a high mental and physical age as some of the scenes will inevitably disturb a less mature audience. My current review may be siding with the people trying to ban this film, but rest ashore this is not my goal, though i do admit that this film is disturbing (very disturbing), but that does not stop it from being one of those films that most people should see. Freaks, One flew over the cuckoo's nest are examples of films which gave people a more insightful view upon the world, Faces Of Death pulls of the same massage. The clever thing that this film does is hiding its message underneath graphic imagery, whilst there is more than one message buried within this film, the most obvious is the classic message, who are the "savages" off the earth? Us city folk or the tribes the live in the depths of the jungles? Granted that this message has been done before (for example Cannibal Holocaust, of which portrayed the message in the same way Faces does), but this film portrays it in a way that effects all of the people living on this earth, they did it through our food. Faces of Death splices three clips together to form its first act, first a tribe preparing their meal, second some slaughterhouse footage and lastly a farmers wife cutting the head of a chicken. The film portrays it first message by showing how the tribes have a massive respect for their food (and they use all of the animal for something or other), then through a clever juxtaposition it shows our way of preparing a meal, we are shown with no respect for the animal and how we don't use a lot of the animal. There are more messages in this film but telling you them really destroys the main point of watching this film. It may seem like I love this film, but, I don't, I did not enjoy this film, I will never watch it again. But, that does not mean it was bad. No faces Of Death is not bad, its an important watch and i recommend it in that retrospect, but its not for repeated viewing. I would give it a score but, personally, I find it hard to rate this film as its not bad but I did not enjoy it. I will leave with this; it deserves more than 3.7 stars.

Tromafreak Are we looking at a Documentary here, or just plain old Gruesome exploitation? Overrated garbage, or underrated trash? Is it real, or is it fake? Hell yes to all. Whatever Faces Of Death is going for, it succeeds, how you view it only depends on how delicate your sensibilities might, or might not be. I guess the opening autopsy footage should be taken as somewhat of a warm-up, or absolute proof that this one isn't for you. From there, we are guided through a disturbing, yet slightly humorous, world-wide journey through the pitch-black, unforgiving realm of the only sure thing in life, death. Our tour of the dark side include "executions", "asassinations", "suicides", a rather long look inside a morgue, monkey brains being served in a restaurant, natural disasters, a bear attack, a peak inside the goings on of a satanic cult, and even religious, snake-handlers are thrown into the mix. A harsh, groundbreaking look at things we only hear, and read about, although, probably not quite harsh enough to be banned in 46 countries... then again, maybe it is. Watching Faces Of Death probably wouldn't make most people feel any better about dying. And, when you break it all down, this film really is just an extremely gutsy gore movie, disguised as a documentary. Fine with me. Aside from this, Faces Of Death is fairly interesting. I see no reason why they couldn't play this on The National Geographic Channel... oh yeah, well, there's always the eating of the monkey brains, but jeepers, even that is a little interesting. The only thing I could have really done without was the slaughterhouse scene. I'm a fan of gore, but Sheep gushing blood out their necks isn't very interesting, although, I guess they mean well, it's not like they were condoning these things, only making us aware. If we look at it like that, then Faces Of Death is a rather noble production, but not quite as deep as they're going for, but deep, nonetheless. Faces Of Death is certainly worth watching, probably even more than once, but spawning everything from Faces Of Death 2-6, to Traces Of Death, to Faces Of Gore might be a little much.This one is about as well-known as a B-movie could be without the luxury of being shown on television, now, that's what I call a reputation. Whether you consider this film to be as repulsive, and disgusting as you always heard, or simply another over-blown, urban legend, Faces Of Death will always be known as king of the shockumentaries. Whatever that's worth.