Faces of Death
Volume 1 of the Classic Mondo Series
Umbrella Entertainment
In the 1980’s shockumentaries were the flavour of the day, their
supposed aim was to show us a world we didn’t know, from Asian customs to
strange death rites, from native superstitions to unusual sexual practises, but
in reality they were the epitome of exploitation cinema. They took our
fascination with the exotic and the unknown and threw it back in our faces in a
variety of bizarre and distorted forms. While there were many shockumentaries
most of which proved quite successful, Faces of Death was the most impressive.
It was originally made for a $450,000 investment and has an estimated $40
million thus far ! It was originally only made for Japanese release, but slowly
began to leak into the international market to alarmed reactions. The fact that
it seeped into the market via underground methods with clandestine copies on
unmarked videotapes and then only received public release only increased its
reputation. It ended up being banned in some 46 countries
What is amazing is how the media jumped on the bandwagon and never
really researched or questioned the film, John Schwartz, who directed and wrote
the movie and its sequels, was startled to note the sudden US media coverage
the films was getting, they were being denounced on every channel from CBS to
independents yet nobody talked to him to explore what they were about or more
importantly, how much was real.
What is behind much of the Faces of Death furor is the mythology of the
snuff film. The term snuff is used to represent a film which shows real death,
with the person or persons being actually killed, without digital or special
effects, for the enjoyment of the viewer. The
first recorded use of the term is in a 1971 book by Ed Sanders, The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's
Dune Buggy Attack Battalion and this gives us some background to where it all
began. While it was claimed the Manson family made snuff films of their
killings they were never found and books such as the Ultimate Evil by Maury
Terry which made vast numbers of such unsubstantiated claims had to be withdraw
and rewritten under threat of legal action.
The concept of the snuff film came from the early
fear and paranoia created by the Manson killings and the anti-hippy backlash at
the end of the sixties, it is also interesting that this paranoia has surfaced
time and time again during various periods, usually fed by diverse conspiracies
theories and quite a bit of religious Puritanism. After exhausting examination,
the FBI in
It seems ever generation can be gripped by fear
and terror and the fear of death is clearly the greatest of them all.
Accordingly, Faces of Death really touched a raw nerve. Introduced by a rather
strange doctor (Dr.Gross), we are introduced to his collection of footage which
is the result of his research into death. Certainly, the footage includes what
the industry defines as “stock footage”. The director in various media
interviews had discussed how he searched video libraries worldwide for clips of
disasters, slaughterhouses, animal killings, autopsy rooms etc, however, most of
the over the top scenes are clearly faked, indeed even the famous electrocution
scene was supposedly created with lots of toothpaste foaming from a friend’s
mouth !
Schwarz said in an interview with the St.
Petersburg Times in 2000 "I was the leader of the flesh-eating
cult," Schwartz admits. "I had scenes in each of these movies. . . .
I'm the crazy, drugged-out killer. . . . I play this freaky rapist in the
courtroom scene, and they show the rape on video, and it just so happens that
the girl (in the rape scene) was this girl I was dating at the time." He
continues.. “I am listed in Faces of
Death credits as "Alan Black." "My middle name is Alan, and
schwarz means black in German."
This does not, however, invalidate the nature of the film, it is too easy
to be caught in the debate of what is real and fake footage and forget that
this is a work of cinematic art, dark art, confronting and shocking art
perhaps, but art nevertheless. Its presentations as a documentary is a
marketing hook, its effectiveness as a film is something else.
Faces of Death must be evaluated as any other film and judged as such,
it has a profound emotional effect and mixes exploitation cinema with a truly
perverse obsession with death and destruction created by high quality editing,
intriguing narration and effective yet cheap special effects.
Released in 1978 it not only set the stage for later shock cinema but
also for films which blur the line between documentary and cinematic story
telling. It was released around the same time as Alternative 3 (1977) which was
a fake documentary suggesting a secret base on the moon which triggered
hysteria and hundreds of thousands of calls to Anglia
Television asking if it was real. In the end they had to issue a press release
and news bulletin advising the documentary was a film and not real !! Today
such films as Death of a President, which uses a mixture of real and fake
footage to explore what would occur if the president of the USA was shot are
regularly seen on the market, while still triggering some controversy.
It is
amazing to think that even today the vast majority of people who watch Faces of
Death believe it is real. The emotional impact it has is startling. By
combining real “stock” footage and carefully edited and cheaply created special
effects it forges a mood and experience which is confronting and powerful,
considering this was made in 1978 it is a testament to the dark vision of its
director. In
Faces
of Death is a challenging unique cinematic experience, there have been many
attempts to copy it, such as the later Death Scenes, but its cinematic style,
coupled with careful selection of footage and impressive editing and special
effects put it in a class of its own.