Faces of Death IV (1990) ** (out of 4)To understand the cult nature or love for the FACES OF DEATH series means you had to have been a teenager back in the 80s when VHS rentals were the thing. If you went to school you probably heard of this notorious series that featured real deaths. The series and its reputation grew through lies passed around schools about the gruesome footage that the video contained.Of course, as you grew up, you finally realized that what you were watching was mostly staged scenes and the series pretty much died out after several sequels and rip-offs. The first film remains rather catchy just due to its reputation and rather twisted atmosphere. The second film had some memorable scenes but was mostly forgettable. The third in the series was without question the worst and featured some of the most embarrassing filmmaking you'll ever see. This fourth film is actually the best of the bunch because it doesn't try to be anything other than a bunch of gore scenes. This one here tries to pass itself off as being real but I'm pretty sure at this point the producers knew that the secret was out of the bag so we got some rather clever scenes of murder, suicide and destruction. Such re-enactments include a mental guy who kills three people with a screwdriver inside a hospital. There's a nuclear plant dumping toxic into a lake, which creates a large leech that attacks a woman. Youv'e got drunk college students being ran over by boats as well as jumping off roofs. You've got car wrecks as well as a Mafia execution caught on tape.There's quite a bit of gore in this installment, which helps make it much better than the previous sequels. Again, you can't really take this series serious and must try to get entertainment out of its gore. The most memorable scene here is a sequence where we meet a Vietnamese family who show us how to prepare a cute little puppy for dinner. This here is one of the most talked about moments in the series and it became quite notorious in the hallways at countless schools.

As many should know by now, most of the things that are shown in these movies (at least, in the first four) are either staged or dull news footage. That said, there are so many mixed feelings I have about this one. I liked the darkly humorous narration of "Dr. Louis Flellis", and some of the nasty stuff was kind of neat (almost all of which was faked, I can guarantee). It wasn't nearly as shocking or effective as I'd hoped, but I suppose that that's a good thing in some scenes (puppy that's really a plush doll getting disemboweled, anyone?). I do like a lot of the no-nonsense political and social commentary the narrator makes, but sometimes it is very dishonest, like when we see the slaughterhouse footage and the narrator goes beyond the educational aspects of that scene's dialogue and panders to sick people's desire to enjoy pain and suffering of an animal. I do eat meat, and that includes pork, but some of the comments seem as if they're made simply to enhance entertainment value of real pigs having the blood drained from their throats. Even if I'm not a vegetarian, I do believe that more respect should be had for an animal instead of just regarding it as something that landed on your plate, as well as a realization that that animal died to help you survive. Also, there is some dialogue in the narration that seems outright right-wing. I don't go for the right or left wings, but that also means that some of the snotty dialogue in this grates on me a bit at times. Otherwise, this is a pretty diverting time-waster for people who might be interested in this sort of thing. I just don't understand what the big deal is when all those series out there that rip off these mostly fake "Faces of Death" movies are usually more real and disturbing than almost any of the things shown here. (Please note: The original "Faces of Death" is very different and it is actually a GOOD movie, even if it's by far more disturbing, as well as nearly as faked. See that one, for sure, no matter what you've heard, for it may surprise you.)

Every one I know who has had the pleasure or displeasure of watching any of the Faces of Death movies asks the same question: Is it real? While most of us tend to think not, there is still some question. The answer is in the movie. If you read the end of the credits, you will see at the very end there is a disclaimer which reads, "Some of the scenes may have been reenacted from actual events." So if there was any doubt that the scenes were in fact real, guess again. Now some of the footage they showed was real, but every scene that involved beer-swizzling teens, the scene with the magician, the miners, the giant leech, the orchestra at the end, and every other scene which featured before and after footage was fabricated. Interesting idea, but not that interesting. 3/10

i think that exploitation has reached its ultimate peak. For those of you unfamiliar with faces of death- it is a weak, fake, and ultimately stupid series of supposed "real death" video series.for all of you jerry springer watching youths- this will probably be the best movie you have ever seen. For everyone else, rent something else. Yeah, i want to spend $3 to watch chinese people cut up a puppy while it is still alive and then eat it. Time to move on with my life.