I watched this originally at the local drive-in back in 1978, a few months after getting my driver's license. I have just watched it again and cannot believe how naive we all were back then. I watched the Blu- ray version and the majority of the actual footage looks to have been shot on Super 8 or 16mm film and is of very poor quality. What remains is not even worthy of a weak medical documentary. Far too much of the film, although gory, is obviously fake and set up, although they tried pretty hard with the heavy handed and not so subtle editing. Today's kids will easily see it for what it is, a poor exploitation flick. Not worth viewing now, except for perhaps nostalgic reasons.

The fact with FACES OF DEATH is pretty complicated. Its shocking, disgusting, awful and at the very beginning tittles it makes it clear that it was made to shock and produce horror. Its really out of control. The movie goes on and on with death at all its forms, but there is no feedback; its just want to show you death. It says that its a journey to the unknown and that the movie shows how death experience really is, but to be honest, its just disgusting and weird. It doesn't go a bit further in to the death, it just shows you people and animals dying. But, one thing can be recognized about this film: its horror movie. There's a lot of movies calling themselves horror movies but this one really is. There is no much dialog, prologue or meaning. From the very beginning until the end, it shows death. So, as a horror film fan, i would say this is one of the best horror movies i ever seen. As a cinema fan, it's just a piece of b-movie filming recommended for special audience.

Someone on this board said they first saw this movie at the age of twelve. Bad choice. I saw this yesterday under the influence of having witnessed my father's death a few weeks ago, and while laboring under the flu. Equally a bad choice.While highly exploitative, voyeuristic and often cynical, I was surprised that this isn't just a schlocker that mindlessly pastiches all the gross scenes the director could lay his filthy hands on, but is actually at times a pretty sound treatment of an taboo but omnipresent subject. We see the cruel Massai drink blood drawn from the veins of a living cow, but we also see scenes from the Western slaughter houses that deliver the sanitised meats we're so fond of. The film also goes out of its way to describe the destruction of our environment as yet another "face of death".Let's not put too much lipstick on the pig, though. The film stretches what good material it has to offer by mixing it with scenes that are obviously faked. On the other hand, these scenes are often hilarious in their own right, such as the Californian death cult or the scene where affluent tourists dine on fresh monkey brains. They provide much-needed comic relief and help to make this film work.For what it's worth, it's a pretty sound film. It's a shame that it's probably mostly seen as a rite of passage by an audience of drunk teenagers while their parents are out.

Faces of Death is a curious viewing experience. The variety of emotions it triggers is unusual. From pure revulsion to unbridled laughter, this film certainly covers a lot of bases. Where the real material is genuinely disturbing, the faked stuff is often so poorly done it makes for unintentional comedy. At the very least, Faces of Death can certainly not be accused of being boring.The credit sequence kicks in with scenes from open heart surgery and an autopsy. It's pretty grim stuff quite frankly and not exactly the kind of material you want to digest immediately after dinner. The early parts of FOD in general are more horrific; in particular, the slaughterhouse sequence. It's pure horror. If there is any positive legacy from this documentary then it must surely be that it's made a few more people aware of the terrible route some animals are forced to take on the way to our dinner plates. The treatment of the animals in this environment was nothing short of barbaric and very difficult to watch. After this opening bombardment I was actively hoping for some of the famed fake material and thankfully I didn't have long to wait. The political assassination and alligator attack were spliced into the flow, and both were incredibly unconvincing and silly but also a relief from the unremitting heaviness of the preceding material. Some view the fake material in FOD as a weakness, a reason to disparage it. I, on the other hand, thought it was a welcome change of tone and a bit of unexpected comedy relief. The combination of the ultra-grim with fake schlock was ultimately what made it palatable for me.It has to be said though, that there is an undeniably fascinating aspect to much of the real atrocities on display. It is very exploitative but you do see things that you normally would never see, or perhaps wish to see. The footage of the aftermath of the aircraft crash was haunting and is something I will not forget; the autopsy scenes are grimly fascinating; the Liberian execution is a no-holds-barred presentation of capital punishment. While the scenes of animal cruelty do serve a purpose in that they confront the viewer with some very cruel practices and are legitimate in the sense that they expose some very terrible things that man does to other creatures on this planet; in addition to the aforementioned slaughterhouse scene, there is the extremely unpleasant footage of the seal cull. While stuff like this has been selected with exploitative purposes in mind it does make the viewer think about wider issues, which is certainly unexpected. Some of the most famous sequences turn out to be fake however, for example the monkey meal and the electric chair scene. Although these, along with the death cult section, are all pretty graphic none-the-less and operate successfully as tasteless exploitation fodder.Overall, I found Faces of Death to be compelling. I was genuinely sickened in places, disturbed in others, fascinated at times and even enlightened here and there. I also was amused too by the more ridiculous fakery. It's a hell of a combination that some people will regard in highly dubious taste. Some of it SHOULD shock you and some parts of it will stay with you long after. It's not a film to sit down with the family after a good meal. But this shockumentary/mockumentary is certainly something to behold.