Faces of Death is a compilation of clips depicting death caused by various causes.

There was a trend in exploitation cinema for documentaries that could get away with material that wouldn’t be allowed otherwise. Hence, there were documentaries into, say, nudist camps as they could show full frontal nudity whilst meeting any criticism with cries of, ‘We’re educating the people! Stop trying to censor us!’

Faces of Death is one such example, as it can dip its toe into the grimy world of ‘mondo’ culture and then dive in feet first. Within this film, we get to see animal-on-animal cruelty, human-on-animal cruelty, human-on-human cruelty, freak accidents that have disastrous outcomes and footage of operations, accidents and autopsies. There’s also excursions into the occult, environmentalism (!) and more anomalies that might interest those looking for more challenging thrills.

Whilst this might not be for everyone, it’s estimated that between 40-50% of the clips on offer here are, in fact, fake (who’d have thought it?!) It’s pretty obvious to see which clips are too as they are camped up to the max and, y’know, look fake as hell! I love the footage of the protester outside a nuclear plant who suddenly bursts into flames, because everyone knows that that can happen…

Faces of Death is a solid piece of ‘entertainment’ for those of us who remember Film Threat magazine and the book ‘Killing For Culture’. Or if you’re forming a thrash metal band and want inspiration aside from GG Allin. It’s an excursion into a forbidden world that, personally, I wouldn’t want to spend too long in without scrubbing myself down with bleach in my shower.

Faces of Death spawned numerous sequels and even a spin-off series, the imaginatively named ‘Traces of Death’ (do you see what they did there?!) There are also other ‘mondo’ horror shows on offer, such as ‘Shocking Asia’, which was popular in the 80s on VHS.

Faces of Death is worth seeing at least once.

3 out of 5 stars