Good concept, poorly executed.

A Masterpiece!

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Dr. Francis B. Gross (whom I bet lost his certifications after making this movie), collects a series of supposed both real and staged clips of people dying gruesome deaths for the benefit of viewers. Why? Hell, why not? Let's all be necrophiliacs and creeps and stare at people getting killed! There's a difference between knowing something is a staged, fictional movie where no one gets hurt, and having the kind of sick mind required to enjoy what may very possibly be real clips of murders, suicides, graphic autopsies, accidents and animal cruelty. While many might argue with me, I think this was a pathetic, immoral and sleazy way to get money from an audience. Not only that but there are jokes throughout this morbid collection of deaths, and somehow it spawned a second and third in the series! Disgusting! No wonder it was banned and highly illegal to view in many countries! This isn't a movie. Even the most graphic and gory horror films are fictional, but with this one, it's using the miseries and misfortunes of people like us to get a quick buck or so from every viewer. I would avoid this garbage at all costs, and I'm surprised it's still even sold anywhere. I thought it was a horror movie when I found it on youtube, and by the time I saw the monkey scene I already had this review planning in my mind.

Being a teenager in the early 90's, in the days before the internet, watching "Faces of Death" with your pals (and, sometimes more important, the girls) was something of a rite of passage. After all, the movie was notorious: the "ultimate Mondo picture" and "the closest thing to a real snuff film", for the first time depicting uncensored (and supposedly real) bloodshed and death. Most viewers were grossed out, others were grossed out but pretended to be hard-a***es; others yet again made it a sport to detect the bogus scenes among the real carnage, never tired to point out that the guards in the infamous execution wore make-up and that a drowning victim, a dead cave-climber and a crashed stuntman were played by the same actor.Apart from a few scenes culled from news-reels and animal slaughter, most scenes are as authentic as the weasel-ish "Dr. Francis B. Gross" is a real doctor – as real as a three-dollar-bill. Watching "Faces of Death" today is mount amount to watching the original "Reefer Madness": one can quip about the cheap, untimely soundtrack, the even cheaper bit-actors and laughable special-effects, well aware that the "real-deal" is just a mouse-click away (provided the "safe-search"-option of your search-engine has been deactivated). Aware that most contemporary kids have seen more shock-videos that would have been considered inconceivable when "Faces of Death" was filmed, and where the myth of snuff-films is no longer a myth but a sad reality."Faces of Death" is not so much a documentary as it is a synonym for the creepiness, the inner-gorehound and the voyeur that hides in the back of many-a viewers head. We pride ourselves that we've progressed beyond the days of howling spectators applauding the carnage in a Roman arena or the bloodthirsty medieval mob cheering a public disembowelment. Considering the success and cult-status, indeed, the pure existence of "Faces of Death" and it's many copycats, we must admit that we are fooling ourselves: the human character hasn't progressed all that much; only technology has.I consider it impossible to rate "Faces of Death". Sure, as a real documentary it's virtually worthless, yet as a documentary of the human psyche it is a telling, important – even though not very comfortable – piece of cinematic history.

The only thing on film worse then FOD is Death Bed The Bed That Eats. In another user's review FOD is referred to as tripe,couldn't agree more. Oh how I tease my roommate for watching this a week ago and believing it was all real. So why is FOD bad? Oh let the count thy reasons 1. Police shootout scene -there is no recoil when they fire. 2. Restaurant scene-dude places money in the belly dancers waste,umm she's not a stripper. 3. The Morgue-most if not all the bodies are badly decomposing and only half covered with sheets. I highly doubt The L.A. county Corners office is that sloppy and disrespectful to the deceased. I can keep going but you get my drift. Now maybe its because I'm a crime buff but I've seen episodes of A&E's American Justice with much more distributing footage then this terrible film. I can't lie however when I say I didn't watch this movie for the same reasons as everyone else and that of course being the "shock value". It's certainly no surprise to me that to date FOD has made profits to then tune of $35,000,000.

Of all the titles to make it onto the official UK DPP Video Nasties list during the video witch-hunt of the 1980s, Faces of Death has got to be one of the most disturbing. Presented as a factual documentary by pathologist Dr. Francis B. Gröss (Michael Carr), the film is, in reality, an exploitative combination of graphic, real-life violence and simulated scenes of nastiness designed to cash in our morbid curiosity about violent death; those looking for an educational experience will no doubt feel let down by the lack of in-depth insight, but those wishing to test their limits will not be disappointed by the catalogue of atrocities on display.Bona fide news reports of limb-strewn disasters, bloody shootings and suicides, authentic footage of autopsies, and disgusting scenes of animal cruelty rub shoulders with staged accidents, faux wild animal attacks, and fake executions (most of which fail to convince, but a few of which are brilliantly executed using excellent effects). The result is a thoroughly nauseating trawl through a world of blood, guts and sudden, violent death—frequently shocking, sometimes laughable, often rather tedious (the film drags on for 105 bloody minutes!), but undeniably powerful and fully deserving of its notoriety.