It was once banned in over 40 countries and, of course, ended up on the index in Germany for its explicit images, after which it was not allowed to be publicly advertised or sold for years. However, last February we received the news: “Gesichter des Todes” aka “Faces Of Death” is no longer indexed – and will be released in full for home theater. An offer that many fans of off-the-beaten-track cinema have taken advantage of: The limited edition of “Faces of Death” released in the spring with a circulation of 666 copies was completely sold out in a very short time.
A few months later, the local rental company followed suit again: The film has been back on the market since August, in a number of strictly limited Mediabook editions, which you can still get – for now. At Amazon, for example, there is currently only a very small number of Cover A and Cover B, of which there are 500 pieces each:
» “Faces of Death” in the Uncut Mediabook at Amazon: Lid A* / Cover B*
At the moment there are only a little more than ten pieces in stock. If these will soon also run out and there are no more stocks, you can at least switch to MediaMarkt at the moment. You can still get cover A there:
» “Faces of Death” in the uncut media book at MediaMarkt: Lid A*
If all editions of the cult shocker are completely sold out, there is a good chance that sooner or later supplies will follow in the form of new, different editions. But if you don’t want to rely on it, you’d better grab one of the variants that are still available – provided of course you know what kind of movie you’re getting into here…
“FACES OF DEATH”: FASCINATION OF DEATH
No classic horror movie awaits you in “Faces of Death”. Director John Alan Schwartz does not create a horror scenario that slowly crawls under your skin with his harrowing story, does not use a jump-scare spectacle or funny splashes. Instead, the film is one of the most famous representatives of mondo cinema, including a documentary-looking and therefore usually difficult to digest genre fare understands. And the title says it all.
Because despite the backstory about Dr. Francis B. Gröss (Michael Carr) does not tell a classic story in “Faces Of Death”, but only offers a collage of atrocities. The focus of the film is solely on people and animals filmed while they were dying.
Consisting of a mix of staged or posed sequences and shots of people actually dying, the film was received extremely controversially in the late 1970s. At the same time, “Faces of Death” caused huge waves, sparking the curiosity of many who were exploring their own limits of what is bearable with the film. So it was that the $450,000 movie ended up making over $35 million. But even in view of these impressive numbers, at this point we have to say again: “Faces of Death” is anything but a movie for the masses – neither now nor then.