‘face of death‘, one of the most disgusting and controversial films of the last 40 years, and ultimately a blockbuster, has been making headlines in recent weeks with the end of its ban in Germany, where it is also available in a dozen different editions , ranging between 8 and TWO HUNDRED EUROS. As if that wasn’t enough, a remake has been launched. But let’s go by parts.
Another stupid snuff movie
We have all been knocked out at some point in life with images that have basically screwed up our lives. The animal variety of ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ or ‘The Mountain of the Cannibal God’, the kangaroos from ‘waking up in hell’ or even the (fake) duckling from ‘Jack’s House’. And while none of those titles were actually “mondo,” their crudeness caught us off guard.
The case of ‘Faces of Death’ is slightly different. The (semi) mockumentary devised by John Alan Schwartz, which included fictional recreations of real material, made the director a millionaire, which delivered up to four more installments over the years, the last being in 1995. The film, with a budget of just under half a million dollars, grossed more than 35 million. I leave you here a trailer, in case you are piraos.
The compilation is the most varied and not recommended. Throughout its 105 minutes we will see people and animals die in the most varied ways, many of them truly atrocious, which caused a wave of indignation and shock until it was finally banned in more than 40 countries around the world.
In Germany it became a cult work among fans of this type of wild move in a clandestine and mutilated version. Now, after four decades, the film has been edited in its entirety with surprising (and really attractive) editions. Special effects creator Allan A. Apone attributes about 40 percent of the film to fake death scenes, leaving the other 60 percent as actual footage. I will not be the one to investigate further in this matter.
The film was available in Spain on VHS through the distributor, attention, VIDEO FAMILIAR SA, in the mid-1980s. The most striking thing of all is that it seems that a new version is underway at the hands of those responsible for the very interesting ‘Cam’, Daniel Goldhaber, Isa Mazzei and Isabelle Link-Levy, through Legendary, which has just released the wonderful ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. This time, the story focuses on a YouTube moderator who discovers a group of people who recreate the deaths of the original film. I don’t know, I’m already dying to see it.