The Big Picture

• Faces of Death was deemed a "video nasty" and banned in several countries due to its extreme and objectionable content.
• The original film contains a mixture of real footage and movie magic, with about 60% being real and 40% being fake.
• A remake of Faces of Death is on the way, starring Barbie Ferreira and Dacre Montgomery.

Where do you go when you've exhausted your horror collection? When you feel like you've seen everything, and another viewing of Saw just won't do? The answer, of course, is mondo horror favorite Faces of Death. Both the 1978 original and a slew of follow-up films under the same infamous name have captured the morbid fascination of generations — more for their shock value than outright quality. Featuring a pathologist named Francis B. Gröss (Michael Carr) as he takes the audience through his collection of deadly footage, the real draw of Faces of Death, as many an edgy suburban kid knows, is that the series is real. (I swear, man! Don't tell my mom, though.) That's right: through decades of changing morality, the wicked rumors of Faces of Death's veracity have persisted. But just how real is real? Is it all fake blood, or have we just witnessed a murder on tape? As it turns out, the truth lies somewhere in the middle — and if you've seen the films, you know that isn't as comforting as it sounds.

Why Was 'Faces of Death' Banned in Australia, New Zealand, and Germany?

In the '80s, amid a whirlwind of social outrage, Britain passed the Video Recordings Act of 1984. Media released on home video had previously been able to skirt review by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), meaning home videos could contain "extreme" or "obscene" material. The act's presence meant that all video recordings would have to be vetted and approved by the government. Why go to these lengths? It wasn't out of nowhere. Years previously, the BBFC had compiled and released a list of "video nasties" for the purposes of seizure and prosecution. "Video nasties" were movies that defied the Obscene Publications Act or contained material that was simply objectionable and therefore considered less obscene. Some films on the revolving list included Tenebrae, Night of the Living Dead, The Evil Dead, and Phantasm — and not all were prosecuted. Faces of Death wasn't so lucky. The movie was officially a "video nasty," also banned in Australia, New Zealand, and, to a lesser degree, in Germany. (All signs point to embellishment when it comes to the poster's "banned in 46 countries" claim.) What kind of content could prompt this response? Only the brave and the foolish find out.

'Faces of Death' Features Videos From the Holocaust

The original Faces of Death is a retro mantelpiece, complete with cheesy box art. That doesn't mean it's without fangs. Beginning with a scene of open-heart surgery, the movie is determined to test its audience from the start — and it's a walk in the park compared to what's coming. Over the course of the 1978 original, viewers will be exposed to grainy footage of corpses, animal cruelty, accidents, and execution, all as promised. What begins as an ostensibly fake story is suddenly all too real, prompting a feeling of internal unease. Why are we watching this, and how worried should we be? As part of the film's climax, footage of both a well-known plane crash and the aftermath of a graphic bike accident are shown, complete with human remains. (The corpse has been mutilated so badly that parts are no longer recognizable as human.) Things aren't so funny at the sleepover now, and it's obvious that Faces of Death has crossed an invisible line into mythology.

The truth is that the original film is a mixture of real footage and movie magic — about 60 percent real and 40 percent fake. Scenes from slaughterhouses and the Holocaust are obviously genuine, but more questionable segments, such as that of a woman jumping to her death, are also real, having been purchased by the filmmaker from other countries and news organizations. Thankfully, some of the most distressing scenes are set-ups. An early scene of animal cruelty, in which a monkey is beaten to death, is fake — that infamous execution scene is, too. Perhaps the only way to view the movie is through a mistrustful lens. Instead of investigating the reality presented by the film, the audience must instead take what they are given, allowing the false deaths to affect them just as much as the real ones. But blending reality and fiction never comes without a cost.

Barbie Ferreira and Dacre Montgomery Will Lead the 'Faces of Death' Remake

Placement on the "video nasties" list wasn't the only issue for Faces of Death and its fuzzy truth. In 1985, a high school teacher screened the film for his class — a questionable affair that ended with a successful lawsuit from the families of two traumatized students. The students later said that they assumed the entire film was real. A year later, there was even a murder for which Faces was cited as inspiration by the 15-year-old murderer. Maybe this pattern of real-world violence leaked from reality into the series — almost all the material in follow-up releases is, in fact, real. Instead of leaning into recreations, the series instead became more focused on real footage, including scenes of bombings, shootings, and even a man parachuting into crocodiles. (Or maybe alligators? This scene is questionable.) In short, they became what their predecessor was always accused of being: simply recordings of real death. If you came here looking for reassurance, we're sorry — and if you have a weak stomach, steer clear.

There is good news for those who want to experience Faces of Death without a moral quandary, however, as a quasi-remake is on the way from Legendary Entertainment starring Euphoria's Barbie Ferreira and Stranger Things' Dacre Montgomery. Written and directed by the same team behind 2018's digital horror Cam, the film reportedly focuses on a female internet moderator who discovers copycat crimes mirroring the traumatic content she picks through. Considering the overwhelming availability of gruesome media these days, it should be interesting to see how a modern Faces of Death plans to shock its audience. After all, the legacy of shock sites like LiveLeak means morbid curiosity can be satisfied online fairly easily in comparison to the era of physical media. (Perhaps it'll look something like an entry into the V/H/S found footage series?) And then there's the bigger truth: Today's Hollywood will almost certainly not be putting real death scenes into their remake. With hindsight, that might not be so bad.

Faces of Death is available to stream on The Roku Channel in the U.S.

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