Faces Of Death (1978/Dark Sky Blu-ray)
Picture: B-
Sound: B Extras:
B Film: B-
Banned in
43 countries the original 1978 film Faces
of Death, which has a long-standing cult following makes its way to Blu-ray
rather early on the format considering how obscure this title is. Although, it’s not necessarily an obscure
title, many people have either heard of it, or perhaps have seen in, probably
in bootleg copies. For the longest time
it was nearly impossible to find on VHS and it was often found in rental stores
where people would steal it just to have their own personal copy. Of course we are talking about a period in
time when things like the Internet wasn’t even around yet! Now with places like eBay people are able to
search the world to find this film!
Question is…why?
Why would
anyone want to see a bunch of amateur-like video clips of death assembled
together in some sort of art film? Does
this film have redeeming qualities or is it just some sick and twisted film
that has only survived because of people wanting to gross out their
buddies? I think both.
Truthfully
when I first saw the film I was actually surprised that it wasn’t nearly as bad
as the vision I had in my head of what it would show. I thought most of it was silly since the
deaths range from chickens being slaughtered, sheep, and of course some humans,
which are mostly 8mm films from a variety of places, but none of it is really
that shocking by today’s standards.
There are far worse things shown in movies today, of course they are
fake, but often times look real enough that it desensitizes us
nonetheless. One thing that can be said
of this particular footage though is that it is far more interested in our
interest in the act of death and attempts to assemble this footage together as
if to study the fascination that mankind has always had with death.
To me,
death is the ultimate fascination as there is no one who has come back from the
dead to tell us what it’s like. Death is
one of the true mysteries that we will never understand until we ourselves die,
at which time it won’t matter anymore.
Not only are we fascinated with death, but we are equally fascinated
with people who kill, there is one section in Faces of Death that interviews an
assassin as he coldly talks about how he treats his job with professionalism as
if killing another human being was just like selling a car.
For it’s
Blu-ray debut Faces of Death is
presented in a 1.78 X 1 with a 1080p transfer, which is taken from a variety of
sources ranging from black & white, 8mm, 16mm, video tape, etc and
therefore it’s hard to imagine that most of the amateur-like footage could look
great even on Blu-ray, and that is pretty much the case. Some of the footage looks better than others,
but it’s not really worth polishing this footage up as its rawness is what
gives it the necessary feel. The sound
is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo and both are sufficient, but
again limited by the original source, which varies.
The
extras here are the real bonus as we get some insight into the film from the
director Conan LeCilaire in a commentary track, plus some in depth coverage
with the FX creators and other behind-the-scenes footage that finally reveals
whether this film was a hoax or not.
There are also deleted scenes and outtakes.
Even
after 30 years this film still manages to be talked about and you’ll often hear
about how people back in the day would sneak around to find it, or how college
campuses would obtain a copy and it would be the highlight of movie night! Parent groups tried to ban the film, it was
banned in 43-countries at one point in time, but with its release on Blu-ray I
think people will finally see that all the shock and all the hype was all part
of the experience that became Faces of Death!
- Nate Goss
