# Faces of Death
**Faces of Death** is a 1978 American mondo film, a form of shockumentary, written and directed by John Alan Schwartz and composed of supposedly real footage of deaths mixed with staged scenes. It presents itself as the work of a pathologist, Dr. Francis B. Gröss (Michael Carr), who has assembled a library of death footage to study the moment life becomes death.[1](https://www.slashfilm.com/2122909/how-real-original-faces-of-death-movie/) Released with little attention in US theaters, it became one of the defining cult videotapes of the 1980s home-video era, passed around informally and marketed with the slogan "banned in 46 countries."[2](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/1f8a001e-557b-4c90-a1f8-90986983e154/content) • [3](https://www.slashfilm.com/2138549/why-faces-of-death-2026-movie-not-remake/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 1978, United States; runtime 105 minutes (1 hr 45 min)[4](https://www.omdb.org/en/us/movie/12237-faces-of-death) • [5](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/faces-of-death/umc.cmc.hrthrdg1xshn1k18656n8oo5) |
| Director and writer | John Alan Schwartz, credited as Conan Le Cilaire and as Alan Black[6](https://www.ihorrordb.com/titles/4285/faces-of-death) |
| Production | F.O.D. Productions; budget $450,000; original languages English and German[4](https://www.omdb.org/en/us/movie/12237-faces-of-death) |
| Host | Dr. Francis B. Gröss, played by Michael Carr; real-life coroner Thomas Noguchi also appears[1](https://www.slashfilm.com/2122909/how-real-original-faces-of-death-movie/) • [5](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/faces-of-death/umc.cmc.hrthrdg1xshn1k18656n8oo5) |
| Authenticity | Makeup artist Allan A. Apone estimates 60% of the film is stock footage; the most explicit sequences were staged[1](https://www.slashfilm.com/2122909/how-real-original-faces-of-death-movie/) |
| Marketing claim | VHS packaging carried the slogan "banned in 46 countries"[2](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/1f8a001e-557b-4c90-a1f8-90986983e154/content) |
| Legacy | Spawned sequels and imitators through the home-video boom of the 1980s and early 1990s; a metafictional remake directed by Daniel Goldhaber opened in US theaters on April 10, 2026[7](https://amsdottorato.unibo.it/5893/1/Gallio_Nicolo_tesi.pdf) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/faces_of_death_2026) |
## Spoilers
### Form and premise
The film belongs to the mondo genre, documentaries dealing with cultural taboos and shocking behavior that took their name from the 1962 Italian documentary *Mondo Cane*. *Faces of Death* was a late entry in that underground tradition, assembled from supposedly real footage of human and animal deaths.[1](https://www.slashfilm.com/2122909/how-real-original-faces-of-death-movie/) Its framing device is a pathologist, Dr. Francis B. Gröss, who claims to have collected footage of deaths from around the world; beyond this setup the film has little narrative.[3](https://www.slashfilm.com/2138549/why-faces-of-death-2026-movie-not-remake/)
Among its segments are footage of a cult that practices cannibalism, a gunfight involving police, a conversation with a hired killer, animals perishing, atrocities from the Second World War, corpses lying in caskets, and operations performed by surgeons.[1](https://www.slashfilm.com/2122909/how-real-original-faces-of-death-movie/) One of its most infamous scenes shows tourists in Egypt killing a monkey and eating its brains; the film closes with newsreel footage of people jumping from buildings and major accidents.[9](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/faces-of-death/cast/2030106706/)
## Real or staged
The film's reputation rests on uncertainty about its footage. Because of its low-resolution camerawork and its mixture of staged and documentary material, many viewers came to believe the entire film was real.[1](https://www.slashfilm.com/2122909/how-real-original-faces-of-death-movie/) In fact the film is mostly staged: special makeup effects artist Allan A. Apone estimated that 60% of the film is stock footage, while the more explicit sequences were fabricated, including the electric chair execution.[1](https://www.slashfilm.com/2122909/how-real-original-faces-of-death-movie/) Real material includes some footage of animal deaths and death-tinged newsreel footage.[3](https://www.slashfilm.com/2138549/why-faces-of-death-2026-movie-not-remake/)
Scholarly accounts treat the exact proportion of genuine footage with caution, noting that claims about it, and about the number of countries that banned the film, require qualification.[6](https://www.ihorrordb.com/titles/4285/faces-of-death) The "banned in 46 countries" line originated as a marketing slogan on the VHS packaging rather than a verified count.[2](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/1f8a001e-557b-4c90-a1f8-90986983e154/content) Australian classification records show that scenes the 1983 Classification Board had believed were "set up for the camera" were later debunked as staged.[10](https://flex.flinders.edu.au/file/43cb39b1-41f9-4bf8-a87a-425cc44d6856/1/ThesisSchubert2017OA.pdf)
## Distribution and influence
The film was originally shot by Americans for Japanese producers and a Japanese audience, and it played only limited US theatrical runs in 1978; it became widely known only after its VHS release in the 1980s.[2](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/1f8a001e-557b-4c90-a1f8-90986983e154/content) On home video it circulated as forbidden fruit, traded among teenagers and sold at flea markets, a viral phenomenon before the term existed.[3](https://www.slashfilm.com/2138549/why-faces-of-death-2026-movie-not-remake/) Apple TV's listing calls it "the most controversial, reviled and financially successful documentary of the VHS era."[5](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/faces-of-death/umc.cmc.hrthrdg1xshn1k18656n8oo5)
It opened the way for a wave of death-footage compilations that animated the home-video market into the mid-1990s, and it spawned sequels both official and unofficial.[7](https://amsdottorato.unibo.it/5893/1/Gallio_Nicolo_tesi.pdf) • [11](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/horror-movies/nearly-50-years-later-one-of-the-most-notoriously-upsetting-horror-franchises-is-getting-a-reboot-that-pays-homage-to-the-extreme-violence-of-the-original/) From the late 1990s, gore content of the kind it popularized moved to websites such as rotten.com, bestgore.com, and ogrish.com.[12](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17416590261440515?download=true) On Rotten Tomatoes the original holds a 21% Tomatometer from 14 reviews.[13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/faces-of-death)
## The 2026 film
A new *Faces of Death*, directed and co-written by Daniel Goldhaber with co-writer and producer Isa Mazzei, the duo behind *How to Blow Up a Pipeline* and *Cam*, was released theatrically in the United States on April 10, 2026, with streaming on Shudder and AMC+ following.[3](https://www.slashfilm.com/2138549/why-faces-of-death-2026-movie-not-remake/) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/faces_of_death_2026) The filmmakers describe it as not really a remake: it is a metafictional slasher in which a serial killer, Arthur Spevak ([Dacre Montgomery](https://www.edgepedia.org/dacre-montgomery)), remakes the original film by murdering people in elaborate recreations of its scenes and uploading the footage online.[3](https://www.slashfilm.com/2138549/why-faces-of-death-2026-movie-not-remake/) [Barbie Ferreira](https://www.edgepedia.org/barbie-ferreira) plays Margot, a content moderator for a video platform who discovers the re-enactments and must judge whether the violence is fiction or happening in real time; the cast also includes [Josie Totah](https://www.edgepedia.org/josie-totah), Aaron Holliday, Jermaine Fowler, and Charli XCX.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/faces_of_death_2026) • [14](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/horror-movies/faces-of-death-is-shaping-up-to-be-the-scariest-movie-of-2026-as-new-film-stills-look-like-the-poughkeepsie-tapes-meets-manhunter/)
The film is rated R, runs 1 hour 38 minutes, and was produced by Legendary Pictures and Angry Films for Independent Film Company.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/faces_of_death_2026) It holds a 69% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus calls it "a fiercely transgressive, self-aware reimagining" that interrogates "the morbid spectacle of violence with striking brutality and intelligence."[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/faces_of_death_2026) Reviewers read it as a commentary on content moderation and viral violence in the social media era, with the Los Angeles Times calling it "a gory, clever satire for horror audiences who've seen everything."[15](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2026-04-09/faces-of-death-review-barbie-ferreira-dacre-montgomery-daniel-goldhaber-isa-mazzei)
## References
1. [How Real Was The Original Faces Of Death Movie? (Witney Seibold, SlashFilm, March 15, 2026)](https://www.slashfilm.com/2122909/how-real-original-faces-of-death-movie/)
2. [ScholarsBank (University of Oregon) thesis on Faces of Death and home video](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/1f8a001e-557b-4c90-a1f8-90986983e154/content)
3. [Why The New Faces Of Death Movie Is Not Really A Remake (Chris Evangelista, SlashFilm, April 8, 2026)](https://www.slashfilm.com/2138549/why-faces-of-death-2026-movie-not-remake/)
4. [Faces of Death, omdb](https://www.omdb.org/en/us/movie/12237-faces-of-death)
5. [Faces of Death, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/faces-of-death/umc.cmc.hrthrdg1xshn1k18656n8oo5)
6. [Faces of Death (1978), iHorrorDB](https://www.ihorrordb.com/titles/4285/faces-of-death)
7. [Nicolò Gallio, "Fact or fiction? Il franchise Faces of Death," Università di Bologna doctoral thesis](https://amsdottorato.unibo.it/5893/1/Gallio_Nicolo_tesi.pdf)
8. [Faces of Death (2026), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/faces_of_death_2026)
9. [Faces of Death – Full Cast & Crew, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/faces-of-death/cast/2030106706/)
10. [Catherine Schubert, Film Classification and Censorship in Australia, Flinders University PhD thesis (2017)](https://flex.flinders.edu.au/file/43cb39b1-41f9-4bf8-a87a-425cc44d6856/1/ThesisSchubert2017OA.pdf)
11. [Nearly 50 years later, the reboot of a notoriously upsetting horror franchise gets an extreme first trailer, GamesRadar](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/horror-movies/nearly-50-years-later-one-of-the-most-notoriously-upsetting-horror-franchises-is-getting-a-reboot-that-pays-homage-to-the-extreme-violence-of-the-original/)
12. [Gore content and refigured ethics, Crime, Media, Culture (SAGE)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17416590261440515?download=true)
13. [Faces of Death (1978), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/faces-of-death)
14. [Faces of Death is shaping up to be the scariest movie of 2026, GamesRadar (March 31, 2026)](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/horror-movies/faces-of-death-is-shaping-up-to-be-the-scariest-movie-of-2026-as-new-film-stills-look-like-the-poughkeepsie-tapes-meets-manhunter/)
15. ['Faces of Death' review, Los Angeles Times (April 9, 2026)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2026-04-09/faces-of-death-review-barbie-ferreira-dacre-montgomery-daniel-goldhaber-isa-mazzei)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Horror and slasher series film entries › 1970s and 1980s releases*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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