Michael_Elliott Faces of Death IV (1990) ** (out of 4)To understand the cult nature or love for the FACES OF DEATH series means you had to have been a teenager back in the 80s when VHS rentals were the thing. If you went to school you probably heard of this notorious series that featured real deaths. The series and its reputation grew through lies passed around schools about the gruesome footage that the video contained.Of course, as you grew up, you finally realized that what you were watching was mostly staged scenes and the series pretty much died out after several sequels and rip-offs. The first film remains rather catchy just due to its reputation and rather twisted atmosphere. The second film had some memorable scenes but was mostly forgettable. The third in the series was without question the worst and featured some of the most embarrassing filmmaking you'll ever see. This fourth film is actually the best of the bunch because it doesn't try to be anything other than a bunch of gore scenes. This one here tries to pass itself off as being real but I'm pretty sure at this point the producers knew that the secret was out of the bag so we got some rather clever scenes of murder, suicide and destruction. Such re-enactments include a mental guy who kills three people with a screwdriver inside a hospital. There's a nuclear plant dumping toxic into a lake, which creates a large leech that attacks a woman. Youv'e got drunk college students being ran over by boats as well as jumping off roofs. You've got car wrecks as well as a Mafia execution caught on tape.There's quite a bit of gore in this installment, which helps make it much better than the previous sequels. Again, you can't really take this series serious and must try to get entertainment out of its gore. The most memorable scene here is a sequence where we meet a Vietnamese family who show us how to prepare a cute little puppy for dinner. This here is one of the most talked about moments in the series and it became quite notorious in the hallways at countless schools.

Radish4ever After a graphic opening during the main credits we are introduced to Dr Louise Flellis. A Neurosurgeon who has taken over from Dr Francis B Gross from the first 3 films. Who sadly died but forgot to film it so not in this latest gathering of real and fake (mostly fake footage). Although like the previous entries, the fake stuff is a laugh, but while your chuckling you suddenly get the real footage and it soon wipes the smile off your face, unless you have a cast iron stomach of course. The most memorable is the scenes with the Indonesian family eating puppies, fortunately its only a teddy bear used and looks like one too. Also the bunji jumping students, that jump off a 12 storey building that use a cord thats too long as "there was no 12 floor".The only FOD entry to be released uncut in the UK and probably one of the worst in the series, along with part 3. FOD 1 & 2 are the best in the series by a mile.James B. Schwartz is the latest actor to pretend to be a Doctor in this, after Michael Carr (a cameraman) pretended to be a similar Consultant in the earlier films. Obviously to gain some authenticity. Schwartz is the Directors brother (John alias Conan Le Cilaire) The cast were anonymous for years but after the film gained a massive cult following, they all came out the woodwork a few years ago. Worst of Faces of Death and FOD fact or fiction were also made as extras for the DVD which was made before the makers came out. The recent region 1 Blu-ray has the real cast in interviews and audio commentaries. The films made a lot of money so what can you say. The end song is a lot of fun in a cheesy way.

slitherk I thought this movie might be a ridiculous guilty shocking pleasure in the mold of Mondo Cane. I was wrong.The footage is almost entirely fake. But it is not fake in a camp cheesy kind of way that would be redeeming, it is just fake in an annoying, utterly transparent way. A few scenes appear to be real newsreel stock footage, but these are a small portion of the total. Most are the kind of quality that would be cooked up by several high school students with red paint and a camera. Plus, there is gratuitous right wing propaganda worked into the narration for no apparent reason.Don't waste your time.

mechapman_ii-1 Some of the scenes in this movie seem fake, but are 100% real, you would actually know that if you did even the slightest bit of research. All parts of all the movies are 100% real- that is why they are banned in most countries- including America. If fake, why aren't horror movies banned when they show more gore than this series of movies combined? Good, dark horror, mixed with real stories, real footage, and you have Faces of Death, banned in every state of America, and 47 other countries. You can't really call these movies, they are documentaries, purely. A great set of documentaries, for the dark, demented people out there, and there are some, and I am one of them.