CHUD.com Community › Forums › CREATURE CORNER › Creature Corner Main › Faces of Death in High Def
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Faces of Death in High Def

post #1 of 28
6/20/08 at 4:31am
Thread Starter 
http://chud.com/articles/articles/15...DEF/Page1.html
Reply
post #2 of 28
6/20/08 at 11:15am
So we get to see shitty FX and camera work in HD? Along with a few real deaths from shitty stock footage?

Sign me up!
Reply
post #3 of 28
6/20/08 at 11:29am
Today's jaded under-20 set wlll probably be bored to tears with this series.
Reply
post #4 of 28
6/20/08 at 11:44am
I remember when I watched this in high school. It really bothered the hell out of me. The idea that the footage was real turned my stomach. These days, even if I didn't know most of it was fake, it probably wouldn't bother me nearly as much. I don't know if that is good or bad.
Reply
post #5 of 28
6/20/08 at 12:05pm
When I worked at Suncoast back in the late 80s, this was by special order only, and it sold fairly well. But it was mostly creepy types sneaking up to the counter, and whispering it to us so no one would overhear. It was definitely the equivalent of the back-room-porn section of your neighborhood video store.
Reply
post #6 of 28
6/20/08 at 12:09pm
I watched this with my cousin, who was about 16 at the time, when I was about 9 or 10. The only one I really remember was the people in Asia who cut open this cute little puppy and ate the guts raw. Freaked me out.
Reply
post #7 of 28
6/20/08 at 12:20pm
My favorite scene was the college kids who "drank too much" and decided to bunjee jump off the top of their dorm...... but the bungee cord was too long.

I just remember lauging hysterically because it was clearly a manequin and the rope was completely limp when it hit the ground.

I also remember the magician who had the knives drop on his face. We paused it and it was clearly a dummy.

I did see one video that was definitely real called Asian Mob Hits. The entire video was policemen in Asia finding dead people and pulling body parts out the cieling and hidden places, bloated out of the ocean, etc. Horrible video, would never watch again.

For some reason, I shit you not(pun intended?), it ended with a scene where this Asian girl takes a crap in a bowl and this old mans spoons it all up and fucking eats it. I wish I could have that removed from my memory. The worst was that at the end the old man gives the camera something like a thumbs up "that was delicious!" look. Seriously, why the fuck was that on there?
Reply
post #8 of 28
6/20/08 at 12:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RCA View Post
Seriously, why the fuck was that on there?
Cause you just had your fill... And you liked it...
Reply
post #9 of 28
6/20/08 at 12:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RCA View Post
For some reason, I shit you not(pun intended?), it ended with a scene where this Asian girl takes a crap in a bowl and this old mans spoons it all up and fucking eats it. I wish I could have that removed from my memory. The worst was that at the end the old man gives the camera something like a thumbs up "that was delicious!" look. Seriously, why the fuck was that on there?
Would you say he had a shit-eating grin on his face?


I'm so sorry, but I just COULDN'T resist.
Reply
post #10 of 28
6/20/08 at 12:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Olson View Post
Would you say he had a shit-eating grin on his face?


I'm so sorry, but I just COULDN'T resist.
Ha! I guess you could say that.

To each his own I guess. Some people prefer lobster or a nice steak, others prefer having an 18 year old girl cop a squat in a dish.
Reply
post #11 of 28
6/20/08 at 1:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RCA View Post
My favorite scene was the college kids who "drank too much" and decided to bunjee jump off the top of their dorm...... but the bungee cord was too long.

I just remember lauging hysterically because it was clearly a manequin and the rope was completely limp when it hit the ground.

I also remember the magician who had the knives drop on his face. We paused it and it was clearly a dummy.
Those were in Faces of Death 4, which was more patently phony than the other films in the series; seriously, I can't recall anything real from that one, like the Asian family cooking and eating puppies that are really fucking obviously teddy bears stuffed with meat.

Also, the article says the director has never spoken publicly about the film, but this interview has been online for years.

Lifting the mask from Faces of Death
Reply
post #12 of 28
6/20/08 at 1:21pm
I've only seen the first one, but for the most part, it's blatantly fake . . . until they get to the unedited news footage of that horrifying plane crash in San Diego in the 1970's. That's the part I'd like to unsee.
Reply
post #13 of 28
6/20/08 at 2:01pm
Faces of Death was a rite of passage for kids in the VHS era. And you're totally right, Alex. With places like rotten.com and ogrish, something like this is just kind of quaint. And in HD? What the why the fuck? Not even considering that this isn't Home Theater Showcase material in the first place, the sources were garbage. It's going to look like slighty brighter crap.
Reply
post #14 of 28
6/20/08 at 2:04pm
Ogrish doesn't exist anymore, though. It became Liveleak and is pretty much Youtube with more Iraq war footage.
Reply
post #15 of 28
6/20/08 at 3:49pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for that interview, Slade, hadn't read it. The press release had that line about the director never speaking about it (and had his name listed as Conan Le Cilaire. He's got a billion pseudonyms, but I wonder if that's the real deal).

And yeah, Ogrish is gone but there's still some brutal stuff on its section of Liveleak. What other sites are there now? Must be more out there.
Reply
post #16 of 28
6/20/08 at 3:52pm
I'm actually very excited at the prospect of a straight faced doc and commentary.
Reply
post #17 of 28
6/20/08 at 9:14pm
I worked in a video store that carried this. The only time I remember renting it out, it was to a 50something old woman, balding and reaking of booze. Never felt the urge to watch it myself for some reason.
Reply
post #18 of 28
6/21/08 at 1:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Riviello View Post
Thanks for that interview, Slade, hadn't read it. The press release had that line about the director never speaking about it (and had his name listed as Conan Le Cilaire. He's got a billion pseudonyms, but I wonder if that's the real deal).
Here's the full, original Faces of Death on Google video. Also includes a making-of interview after the credits. The director is disguising his appearance and voice here (maintaining the "Conan Le Cilaire" pseudonym) but he spills a lot of secrets about what was staged, and how.
Reply
post #19 of 28
6/21/08 at 10:50pm
If they do this in Hi-Def, can they rename it "Faces of Def"?
Reply
post #20 of 28
6/22/08 at 7:22am
The Faces of Death tapes really take me back - I ALWAYS fast forwarded thru any animal death scenes (monkeys, puppies, etc. - that shit is wrong). And I remembered that scene RCA brought up from FOD4 with the bungee cord. Fake? Obviously, as was the crocodile attack and the tractor accident where a guy's leg got ripped off.
Reply
post #21 of 28
6/24/08 at 2:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post
Today's jaded under-20 set wlll probably be bored to tears with this series.
Hate to say it, but even being in my late 30's and having experienced this back when I was a teenager, I'm jaded enough now that this would bore me to tears too. I get films clips sent to me in work email that are worse than anything in this series.
Reply
post #22 of 28
6/24/08 at 2:24am
It's true, to a generation raised on terrorist decapitations, cellphone videos of hangings, and 2 Girls 1 Cup, a staged alligator attack is pretty tame.
Reply
post #23 of 28
10/6/08 at 9:17pm
Thread Starter 
Pretty cool website up- http://chud.com/articles/articles/16552/

This releases tomorrow! Anyone else picking it up?
Reply
post #24 of 28
10/6/08 at 10:05pm
I want this only for the special features and commentaries. Haven't decided if I'll get it though.
Reply
post #25 of 28
10/6/08 at 11:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by IggytheBorg View Post
If they do this in Hi-Def, can they rename it "Faces of Def"?
I STILL think this is funny. Dammit!
Reply
post #26 of 28
10/7/08 at 12:39am
Just submitted my review to the editors. It was filmed in 16mm so the hi-def does nothing for it, but the remix 5.1 is oddly effective. The extras are pretty good, though not quite as plentiful as I was originally thinking they would be. It's true that the film is pretty tame by todays standards.

I'd also like to note that interestingly enough, it seems all your memories of the film are inaccurate. All that stuff either happened in other movies or didn't happen at all. I think this is a good example of the power the film (films) had over us all as kids, we all made up memories that were scarier than the real thing. I'm starting to think I never actually saw the film as a kid at all...
Reply
post #27 of 28
10/7/08 at 12:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by IggytheBorg View Post
I STILL think this is funny. Dammit!
It is.



Still haven't seen this. Somehow it passed me by and the mystique is more impressive than what my diagnosis would end up being. Discovering it on a BluRay disc seems wrong somehow.
Reply
post #28 of 28
10/7/08 at 8:20am
This was truly a rite of passage for any aspiring horror aficionado in the 80's. And yes, it's absolutely been obliterated by the net now, but still worth seeing again purely for nostalgia's sake.

And for those who miss Ogrish.com, you're a google search away from it's alleged foreign successor http://www.realogrish.com/.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Creature Corner Main
CHUD.com Community › Forums › CREATURE CORNER › Creature Corner Main › Faces of Death in High Def