Faces of Death II

Lore & Background

Faces of Death II was released in 1981 as the first sequel to the original Faces of Death, which had gained a cult following and grossed over $35 million worldwide. The original film was written and directed by John Alan Schwartz, who also appeared as the cult leader in one segment. The sequel likely continued the same approach of mixing real footage with staged scenes, though specific details of its production are not provided in the source article.

Reader's Guide

Faces of Death II is significant as the first sequel to a film that became a landmark in the mondo horror genre. The original Faces of Death was controversial for its blend of real death footage and staged scenes, with approximately 60% of its content being real footage purchased from news stations and other sources. The film's success at the box office, reportedly grossing over $35 million, led to the creation of this sequel. The series as a whole gained a cult following, though critical reception remained negative. The sequel's release in 1981 helped establish the Faces of Death franchise as a notable, if notorious, entry in exploitation cinema.

Did You Know?

• Approximately 60% of the original film's footage was real, purchased from news stations and other sources.
• The original film grossed over $35 million worldwide, leading to the production of sequels.

Roots in the Mondo Tradition

The 1978 release of Faces of Death did not emerge from a vacuum. It was the culmination of a documentary subgenre that had been building momentum since the early 1960s, when Italian filmmakers Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti, and Franco Prosperi produced Mondo Cane, a commercial hit that set the template for what would become a global phenomenon. Throughout the following decade, a wave of imitators followed, with titles like Women of the World and Africa Addio pushing the boundaries of what audiences would tolerate on screen. The genre, often called a shockumentary in English-language contexts, typically blended sensational subject matter with pseudo-documentary framing. By the 1970s and 1980s, the focus had shifted away from exotic world cultures toward something far more visceral: the depiction of death itself. Faces of Death arrived at the apex of this evolution, transforming the mondo tradition into what would be recognized as a distinct death-film category and establishing a template that would dominate the genre for decades to come.

Defining the Death Film

Faces of Death carved out a specific niche within the broader mondo landscape by centering almost exclusively on the graphic depiction of human and animal death. Where earlier entries in the genre had scattered their shock value across foreign customs, sexual taboos, and celebrity curiosities, this film concentrated its power on a single, primal subject. The typical death film drew from a repertoire of imagery including animal cruelty, industrial and traffic accidents, tribal initiation rituals, and surgical procedures, all presented with the detached authority of documentary footage. Filmmakers in this space were driven by an escalating arms race of shock value, each new entry attempting to outdo the last in visceral impact to draw audiences into darkened theaters. The result was a subgenre that treated mortality not as a philosophical subject but as spectacle, stripping away narrative context to present raw, unflinching sequences of bodies failing. This approach distinguished the death film from its mondo ancestors and gave it a lasting identity that would persist well beyond the 1970s.

The Illusion of Documentary Truth

One of the most defining and ethically fraught aspects of the Faces of Death series is its deliberate blurring of the line between genuine documentary footage and staged sequences. Producers of the series employed a mix of legitimate material—autopsy scenes, suicide footage, and accident recordings—alongside fabricated sequences designed to look indistinguishable from real events. This practice was not unique to the series; it was a hallmark of the mondo tradition, where filmmakers routinely presented staged action as authentic documentation of reality. The claim of documenting reality served as both a marketing tool and a shield, lending an air of journalistic legitimacy to what was often theatrical performance. For audiences in the late 1970s and beyond, the inability to distinguish genuine death footage from elaborate fakery became part of the experience itself, generating a persistent anxiety about what was real and what was constructed. This ambiguity between truth and fabrication remains one of the most discussed aspects of the genre's legacy.

A Proliferation of Imitators

The success of Faces of Death triggered an extraordinary wave of imitators that has continued, in various forms, into the twenty-first century. Titles such as Banned from Television, Death Scenes, and the Traces of Death and Faces of Gore series all trace their lineage directly to the original's formula of graphic mortality presented in documentary style. The rights to the Faces of Death brand were eventually acquired by Uwe Schier, who released subsequent entries that drew heavily on footage lifted from other mondo productions; Faces of Death V incorporated substantial material from Death Scenes, while Faces of Death VI consisted almost entirely of content from Days of Fury and Mondo Cane IV. In the 2010s and beyond, the genre experienced further resurgences, including Dustin Ferguson's Bootleg Death Tape and Faces of Dying series, which enlisted independent directors from around the world. Even parody has entered the mix, with works like Mr. Mike's Mondo Video and Is There Sex After Death? mocking the genre's conventions, a testament to how deeply the Faces of Death formula embedded itself in popular culture.