Faces of Death IV

The Narrator Dr. Lewis Flelis (really some actor dude portraying a doctor - rather badly) is annoying. His commentary of what you are seeing vacilates between poor attempts at ill-advised black humour and ill- informed social commentray. He tries hard to pull spooky faces in between these sequences, but comes across as being more towards prozac dependent than genuinely spooky. I personally liked Francis B Gross from the first three films better, but apparanetly he died.

The special features of the DVD consist of trailers for FOD 1 and FOD 4 (which is just a mish-mash of footage from the film with some music playing in the background) and the cover art for the Gogon video FOD series. In short little of interest on this front.

This films' main selling point is that it has been banned in X number of countries. This is faint praise/ Counties like England and Australia ban anything that isn't about some prancing lord' who falls in love on a ship and freezes to death when it sinks.
If possible rent before you buy.


Another Viewpoint   February 25, 2004
Kane Mercer (Canberra Australia)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

If you are reading this chances are that you have an interest in Mondo films, and if this is the case, you've read volumes about the Faces of Death series already.

This film was refused certification in Australia, making it very hard to find, so I ordered it from Amazon. I saw the original Faces of Death when I was young and I was captivated, this 4th entry in the series is somewhat of a disappointment. A majority of the footage is either (a) re-enacted or (b) stock footage that could be found on other films or stuff you would see on TV. Having said that - the special effects for the re-enatced footage are quite decent and it is for this reason I give this film 2 stars. I found found myself laughing at some of the footage because it was obviously fake, like the girl being run over by the speed boat, or the woman who was attacked by a large leech.

Naturally the new presenter/Narator, Dr. Lewis Flelis is not a real doctor, just an actor overatcing to the extreme. His monologues throughout the various scenes vacilate between poorly informed social comentary and black comedy. He breaks out his guitar at the end of the film to sing a song called "Faces of Death" while footage is displayed of a band stand collapse in which band members are crushed and killed. This song is nothing short of woeful, but you must see it to believe it if you can handle mondo films.I personally liked Francis B. Gross better, but apparantly he died.

This film's main selling point is that it is banned in X amount of countries. Trust me, this is faint praise - as countries like England ban or censor anything that isn't about some prancing fag on a ship who meets his true love and freezes to death at the end.

This film, by comparison to the first three films in the series was a disappointment to me. The links betwen the scenes were far weaker, and it plays like a prozac dependent man trying to scare you with his bad acting and misinformed "medical" opinions.

The extra features are also non existant with two trailers and some cover art for the Gorgon Faces of Death series.