Faces of Death IV (1990)

I thought that Faces of Death 4 was quite a bad horror film. It Follows the same pattern of the other Faces of Death movies. In this one there are many staged and unstaged looking deaths ranging from bungee jumping accidents and magic tricks which have gone bad. It was mostly the same type of video footage as in the the other films, although this copy that i own is an uncut version. I found this one to be a much better film than the last one as it contained a bit more interesting footage in it. I would not recommend these film to a lot of people as they contain quite graphic images that some viewers may not be able to watch. 3/10

After suffering my way through the original "Faces of Death", I promised myself NEVER to watch any of the six (or is it seven) sequels, as this was the most inept, pathetic, provocative and boring bunch of nonsense I ever saw. But hey, I've been known to break promises before – especially to myself – and at least I didn't spend one lousy penny on this one. According to random reviews I read on the Internet, part four is supposed to be one of the "better" entries in this wannabe-cult series and I must admit it opens with a positive announcement. Dr. Francis B. Gross, the host of the first four films, apparently died due to his obsession with the other side. Great news, as I really couldn't stand the look of his face and he was the most incompetent narrator ever! A certain Dr. Louis Flellis now fills up his place, and this guy has the craziest pair of eyes I've ever seen! Is he supposed to intimidate us with his overlong stares and forced grimaces, or something? Closely following the outdated formula, he presents a series of obviously fake clips in which people and animals die tragically. There are painful road accidents, images of warfare and sudden deaths, but also a whole lot of "provoked" situations, like drunken fraternity jokes that go awry, incautious sports and even a magician who fails to complete his escaping-act in time. Now that was funny! There's no real guideline or reoccurring theme in "Faces of Death"; the mad-eyed Dr. Flellis simply jibbers about how deceitful the Grim Reaper can be and how we should never underestimate the forces of destiny. Yawn! I can't easily tolerate the looks of stupid people faking their deaths and play along believing it's a documentary, but WHY involve the animals? Yes, we know people eat dogs in Vietnam and we are aware that abattoirs slay pigs for their meat, but why do these phony-controversial makers of "Faces of Death" feel the need to add footage of this in their films and pretend to be educational? People die in accidents and humans kill animals. Imitating these sad events and capturing it on film isn't shock-cinema; it's merely just stating the obvious. We're all going to die at one point, anyway.

As many should know by now, most of the things that are shown in these movies (at least, in the first four) are either staged or dull news footage. That said, there are so many mixed feelings I have about this one. I liked the darkly humorous narration of "Dr. Louis Flellis", and some of the nasty stuff was kind of neat (almost all of which was faked, I can guarantee). It wasn't nearly as shocking or effective as I'd hoped, but I suppose that that's a good thing in some scenes (puppy that's really a plush doll getting disemboweled, anyone?). I do like a lot of the no-nonsense political and social commentary the narrator makes, but sometimes it is very dishonest, like when we see the slaughterhouse footage and the narrator goes beyond the educational aspects of that scene's dialogue and panders to sick people's desire to enjoy pain and suffering of an animal. I do eat meat, and that includes pork, but some of the comments seem as if they're made simply to enhance entertainment value of real pigs having the blood drained from their throats. Even if I'm not a vegetarian, I do believe that more respect should be had for an animal instead of just regarding it as something that landed on your plate, as well as a realization that that animal died to help you survive. Also, there is some dialogue in the narration that seems outright right-wing. I don't go for the right or left wings, but that also means that some of the snotty dialogue in this grates on me a bit at times. Otherwise, this is a pretty diverting time-waster for people who might be interested in this sort of thing. I just don't understand what the big deal is when all those series out there that rip off these mostly fake "Faces of Death" movies are usually more real and disturbing than almost any of the things shown here. (Please note: The original "Faces of Death" is very different and it is actually a GOOD movie, even if it's by far more disturbing, as well as nearly as faked. See that one, for sure, no matter what you've heard, for it may surprise you.)

This movie is a perfect example of where curiosity leads us in life. Faces Of Death 4, like the previous films, dares to shock us with more violent images of (supposed) true life horror. It did it for me.....and will forever leave an impression on my mind that I'd rather not have.