Faces of Death
Presented by the fictional pathologist Dr. Francis B. Gröss, the film assembles scenes of death, accidents and mortality from around the world, mixing genuine archival footage with elaborate staged material. Its marketing depended on viewers believing they were seeing forbidden reality, making it one of the most notorious tapes of the era.
Film details
| Original / alt title | Faces of Death |
| Year | 1978 |
| Director | John Alan Schwartz |
| Country | USA |
| Runtime | Approx. 105 min |
| Main cast | Michael Carr, Samuel Berkowitz, Mary Ellen Brighton, Vern Stierman |
UK status
One of the 39 successfully prosecuted titles, notorious for blurring staged material with genuine documentary footage.
Still controversial, but now widely recognised as a key example of the mondo / shock-documentary form. Many famous sequences were staged rather than genuine.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- John Alan Schwartz wrote and directed the film under pseudonyms.
- Michael Carr plays the fictional host Dr. Francis B. Gröss.
- The film mixes authentic archival material with recreated and staged scenes.
- Its “is it real?” marketing became central to the film’s enormous notoriety.
- The picture spawned several sequels and imitators.
- It belongs to the successfully prosecuted DPP 39.
Distributor / VHS label
Archive cover shown is the user-supplied scan. UK distributor / VHS-label attribution varies by edition and is not asserted here without a verified sleeve imprint.
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
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