I, however, went into "Faces of Death III" (on loan from a friend) not being exposed to any previous or subsequent entries in the long-running DTV series and came out rather amused. This collection of supposedly authentic footage of murder and mayhem has the appeal of a traffic accident (ironically, one of the first 'faces of death' displayed here)...depicting shark attacks, (real) animal slaughter, executions et. al. While the various sequences are stitched together as loosely as Frankenstein's monster, the real incentive for viewing comes in the form of 'creative consultant/narrator' "Doctor" Francis B. Gross' commentary on them...absolutely hilarious, pseudo-philosophical rubbish that will have you rolling on floor. For an accurate look at REAL faces of death, log on to Rotten dot com; for chuckles and a funky '70s look, have a ball with "Faces of Death III."

WARNING: DO NOT VIEW UNLESS YOU HAVE A STRONG STOMACH!

Faces of Death 4

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.)

WARNING: DO NOT VIEW UNLESS YOU HAVE A STRONG STOMACH!