Faces of Death

Faces of Death is a 1978 film, lasting roughly 85 minutes, that takes on a "documentary" appearance as it guides viewers through explicit scenes depicting a variety of ways to die. It is often billed as 'Banned in 40 Countries', with that number varying with the years.

Although several of the 'human death' scenes are very obviously faked, there are occasionally splices of footage captured during times of war that add a very real flavor to the preceedings. Also featured are the actual, on-camera deaths of a variety of animals, including seals being clubbed to death and animals being killed on the slaughterhouse line.

The most famous (or perhaps controversial) scene includes the 'murder' of a live monkey, who is then prepared and served to patrons of a 'gourmet' restaurant. Although slap-dash in editing, the deaths all seem very realistic and are rather disturbing.

'Faces of Death 2', an even lower budget sequel to this, was released in 1981.