Why Faces Of Death Was So Controversial (& What It Means For The Remake)
The infamous cult '70s “horror” mockumentary Faces of Death is set to get a remake from the creators of Cam, but why was the original movie so controversial and what does this mean for the remake? Released in 1978, Faces of Death was a seminal mockumentary that earned a place in horror history despite its amateurish production due to its shocking content. In fact, the film's low-budget production and shady details are what laid the foundations of the rise, fall, and eventual current resurgence of the found footage genre. With the Faces of Death remake in the works, some horror fans are wondering what the original controversy was about.
Essentially plotless, Faces of Death is a pseudo-documentary in which a fictional (and unsubtly named) pathologist “Francis B Gross” presents «real-life» footage of human and animal deaths, fatal accidents, and gruesome rituals. The mockumentary is essentially a mondo movie, an exploitative documentary sub-genre that was something of a progenitor to the found footage craze, with what's real and what's fake being left to viewers' imaginations. Popular during the '60s and '70s, mondo movies waned from relevance in the '80s.
Related: Why Cannibal Holocaust Was So Controversial
A massive hit during the VHS era, Faces of Death was a quintessential mondo movie alongside the earlier, less staged Mondo Cane and the more racially-charged Africa Addio. Every Mondo movie featured some real violence and some staged events, although Faces of Death notably featured more staged than real violence. Found footage and screen horror movies today are much the same. That said, according to David Kerekes and David Slater’s book «Killing for Culture,» the footage of a fatal cycling accident featured in Faces of
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