Faces of Death IV (1990)
** (out of 4)
To understand the cult nature or love for the FACES OF DEATH series means you had to have been a teenager back in the 80s when VHS rentals were the thing. If you went to school you probably heard of this notorious series that featured real deaths. The series and its reputation grew through lies passed around schools about the gruesome footage that the video contained.
Of course, as you grew up, you finally realized that what you were watching was mostly staged scenes and the series pretty much died out after several sequels and rip-offs. The first film remains rather catchy just due to its reputation and rather twisted atmosphere. The second film had some memorable scenes but was mostly forgettable. The third in the series was without question the worst and featured some of the most embarrassing filmmaking you'll ever see. This fourth film is actually the best of the bunch because it doesn't try to be anything other than a bunch of gore scenes.
This one here tries to pass itself off as being real but I'm pretty sure at this point the producers knew that the secret was out of the bag so we got some rather clever scenes of murder, suicide and destruction. Such re-enactments include a mental guy who kills three people with a screwdriver inside a hospital. There's a nuclear plant dumping toxic into a lake, which creates a large leech that attacks a woman. Youv'e got drunk college students being ran over by boats as well as jumping off roofs. You've got car wrecks as well as a Mafia execution caught on tape.
There's quite a bit of gore in this installment, which helps make it much better than the previous sequels. Again, you can't really take this series serious and must try to get entertainment out of its gore. The most memorable scene here is a sequence where we meet a Vietnamese family who show us how to prepare a cute little puppy for dinner. This here is one of the most talked about moments in the series and it became quite notorious in the hallways at countless schools.
** (out of 4)
To understand the cult nature or love for the FACES OF DEATH series means you had to have been a teenager back in the 80s when VHS rentals were the thing. If you went to school you probably heard of this notorious series that featured real deaths. The series and its reputation grew through lies passed around schools about the gruesome footage that the video contained.
Of course, as you grew up, you finally realized that what you were watching was mostly staged scenes and the series pretty much died out after several sequels and rip-offs. The first film remains rather catchy just due to its reputation and rather twisted atmosphere. The second film had some memorable scenes but was mostly forgettable. The third in the series was without question the worst and featured some of the most embarrassing filmmaking you'll ever see. This fourth film is actually the best of the bunch because it doesn't try to be anything other than a bunch of gore scenes.
This one here tries to pass itself off as being real but I'm pretty sure at this point the producers knew that the secret was out of the bag so we got some rather clever scenes of murder, suicide and destruction. Such re-enactments include a mental guy who kills three people with a screwdriver inside a hospital. There's a nuclear plant dumping toxic into a lake, which creates a large leech that attacks a woman. Youv'e got drunk college students being ran over by boats as well as jumping off roofs. You've got car wrecks as well as a Mafia execution caught on tape.
There's quite a bit of gore in this installment, which helps make it much better than the previous sequels. Again, you can't really take this series serious and must try to get entertainment out of its gore. The most memorable scene here is a sequence where we meet a Vietnamese family who show us how to prepare a cute little puppy for dinner. This here is one of the most talked about moments in the series and it became quite notorious in the hallways at countless schools.