The original "Faces of Death" 'shockumentary' was many things in its heyday: the ultimate Mondo-movie, the closest thing to a real snuff-movie and, during the staged scene, an often (unintentionally) hilarious bogus-documentary. More than that, during the 1980's and 90's it was somewhat of a "rite of passage" for many teenagers, who tried to show off their psychological 'manliness' (and at the same time were hoping that the creeped-out girls in the audience would snuggle a little closer).
Those teens eventually grew up, possibly going to college and having long realised that 90 percent of "Faces of Death" had been fake, staged, pure bogus. But word had it – promoted largely by word-of-mouth, obscure Heavy Metal fanzines and a 14.4kbps internet – that there was a new, a "real" shockumentary around, and this shockumentary was "Traces of Death".
The entrepreneurial Metalhead Damon Fox had not only realized that the taste for gore among gorehounds had not faded, but that – unlike in the 70's – one no longer needed a film-crew to create a mondo-documentary. All that was needed was an editing device and enough shock-and death-footage from various news-sources, "Faces of Death"-clones and the internet to stuff 90 minutes into a video-tape.
Having culled and assembled said footage, all Fox had to do was to add narration (provided by himself in a distorted voice, all the time sounding like that creepy neighbor-kid who explains why pocking a dead dog with a stick is "good fun") and a soundtrack. The soundtrack itself is already the highlight – if we may speak of a highlight in this context – a minimal, yet haunting, pulsating Electro-sound-frenzy, both morbid and captivating at the same time. In consequent sequels the electro-sound has been dropped in favor of Grindcore, Black- and Death Metal, supplied by bands hoping to promote their equally gore-soaked albums and demos.
Where mondos like "Faces of Death", "Mondo Carne" or "Shocking Asia" still had unwanted humor in the staged scenes and an air of the forbidden, "Faces of Death" is just a an assembly of disfigurement, accidents, suicides and autopsies that, more than being shocked or grossed-out,leaves the viewer with the same impression of having spent a day at the slaughterhouse: desensitized and nauseated more by the smell than by the actual carnage.
Today "Traces of Death" is merely a footnote in the history of mondo-productions; the internet is full with infinitely more shocking images, videos and sites, free-of-charge for the jaded souls and ghouls who seek them (and have turned off the safety-mode of their search-engines). Even Fox himself has turned on his on "film-production", despite his cinematic and musical brilliance (which his IMDb-biography assures us of, no doubt composed by Fox himself).
"Traces of Death" remains a curiosity in the history of mondo-films, having no other merits than that. I'll give it two points from 10: one for the soundtrack and one for the sake of being a curiosity.
Those teens eventually grew up, possibly going to college and having long realised that 90 percent of "Faces of Death" had been fake, staged, pure bogus. But word had it – promoted largely by word-of-mouth, obscure Heavy Metal fanzines and a 14.4kbps internet – that there was a new, a "real" shockumentary around, and this shockumentary was "Traces of Death".
The entrepreneurial Metalhead Damon Fox had not only realized that the taste for gore among gorehounds had not faded, but that – unlike in the 70's – one no longer needed a film-crew to create a mondo-documentary. All that was needed was an editing device and enough shock-and death-footage from various news-sources, "Faces of Death"-clones and the internet to stuff 90 minutes into a video-tape.
Having culled and assembled said footage, all Fox had to do was to add narration (provided by himself in a distorted voice, all the time sounding like that creepy neighbor-kid who explains why pocking a dead dog with a stick is "good fun") and a soundtrack. The soundtrack itself is already the highlight – if we may speak of a highlight in this context – a minimal, yet haunting, pulsating Electro-sound-frenzy, both morbid and captivating at the same time. In consequent sequels the electro-sound has been dropped in favor of Grindcore, Black- and Death Metal, supplied by bands hoping to promote their equally gore-soaked albums and demos.
Where mondos like "Faces of Death", "Mondo Carne" or "Shocking Asia" still had unwanted humor in the staged scenes and an air of the forbidden, "Faces of Death" is just a an assembly of disfigurement, accidents, suicides and autopsies that, more than being shocked or grossed-out,leaves the viewer with the same impression of having spent a day at the slaughterhouse: desensitized and nauseated more by the smell than by the actual carnage.
Today "Traces of Death" is merely a footnote in the history of mondo-productions; the internet is full with infinitely more shocking images, videos and sites, free-of-charge for the jaded souls and ghouls who seek them (and have turned off the safety-mode of their search-engines). Even Fox himself has turned on his on "film-production", despite his cinematic and musical brilliance (which his IMDb-biography assures us of, no doubt composed by Fox himself).
"Traces of Death" remains a curiosity in the history of mondo-films, having no other merits than that. I'll give it two points from 10: one for the soundtrack and one for the sake of being a curiosity.