10 Gruelling Films You Should Attempt To Watch

4. Faces of Death 2 (1981)Faces Of Deaht 21 I hate New Year's Eve. About 5 years ago I was really steaming on New Year's Eve and as I was feeling particularly misanthropic, I decided to watch Faces of Death 2 which had been languishing in my DVD collection for months. Within five minutes I had completely sobered up. The film was that gruelling. Yes it still has the same dopey narrator Dr Francis B Gross who had us in gales of laughter from the original Faces of Death, but this film is much darker, features much more grim matter, and possesses less silly staged shenanigans. There are avalanche deaths - unfortunate people buried alive in their cars. There is the fatal boxing match that took Johnny Owens' life, a fire at a German old people's home and lots of autobahn accidents. There is also a surfeit of dare devil stunts gone wrong. The first Faces of Death was more mockumentary than shockumentary - it had a snide, cynical tone. Faces of Death 2 is more of a real shockumentary when its comes to the abundance of real life death on screen. Watching dead people being shovelled out of snow is gruelling. Ditto watching squashed people on the road. Not good for the soul.

 
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Contributor

My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!