6. Faces Of Death
Faces of Death justified itself as an experiment to attempt to gain knowledge about the fragility of man. Critics sneered at this notion, immediately condemning it as another sick piece of work in a long line of exploitation movies. However, Faces of Death remained one of the more popular Video Nasties, and gained an infamous reputation all over the world. Faces of Death separated itself from many other Nasties in its narrative form: existing as an anthology of segments portraying different forms of human fatalities including a couple being mauled by a bear, a man being ripped apart by a crocodile, suicides and executions. Over half of the footage is supposedly authentic, yet this has to be taken with a pinch of salt given the film's other claim to being banned in over forty separate countries. In reality, it was only banned in five - but that still takes some doing, and is proof of the astonishingly graphic nature that lies within the film. In today's climate, several of the VHS films that provoked disgust and damnation are mocked and mostly out of circulation - yet Faces of Death appears to have survived. It is often ranked highly on "most disturbing movies" lists, and has clearly acted as inspiration for other compilation horror films: most notably "The ABC's of Death" in 2012. Such was the cult popularity of John Alan Schwartz's picture that four additional instalments were made. The film itself mercilessly refuses to become one of the faces of death it so graphically depicts either; acting as a reference point for horror nuts and documentaries for years since its own release in 1978.