THE 31 DAYS OF HORROR-WEEN PRE-GAME: FACES OF DEATH 3 (1985) **

The third installment of the infamous Faces of Death franchise began life as a Mondo movie called Fear.  It was released overseas first, but by the time it hit our shores, the filmmakers retooled it and retitled it to ride the success of the series.  (The version I’m reviewing is the original “Fear” cut found on the 4K UHD release.)  It’s really fucking uneven, even more so than its predecessors.  That said, some of the shit in this one is downright bananas. 

The early scenes focus on serial killers, murderers, and a guy on PCP.  None of it is convincing and much of it looks like a fake version of Cops.  The part with the political prisoner being tortured is likewise phony baloney and goes on way too long.  Suicides, shark attacks, and even Bigfoot are also covered, with varying degrees of success. 

Much of Faces of Death 3 is a mess.  Some of it is indefensible (like the peek inside the squalid home for the handicapped).  However, on the occasion the flick strikes WTF gold, it’s a lot of fun.  The scene where a parachuter is blown off course and lands in a crocodile pit is exactly the kind of gore scene you hope for from a Faces of Death movie.  The sequence with the German exorcist is downright ludicrous too.  That is to say it’s good for a laugh. 

By far the best bit is on the swingers who eat placentas.  This sequence is fucking bonkers.  It starts with real birth of a baby footage, but the jaw-dropping highlight is the scene where the swingers sit around the dinner table in the nude and say grace before they chow down on placenta.  One of the interviewees says, “Viva la placenta!”  I say, “Viva la bad movies!” 

For every highlight like that, there’s at least two or three sequences that don’t work.  Only you know for sure if that’s an acceptable ratio.  Heck, I even found myself dozing off during one of the repetitive underwater scenes.  Still, you don’t see naked swingers eating placenta every day.  That’s the kind of grade Z shit I live for.  Because of that, Faces of Death 3 is hard to dismiss, even if it’s mostly hit and miss.

AKA:  Fear.  AKA:  Faces of Death:  Junk 3.  AKA:  Faces of Death 3:  The Final Assault.