Welcome to one of the main features of 'Castle Dracula,' the movie reviews section.
The reviews placed here are from all around the world, from the USA to the UK Japan
and everything inbetween. The formats reviewed are video and DVD. I have included the
origin of the film reviewed so you can check your player for compatibility. You may
also notice that there are some DVD-R reviews. These are not 'bootlegs' or 'copies'
but official screeners that I have been sent containing an as yet unreleased film to
review. All the reviews here have been reviewed either by myself or my current movie
reviewers. If you're an avid watcher of horror movies then why not join 'Castle Dracula'
as an official 'staff member' reviewing them. To do so, just click on the 'Join My Staff'
link in the menu to the left for details of this and other vacancies.
New reviews are normally placed here once a week, check my front page for under 'Castle
Dracula Updates' to see what latest movie reviews have been placed.
- Faces of Gore - US DVD -
Of all the 'Mondo Shockumentaries' the 'Faces of Gore' series purports to (and may
well) be the worst of them all in the footage it shows you. Other 'shockumentaries'
at least went under the guise of 'educating you' on their subject matter. Even though,
series such as 'Faces of Death,' 'Traces of Death,' etc, contrary to their claims to
be genuine, were mostly the total opposite.
The case is most definately not so with 'Faces of Gore.' These are one hundred per cent
genuine scenes of death. Although it also claims to be 'educating us about death,' by
the ludicrous name (and acting) of our host, 'Dr Vincent Van Gore,' it is apparent that
this is obviously just exploitation at it's worst. To further this accusation, you need
look no further than the proud looking claim emblazoned on the DVD cover that this DVD
is 'banned in 37 different countries.'
We start out on our grim journey in a graveyard (where else?), where we are introduced
to the aforementioned 'Dr Vincent Van Gore' who talks to us through the camera, obviously
reading from poorly written cue cards. He informs us that he is an expert in the 'Death
Phenomena' and that he's a resident at the 'Institute of Gorenology.'
For some inexplicable reason, the opening credits now begin to roll here, amidst a
montage of police cam-corder footage of accidents, murders and suicides.
If you have got past that, you now know what to expect, some of the most offensive material
available that is most definately not for the squeamish or easily offended.
After some more verbal drivel from 'Van Gore,' we are introduced to the first segment (or
case file as he calls it) entitled "Crash."
No prizes then for what you will be seeing here.
Basically we are privvy to Japanese Paramedics removing the bodies (and pieces) of various
road accident victims. The first of which is of a motorcyclist who has hit a lampost and
has split his skull so wide open that it is jarred between the post and a wire fence. So
stuck that the medics have to use a crowbar to remove it (piece by piece), something that
the cameraman is intent on showing you from every angle.
There are other just as nasty scenes, such as a drivers face smashed so hard onto their
dashboard that their brains have shot out of their skull.
For myself though and something that in my many years of watching horror in all it's forms,
I found something that actually sickened me. While showing footage of a train wreck, we
see burnt bodies being removed from the wreckage, 'Van Gore' decides to focus on one in
particular. A single woman who was pregnant, her body is that charred that the flesh on
her stomach has been burnt away revealing the unborn child within. Up to this point,
'Van Gore's' narration has been dubious to say the least, now however, he is almost estatic
as he begins a tirade against unmarried mothers which he culminates with the proclamation
that scene is better than the rest because it offers "two faces of gore for the price of one."
After this, my interest completely disappeared and I felt nothing but contempt for whoever
wrote and filmed this crap.
Why I have suddenly changed my views after all these years? I do not know, maybe because now,
as I write this I am thirty four, I no longer feel the need to watch things that I did in
my younger days for the shock value alone or to "see how far I could go."
Maybe "I've gone soft." I prefer to think that now, as the father of a two year old daughter,
I think to myself "what if that was my daughter and her mother?" How would I feel knowing
somebody was getting 'their kicks' from watching it. Adults, I don't mind but children should
never be brought into it. This whole genre is an adult world, that's how it should stay.
I wonder if 'Van Gore,' or to be more exact writer/producer/director Todd Tjersland's has any
children?
Anyway, we are returned to the graveyard where 'Van Gore' is waiting for us once more where
he introduces us to his next 'file,' "Suicide."
This consists mainly of hangings, all again culled from Police and Medical training videos.
Again 'Van Gore' is at his verbal worst when a hanged girl is stripped by medics, all he
cares about is her bare breasts and the size they may be. I think he was joking, forgive me
if I don't laugh.
Back to the graveyard and the next 'file,' "Murder."
After what I'd previously seen and heard, I was half expecting to see a 'Snuff Movie' here,
thankfully, we don't. Just more aftermath of the actions.
Also here, we have a 'laughable' interview from an actual, genuine (supposedly) assasin.
I will not even bore you with the details of this garbage.
The worst in this 'file' has to be the man who was disembowelled by a broken beer bottle.
Needless to say the cameraman has a field day showing us every angle concievable of the mans
spilled intestines.
Finally, 'Van Gore' asks us to compare his real life footage of gore with the gore on offer
in a film that just so happens to be from the same company who made this shockumentary.
I thought this shameless plug of 'The Necro Files' was a very poor taste. Using the deaths
of the people we'd witnessed to promote their own low budget flick just took this to new
levels of depravity in my eyes.
The rest of the disc is completely bare bones, no extra's in the slightest.
The picture is adequate, above VHS standard and the audio although in mono, is consistent.
You should know by now if you're interested in it or not. Personally, once upon a time
when I wanted to shock my peers by showing them what I could watch. Now however, not in
the slightest, maybe if the charred foetus scene was not included, I may have still had a
glimmer of interest. Now though, with the advent of the CAT III movies in Japan, I can see
far worse and know at the end of the day, no woman or child was really hurt or killed.
Though they may shock at times, at least I can walk away without any bad taste left in my
mouth because I know it wasn't real. It's just a shame the same can't be said about this.
Reviewed By Dracula
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