Cinema Suicide

I can’t say that I’m entirely excited about a special edition DVD release of the first Faces of Death movie but there’s really something to be said about it.  Before I saw it, back when I was a little kid combing the shelves at the video store, it had a dangerous allure.  A label proudly declaring it banned in 46 countries and a block of the cover real-estate explaining what you were in store for and that it wasn’t for the faint of heart.  Then there was the Gorgon Video logo which was a threatening entity unto itself.  Years later I would see it at a birthday party and realize just how tame and ridiculous it was but all shattered illusions aside, it’s cult reputation carries on today and in spite of its ridiculously faked set pieces, people continue to think that it’s real.  Good for them.

The unfortunate downside of a tape filled with real animal cruelty and fake human cruelty is that it would go on to spawn waves of actual real death mixtapes.  Each sporting a mediocre, ceaseless death metal soundtrack and the most brutal newsreel footage that your morbid curiosity begged for.  So it makes sense that the original king of the hill would come back to claim the throne.  According to Dread Central, the innovator of horror videotape, Gorgon, is going to stock your local Best Buy with a special edition DVD of the original extreme brutality movie, Faces of Death, that features featurettes from the effects team, the editor and Fred Vogel of Toe Tag plus a director’s commentary track and I’m sure much more.

I’ll have more details as they emerge, sickos.