Faces of Death III (1985) on Netflix

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Faces of Death III (1985)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

• The electric-chair execution was staged with a purpose-built fake chair, toothpaste standing in for saliva and electricity sounds added in post-production. John Alan Schwartz wanted to film a real chair execution but found none available during production.
• The only "real, unscripted" moment in Faces of Death came when the body of a dead surfer washed up on shore while the crew were filming litter for the pollution sequence on the beach nearby, and beachgoers started a commotion.
• Several animal deaths in Faces of Death were faked: the seal clubbing was choreographed to avoid harming the seals, a "violent dog fight" was two dogs covered in theater blood playing, and a monkey being "killed and having its brains eaten" used cauliflower and theater blood for brains.
• About 60% of Faces of Death was real footage bought from news stations, medical researchers, witnesses to the Flight 182 crash, war and autopsy footage, deleted documentary footage, and material shot by the crew in morgues or on a beach.
• The PSA Flight 182 crash happened less than two months before the film's release, and its graphic aftermath footage was worked into the climax. John Alan Schwartz said the film was largely completed but was reworked immediately after the crash, since no actual footage of the crash is known to exist.
• The cryonics patient in the film, Samuel Berkowitz, was really frozen in July 1978 and stored in Northern California; when his funders lost interest they turned down a free head-only suspension, thawed him in October 1983, put him in formaldehyde and buried him, with no attempt made to preserve his brain.
• Special effects artists Douglas White and Allen Apone were given no details about the film when their newly formed company was hired; they devised the police shootout, alligator attack, monkey-brain dinner, decapitation and cannibal cult scenes, with John Alan Schwartz himself playing the cult leader.
• In the United Kingdom, Faces of Death was prosecuted and added to the "video nasty" list under the Obscene Publications Act 1959. A 2003 DVD release still had to cut 2 minutes and 19 seconds of fighting dogs and a monkey being beaten to death.