the stuff of 1980s home video legend, the Faces of Death brand was churning out shocker sequels in the wake of the 
infamous 1978 original film. With its participants hidden behind pseudonyms, the films continued to trade on the mystique of offering supposedly real-life fatalities on camera with the line blurred between the staged and the genuine. From 1980 to 1990, three more films were released with wildly different versions making it tough to keep track of what was really uncut or even a genuine entry, with soundalike cash-ins muddying the waters even further. By the time the fourth film actually hit some theaters in '90, the end of the road had been reached for 35mm productions in this vein; after that it was all best-of compilations and shot-on-video quickies including The Worst of the Faces of Death, Faces of Death: Fact or Fiction, the recycled fifth and sixth sequels, and the puzzling Death Scenes. Media scrutiny and fear-mongering led to the series going in and out of circulation on more than one occasion, but today they're a pop culture curiosity presenting about as much moral peril as a kid showing off their chewed-up food. As with the first film, Vinegar Syndrome has outfitted the second, third, and fourth films with UHD and Blu-ray special editions in their most complete editions to date, all lovingly transferred from the original negatives with quality that puts past video releases to shame. 
Originally sheared of nearly half an hour of footage following its one-off theatrical appearances, 1980's Faces of Death II benefits greatly from 
its restoration here to its full, wildly indulgent 103-minute running time. Our fatality-obsessed host, Dr. Francis B. Gröss (played again by Michael Carr), returns as your guide through a grab bag of demises caught on camera including a then-recent boxing match in which fighter Johnny Owen suffered what turned out to be a mortal head injury. Unlike the prior film, this is largely comprised of indisputably real material including an increase in animal nastiness (dolphins, monkeys, seals, etc.), so brace yourself accordingly. The most unsettling material comes at the end with fly on the wall coverage of a mass firing squad execution that would make this an ideal co-feature with Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing. You also some horrifically miscalculated daredevil stunts and, in a welcome bit of silliness, a blatantly staged robbery that turns into a badly acted shootout.
hazing as much as a traditional cinematic experience. The Vinegar Syndrome releases is extremely 
comprehensive for such a confusing film, with multiple edits prepared for different territories usually ranging between 78 and 85 minutes. The former is the usual U.S. running time for VHS and DVD editions, with the U.K. trimming a few more animal shots and the German one (among others) slugging in footage of Ronald Reagan's attempted assassination by John Hinckley for reasons still never really made clear. The UHD and DVD feature the original 103-minute cut from the negative, looking far more pristine than ever before, with the 78-minute U.S. video cut leading the extras on the Blu-ray. The 2m57s Reagan segment is included as an extra along with an uncovered 5m31s deleted scene (whose audio is lost, now filled with music score) showing a morgue interview that turns into a look at morbid knickknacks in jars as part of a death museum. The home video trailer is also included. 
The result was heavily doctored into another sequel with wedged-in hosting segments for Gröss, leaving 
shards of the discarded material in the end credits to utterly confuse home video viewers. If you're in the proper mindset, this is easily the funniest of the four with a parachutist's unfortunate splashdown among some alligators being a highlight. Among the mondo-style thrills here are a lengthy exorcism in a very dark room, a law enforcement pursuit of a serial killer on the loose, highly unconvincing reckless driving on the Autobahn, and in a moment of high kitsch you won't believe, swinger nudists planning a swanky placenta dinner. 
On the Blu-ray you also get the reworked familiar home video version for posterity if you're in the mood, plus an isolated music track for 
the main feature on either disc.
track, a nice touch near the end in particular. The one extra here is a fun one: "Scarred for Life" (17m7s), a 
new video featurette about "the history and cultural legacy of Faces of Death" with scholars and Vinegar Syndrome personnel including Elijah Drenner, Kurtis Spieler, Spencer Parsons, Lindsay Miller, Oscar Becher, and a camouflaged "Reggie" former employee of Gorgon Video. It's a useful and even-handed portrait of the ominous reputation these films enjoyed, the cultural panic over mass media at the time, the rise of video stores as a delivery system for filmed entertainment, and the influence of modern makeup effects.