Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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This is a pretty wierd French horror flick from Jess Franco, arguably his only good movie. I was going to take off 1 star for the putrid music but the eyeball scene…….dude……..the eyeball scene……that was sweet……

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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Prolific director Jess Franco made a lot of crap during his career, but in his filmography there are several hidden gems - and Faceless is definitely one of them! True to Franco's style, the film is trashy and sleazy throughout, but it's the eighties atmosphere that sets this film apart from the majority of Franco's opus, as Faceless takes in trashy eighties pop and themes of vanity, which ensure that the film is always obviously a product of the eighties. The story has been used many times before - mostly in films made in the sixties; films such as Eyes Without a Face, Circus of Horrors and Franco's own The Awful Dr Orloff (which gets a nod in this film), but never before has this sort of been given as much blood, gore and nudity as it gets in Faceless. The film begins with the disappearance of a model named Barbara Hallen. Her father hires a private detective to find her, and while on her trail in Paris; the detective eventually makes his way to a private clinic where strange experiments have been going on. The not so good doctor has a woman whose face he wants to fix - and he's using skin from young women to do it!

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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The film's biggest plus point has to go to the scenes of gore! Sequences that see things such as a needle in the eye, a drill through the skull, a chainsaw decapitation and numerous surgery sequences are well done, and bound to delight gore fans. The cast is also a standout element of the film, as Franco recasts Howard Vernon in the role of Dr Orloff, and we've also got performances from the likes of Telly Savalas, Anton Diffring and Jean Rollin's beautiful frequent collaborator, Brigitte Lahaie. The story isn't massively strong, but it's not bad either as Franco strings a few different threads together and that, along with the gore and skin going on throughout, tends to ensure that the film is always interesting. The music that Franco has chosen is good in that it suits the style and feel of the film, but Franco uses the central song a bit too often, and it starts to grate after a while. Overall, Faceless might not do much for fans of serious films, or for those that dislike Jess Franco in general; but Faceless is one of the better films that the director has worked on, and comes recommended to the right sort of people.

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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Faceless is a movie that wastes no time getting right into the action. We see Dr. Frank Flamand (Helmut Berger, most famous for his work in many of Visconti’s film, including Ludwig and The Damned), his sister Ingrid (Christiane Jean), and his assistant Nathalie (Brigitte Lahaie, France’s number one adult film star turned scream queen, recently featured as Mademoiselle Vicky in the very disturbing Calvaire) riding around town and shopping. As they are walking back to their car in a parking garage, a disfigured woman pulls up to the group. She blames the doctor for her unfortunately scarred face, then attempts to splash acid on him for revenge. However, Ingrid pushes him out of the way and the acid hits her in the face. She screams as her skin begins peeling off, and Dr. Flamand promises to one day restore her beauty. This promise, along with the doctor’s efforts to fulfill it, represent the next ninety-eight minutes of your life. You could certainly do worse.

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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Dr. Flamand runs a plastic surgery clinic in France, and has numerous patients who keep coming back for his treatments as he seems to be a miracle worker. His methods aren’t quite on the up-and-up, however, a secret which he keeps between himself and his assistant Nathalie (who is also his lover). Behind a private, locked door at the clinic, he keeps women locked up against their will in order to “use” them for his treatments. Neither the patients nor the other staff has any knowledge of this secret area, and those who catch on find themselves mysteriously dead.

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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Realizing he is personally unable to bring back his sister’s beauty, Flamand contacts Dr. Orloff (Howard Vernon, reprising his role from Franco’s 1962 film The Awful Dr. Orloff). Orloff puts them in contact with Dr. Moser (Anton Diffring, once again pigeon-holed to play the Nazi), a former surgeon who did experiments involving face transplants during “the war.” Of course, in order to successfully transplant a new face onto Ingrid, another face is needed. Which brings us to further realize that Dr. Flamand is not just a nice fellow trying to help out his sister.

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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Jesus (Jess) Franco is a Spanish director best known for his 1970’s exploitation and horror-erotica films. This is obvious just by looking at some of his most famous movies: Sinner: Diary of a Nymphomaniac; She Killed in Ecstasy; Vampyros Lesbos; and the list goes on. So it comes as no surprise that numerous attractive women would be featured throughout this film, nor that many of these women fall victim to gruesome fates. He easily incorporates this into the story through the search for Ingrid’s new face. We see models, dancers, actresses, and escorts in various states of clothedness as the doctor and Nathalie look for a good replacement. We also see a strange incestuous relationship uncovered between Ingrid and her brother as well as his voyeuristic tendencies on full display.

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They first kidnap a fashion model named Barbara Hallen (the beautiful Caroline Munro, previously a Bond girl in The Spy Who Loved Me and a slave girl in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad). However, she gets more time on the clock when the goon who watches over the underground clinic rapes her and bruises her face. At the same time, in America, Detective Terry Hallen (played by Kojak himself, Telly Savalas) calls in Private Investigator Sam Morgan (Christopher Mitchum, son of Robert). Barbara is Detective Hallen’s daughter, and he hasn’t heard from her so asks his old friend to help find her.

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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Faceless isn’t so much a horror film as it is maybe a gory detective story. While Dr. Flamand and Nathalie spend their time looking for a perfect replacement face and having sex, P.I. Morgan is shaking down possible witnesses on a trail leading him to the clinic. But I promise, the gore is there. Hands are chopped off, headless bodies are found, a syringe is graphically plunged into a nosy patient’s eye (that’s always been my weak spot, the needle in the eye). A snooping nurse hides in a cabinet where she finds a skull full of maggots (which three years later becomes the title of a Cannibal Corpse song). And this is saying nothing of the first attempt at the face grafting surgery that goes wrong. Surprisingly, the gore is much harder than the sex, which for the most part is assumed off screen.

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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Some fans of Franco’s work consider this one of his greatest films, others feel it is a bigger budgeted departure from his previous classics. Without comparing at all, and simply judging Faceless as a stand-alone film, it is an entertaining story with some interesting kills. The story is fairly simple, the acting is okay, the gore effects range from campy to good. I hit a point where I was sure I knew how it would end, then I found myself thrown for a couple unexpected loops in the last scenes that brought my opinion back up. Having been all that familiar with Franco’s work, Faceless leaves me comfortable enough to follow through and check out more of his early work.

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Faceless (1987) [Special Edition]

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Special Features:
- Audio commentary with director Jess Franco, and actress Lina Romay (in French, with English subtitles)
- Audio commentary with actor Christopher Mitchum (scene specific and only covers about a third of the movie)
- Interviews with director Jess Franco, actor Christopher Mitchum, and actress Caroline Munro
- Trailers
- Cast & crew biographies and filmographies
- Photo gallery