An act of revenge by an unsatisfied patient is the starting point for an ever darker series of events. An all too ambitious, reckless plastic surgeon goes to work, to fix the damage that has been done, and he needs... female skin!
Jess Franco has made a good amount of very-low-budget films - but this isn't one of them, it's maybe his highest-budget production. A round of good actors, some of which are well known far beyond exploitation cinema, a couple more different settings than usual in his movies, some actual dialogue, proper editing - yes, this is perfectly watchable if you like a nasty mad-scientist shocker.
"Faceless" is a french production, but it feels a bit like an Italian movie, an offspring of 70s gialli and fumetti neri. It seems to have mostly disappeared from common horror fans' consciousness, despite the fact that it features scream-queen Caroline Munro, veteran actors Helmut Berger and Anton Diffring, and even cult-icon Telly Savalas. Maybe it's because the movie was released in 1988, a couple of years after the heyday of Italian horror cinema, maybe it's because it's a little too polished, a little too much star power for a production that would typically be watched by a niche audience - "Faceless" is a bit of an oddity among the horror films of its time. It lacks the elegance of a classic giallo, or a gothic horror film, but also doesn't fully commit to the cold realism as seen in e.g. "Maniac" (1980) or "Last House On The Left" (1972).
It's reasonably exciting and suspenseful, albeit more due to the visible events than subtle writing or delicate timing, as seen in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. A couple of surprisingly strong and well made gore scenes will make you react - some of these will probably stick in your head for a while. (The eyes!) It's got some sexy sleaze, but it certainly doesn't max out, and there isn't an excessive amount of crotch shots, so in that regard "Faceless" is also a little (I said a little!) more accessible than expected.
Overall, it's clearly a Jess Franco movie, meaning you don't win an Academy Award with this kind of stuff. It's got a respectable, above average production value, compared to similar works, but it's still low-cost exploitation cinema, pulp fiction for adults.
Some of the acting is actually good, and some of it is just wooden, the women are beautiful and show a lot of skin, there are hints of quirky comedy, homophobia and Nazisploitation, the gore is a-plenty and quite remarkable at times, there is a story, and it moves forward - "Faceless" has everything required for that kind of entertainment. It's a shocker, it has its moments, but also sometimes it gets a little lost in an uneven tone and some hiccups in pacing.
"Faceless" is a bit of a mash-up of different styles, and varying degrees of quality. If you're looking for edge-of-your-seat levels of suspense, let alone depth or nuance, you probably better look elsewhere. If you like a strong, gory horror thriller that doesn't require 100% of your attention, you've come to the right place.
Verdict: Nasty stuff. 6/10
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095125/
Trailer video:
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