Faces of Death

The film centers on Los Angeles, notably the county coroner's office and clinical scenes that frame death as a public, institutional process. It also visits Louisville, Kentucky for segments involving dangerous cults, expanding the geographic scope beyond a single city. The overall presentation uses a documentary montage to juxtapose urban environments with grim, intimate moments of dying and death-related rituals.

💀 Death

Faces of Death surveys mortality from multiple angles: animal deaths, assassinations, accidents, and war, presenting death as a constant, public phenomenon. Gröss frames death as a study subject, using footage to explore the transitions between life and death rather than sensationalism. The film invites viewers to confront the reality of endings that are often swift, brutal, or eerie. It questions whether death is an ending or a threshold to something else.

🧪 Preservation

A central thread follows the impulse to preserve life after death, from embalming cadavers at the morgue to cryopreservation experiments. The film casts preservation as a theater where science tries to suspend time and revive the dead in future possibilities. Gröss's dialogues with practitioners reveal tension between clinical detachment and reverence for the body's remains. This theme probes whether preservation can truly conquer impermanence or merely delay it.

🔪 Violence

Violence appears across the spectrum—from animal predation and a mercenary killer to police action and war atrocities. The narrative probes whether violent acts stem from individual greed, social decay, or systemic factors. The imagery links brutal deaths to larger questions about responsibility and morality. The piece treats violence as a persistent facet of the 'faces of death' rather than a single cause.

👻 Afterlife

Supernatural elements introduce the possibility that life continues after death. A bereaved architect claims his wife and son linger as ghosts, and parapsychologists attempt to document proof of the afterlife. Gröss weighs the idea that the soul remains a traveler beyond the body, challenging definitive scientific conclusions. The ending leaves space for interpretation, favoring personal belief over certainty.

🌍 Human Impact

Footage of the Holocaust, pollution, and poverty frames death as a result of collective human actions. The montage contrasts spectacular tragedies with intimate losses to emphasize responsibility and warning. The film invites reflection on how societies nurture or neglect life, and how media shapes our perception of mortality. It positions death as a mirror of human values and choices.