Damon Fox didn’t just make a movie. He made a nightmare that sat on the dusty bottom shelves of mom-and-pop video stores, right next to the "Faces of Death" knockoffs. It’s gritty.
If you grew up in the 90s, you probably heard whispers about it. The Traces of Death film series isn't a masterpiece of cinema. Far from it. It’s a relentless, low-budget collage of human mortality that pushed the boundaries of what was legally allowed on home video. While its predecessor, Faces of Death, gained notoriety for mixing staged special effects with actual footage, Fox took a different route. He went for the real thing.
The first film dropped in 1993. It was a chaotic era for home media. Censorship was a weird, shifting beast, and Brain Damage Films—the production house behind this—found a loophole in the morbid curiosity of the public.
The Reality Behind the Traces of Death Film
People often get Traces of Death confused with the 1978 "Faces" movie. That's a mistake. While John Alan Schwartz (the man behind Faces) used clever editing and makeup to fake many of its most famous scenes, Damon Fox didn't have that kind of budget or inclination. He was a narrator and a curator. He gathered footage from news outtakes, medical archives, and police files.
It was raw.
One of the most infamous segments involves the televised suicide of R. Budd Dwyer. If you’ve seen it, you know it. If you haven't, it’s a piece of American history that feels like it belongs in a dark corner of the internet, not a VHS tape you could rent at the corner store. The inclusion of this footage, along with scenes from the pit-bull attack of 1987 and various industrial accidents, gave the series a reputation for being "cursed."
Honestly, the "plot" is nonexistent. It’s just death. It is a visual assault paired with a heavy metal soundtrack that often feels jarringly out of place. Why put death metal over a fatal car crash? Fox wanted to create an atmosphere of total nihilism. He succeeded.
Narratives of the Macabre
Damon Fox provided the narration for the first installment. He sounds like a man who has seen too much. His voice is deep, cynical, and occasionally mocking. Later entries in the series, which eventually spanned five volumes, shifted in tone.
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The music changed too. In the later films, you had bands like Mortician and Incantation providing the score. This solidified the series' place in the underground extreme metal subculture. It wasn't just a "snuff" curiosity; it became an aesthetic. It was a badge of honor for edge-lords in the pre-broadband era.
Legal Grey Areas and Censorship Battles
How was this even legal? It’s a question that gets asked a lot. In the United States, the First Amendment provides a massive shield. As long as the footage wasn't "obscene" in a sexual sense or depicting the actual commission of a crime for profit (like a true snuff film, which is largely a myth), it could be sold.
But the UK was a different story altogether.
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) wasn't having it. They banned the series under the Video Recordings Act. In their view, the Traces of Death film series had "no journalistic or educational merit." It was classified as "video nasties" adjacent, though it came out much later than the original 80s craze. Even today, finding an original, uncut copy in certain countries is a legal headache.
Australia also took a hard line. The Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) refused classification, effectively banning it from sale or hire. This only made it more popular. Banning something is the best marketing you can buy.
The Evolution of the Sequels
By the time Traces of Death II arrived, the formula was set. Volume II upped the ante with more "mondo" style segments. It included footage of the infamous 1988 Ramstein air show disaster. Seeing that kind of tragedy treated as entertainment is deeply uncomfortable.
Volumes III, IV, and V followed a similar path, but the shock value started to wane as the internet began to grow. By the late 90s, websites like https://www.google.com/search?q=Rotten.com were doing for free what Brain Damage Films was charging $20 for on VHS.
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- Traces of Death (1993): The original. High focus on the Dwyer incident and bicycle accidents.
- Traces of Death II (1994): Heavier focus on war footage and public disasters.
- Traces of Death III (1995): Notable for its focus on animal attacks and more extreme medical procedures.
- Traces of Death IV: Resurrected (1996): A strange mix of old footage and new, even more chaotic editing.
- Traces of Death V: The Final Chapter (2000): The end of the road. It felt tired by this point.
Why People Keep Looking
Psychology has a term for this: "morbid curiosity." We are wired to look at things that threaten us. It’s a survival mechanism gone haywire. When you watch a Traces of Death film, you aren't just being a "creep." You're testing your own limits. You're staring at the one thing that is guaranteed to happen to everyone, but which society hides behind hospital curtains and funeral parlor makeup.
There's a sense of "realness" that modern horror movies can't replicate. Even with $100 million in CGI, a Hollywood director can't capture the sheer, banal awkwardness of a real-life accident.
Critics of the series argue that it desensitizes viewers. They aren't entirely wrong. When you watch ninety minutes of human tragedy set to a blast beat, something in your brain clicks off. You stop seeing people and start seeing "content." That’s the real danger of the mondo genre. It strips away empathy.
The Cult of Damon Fox
Damon Fox remains a reclusive figure in the horror community. He doesn't do many interviews. He doesn't show up at every convention to sign autographs. This distance has helped maintain the mystique of the films. To many, he is the "Grandfather of Gore," a man who curated the darkest impulses of the 20th century.
His narration style influenced a whole generation of "shockumentary" creators. You can see his fingerprints on later series like Banned from Television or the early days of the "Faces of Gore" spin-offs.
The Technical Messiness of the Series
If you watch these films today on a 4K TV, they look terrible. The footage was sourced from multi-generation tape dubs. It’s grainy. The colors are washed out. There's tracking noise at the bottom of the screen.
But that's part of the charm.
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The low quality adds a layer of "found footage" authenticity. It feels like you’re watching something you aren’t supposed to see. If it were crisp and clear, it might actually be less disturbing. The fuzziness allows your imagination to fill in the gaps, which is always scarier than the reality.
The editing is also bizarre. Fox used a lot of quick cuts and repetitive loops. In Volume III, there are segments where the footage is played backward and then forward again, timed to the beat of the music. It’s experimental in the most morbid way possible.
Misconceptions and Myths
Let’s clear some things up. No, nobody was murdered for these films. That is the definition of a snuff film, and Traces of Death is a compilation film. Every piece of footage existed before Fox got his hands on it.
Another myth: that the films are "illegal" to own in the US. They aren't. You can buy them on DVD right now. Brain Damage Films still has a website. They've even released "Anniversary Editions" with better (relatively speaking) audio.
Finally, people often think the series is just about humans. It’s not. There is a significant amount of footage involving animal cruelty and "nature red in tooth and claw" segments. This is often the part that viewers find most difficult to stomach. While the human segments are tragic, the animal footage often feels exploitative in a different, more visceral way.
How to Approach This Content Today
If you are diving into the world of extreme cinema, you need a strong stomach. This isn't Scream. This isn't even Terrifier. There are no jump scares here because the entire film is a jump scare that lasts an hour and a half.
For those interested in the history of home media, Traces of Death is a fascinating case study. It represents the "Wild West" of the 90s video store era. It’s a relic of a time before the internet made everything available at the click of a button.
Actionable Steps for the Curious
- Research the History: Before watching, read up on the "Mondo" film genre. Understanding the context of films like Mondo Cane (1962) helps explain where Traces of Death came from.
- Check for Cuts: If you’re buying a copy, be aware that many international versions are heavily censored. The US releases from Brain Damage Films are generally considered the "definitive" uncut versions.
- Mind Your Mental Health: This sounds like a disclaimer, but it’s real. These films contain genuine trauma. If you have a history of PTSD or sensitivity to real-world violence, skip these. There is no shame in that.
- Explore the Soundtrack: If you're a fan of underground metal, the soundtracks are actually a great time capsule of the 90s death metal and grindcore scenes. Many people discovered bands like Dead Infection through these tapes.
The Traces of Death film series isn't going away. It has been digitized, uploaded, and discussed in endless forums. It remains a polarizing, ugly, and undeniably influential part of underground culture. It asks a question that most of us don't want to answer: why do we want to see the things that scare us the most?
Whether you view it as trash, art, or a historical curiosity, it stands as a testament to the darker side of human interest. It’s a mirror held up to our own mortality, even if the frame is cheap and the glass is cracked.