User Reviews

Ah yes, Faces of Death, that infamous movie that boasts how it was banned in "46 Countries". That one movie that kids of a young age at around the time it came out (late 70's) would whisper to each other about, how it was that movie "you weren't allowed to see." My, how times have changed huh? For starters, as reviewers before me have stated, yes, most, if not all, of the footage in this movie was faked (some of it rather badly too). However, on the other hand, one also has to keep in mind that way back in 1978,79,80, the news of it being faked was not known, so people were being treated too, what they thought, was a controversial, pull no punches look at death. It was a fascinating and original concept/idea/movie at the time of it's inception, but sadly, FOD, as well as it's sequels, just looks terribly dated and lame by 2005 standards.

Eh, what can you do with a film like this? I didn't like it, yet between seeing this or a Joel Schumacher "Batman" movie, I'd probably watch this. (I hate those Schumacher "Batman" movies.)

I saw this at the impressionable young age of 12. Admittedly, I was WAY too young to see this at the time, but even though I was still at the point where horror films still unnerved me, this film didn't phase me at all. Who knows? Maybe my BS sensor was pretty well-tuned to this one. From a logic standpoint, some of it is pretty laughable, and for a "serious" film, it's pretty darn cheerful at times in its depictions of dismemberment and death. So what is "real" in this film? Is any of it real? The thing that probably has the most validity are the animal deaths. While the acts may still make people squeamish, and as sick as it sounds, people are generally more able to (I hate using this word) accept an animal killing over a person. Ever live on a farm? Well, neither have I, but I know this kind of thing happens.

This is purely low-brow "art" at its most basic. It's disgusting, sophmoric, laughable and outright silly at times. The people who put these films together probably had a blast doing so, and probably enjoyed the fact that they would repulse people the world over with this little nugget. I didn't take "Faces of Death" seriously then, I don't take it seriously now. It's made for shock value, and that's what it achieves. Do I think this is a great film? No. Would I have this in my video collection? Probably not. But it is a curiosity piece, I'll give it that. I probably wouldn't watch one after eating dinner, either.

I meddled with forces beyond comprehension when as a totally inexperienced adolescent I rented this artifact from Hell back in 1990.

I excitedly shoved the cassette into the top load VHS player and waited for the lurid show to begin. I'm going to make it as brief as possible; I can go on into painstaking details of how I excitedly ran home, eager to satiate my morbid curiosity about horrible death, how I was transfixed by the baleful Gorgon Video animated logo.

From there I knew I was in for something morally reprehensible but I couldn't stop myself from proceeding. The opening credits splashed on over some putrid autopsy proceedings and the accompanying music was something Satan had to inspire cause it was so unnerving, I mean these bellowing chords reached into your soul. Sounded like the trumpets of Hell, hearing that and seeing the putrefying cadavers, I wanted to crawl in a hole and pull the dirt over me.

I could go on and on about how utterly violated I felt after watching a myriad of animal cruelties, inhumanities and broken stumps of meat formally human beings. I can mention the melancholy that pervaded the room, seeing the murky, blurry, creepy old timey super 8 images, deathly vibes billowed from this unearthly relic from the 70's. I can say so much more about the demonic feels blasting out from the screen but I'm going to focus on one segment that has haunted me for 30 years!

The female cyclist that was run over head first by the heavy drive wheel of the semi truck, she is simply the most revolting and gruesome dead body I ever saw and I've seen it all to this point. The grisly aftermath spectacle of this woman is truly horrible; she looks indescribable. Faces of Death would have been a distant memory if it weren't for the cyclist segment; that gruesome woman has literally haunted me everyday for 30 years.

I've seen her standing beside my bed at 3 a.m. In the same mangled aftermath state she was reduced to; she looked completely vacant, totally revolting and absolutely terrifying. This film is a bridge for the tormented souls to crossover into the threshold of the living, to torment the ones sensitive to these forces like I.

I implore others to keep away from irredeemable, soul raping death films like this, lest you want to summon a denizen of the netherworld.

I first watched this film when I was twelve. I had nightmares for weeks. Nightmares about dying, of course. This film left such an indelible impression in my mind that eight years later, when presented with the option to purchase this movie, I jumped at the chance. After the second viewing I no longer was frightened by the film itself. The thing that scared me was the fact that I paid 15 bucks for it. I somehow felt guilty, disgusted with myself. But I watched the whole thing. No matter how bad I felt, I just kept on watching. Granted, just because you can't turn yourself away from what you're watching, doesn't always mean that what you're watching is quality entertainment. This, by no means, is quality entertainment. This is bottom of the barrel, no doubt about that. But it's still in my collection and it's hands-down, the most borrowed film out of my library.

Currently, I've never given a movie a 1 star rating before. I've given out a 3 star rating before to a movie but never a rating this low. This is mainly because even some of the worst movies I've ever seen had at least a few things good about them. But I have always wondered when I'll be able to find a movie that is so bad that regardless of how hard I try, I would not be able to find anything in it which is even somewhat good or entertaining.

I think that I've found one.

This awful disaster of a movie is distractingly violent, super offensive, and full of shock value. I can safely say that this is one of the worst movies ever made.

This documentary really has no plot. It's just a montage of people and animals dying gruesome and bloody deaths and the narrator also gives disturbing commentary detailing how they died.

The only point to this film is to shock and disturb the viewer. It's a hard movie to watch because the movie featured gruesome deaths just for the sake of it. There was not a single moment in this movie that contained any power and I didn't feel engaged at all throughout its entirety. I enjoyed Come and See because it had power with its massacre scenes and it had intelligent violence which stayed with me long after viewing it. Faces of Death on the other hand is nothing more than just 105 minutes of endless and tiring shock value.

Also, there is one thing that really infuriates me about this movie more than anything else. It is that the movie often plays goofy and uplifting music while it shows footage of people being brutally murdered (also, most of the deaths displayed here are in fact real). Most of those people died brutal deaths here and it downright disgusted me how the movie uses the goofy music to make them sound like some kind of a sick joke. However, the movie actually offended me in this case. It proves that the directors clearly don't care at all for any of the people or animals who brutally died in this movie. This clearly has some of the worst, unfitting music ever in cinema history.

I've actually seen some people give this movie a 5/5 rating. I've read many of the reviews by them but none of them have been able to justify this movie's flaws at all and none of them have been able to convince me that this movie isn't complete garbage yet. For the entirely of this one guy's review, he rambled on for how much of this movie was fake and how much it diminishes the movie's impact because of it. Yet, that idiot gave this movie a perfect rating. I have no idea know what those people see in this movie and I don't know why they think that this movie is a masterpiece. If you think that this is a masterpiece then go watch Come and See. Then tell me that this is a masterpiece.

So in conclusion, this is an awful movie. It's just a montage of shock value and the movie handles them very poorly by throwing in super unfitting music which I found to be highly offensive. There was not a single moment in this movie that even somewhat interested me and I was extremely glad after this movie ended. This is the worst documentary I've seen and this is also the worst movie I've ever seen as well.

I like to think that I've seen my share of versatile horror, cult and exploitation films by now (you're always welcome to browse through the user comments written under this ID) and I shamelessly admit that I'm very pro-violence in cinema! But I do think that you at least have to draw a line between reality and fiction. Even though most of the footage featuring in "Faces of Death" is proved to be fake, it still attempts to exploit the wrong type of message. The tagline just screams out "Banned in 46 countries" and the spoken intro tries to raise your curiosity even more. And what for? Only to make you feel like a voyeur when being exposed to a seemly endless series of human and animal death-struggles and cadavers. I wonder what exactly were the reasons for making this film…Nothing but easy money and cashing in on the popular trend of making the most repulsive movie possible, of course! Because, after all, "Faces of Death" only states the obvious: every living creature on this planet eventually dies! And no matter how pitiful it is to see a cow getting slaughtered for its meat or a seal for its fur, these are just ancient rites and explicitly showing it to horror fanatics definitely won't change a thing! It's even more saddening that this film also contains footage of wildlife rituals! Nature simply goes by the law of survival of the fittest and if you start to consider piranhas eating a snake as horror, you could also state that National Geographic is a horror channel! I despise this film and all its sequels for what it's trying to do. Death is a part of life and performing a detailed study on it is pretty uncalled for. The fact that Faces of Death is clumsy edited and meaningless makes it bad cinema. The fact that it's mostly phony footage while believed to be authentic just makes it pathetic.

Words cannot describe how God awful this piece of crap is! In a nutshell, it's an hour and a half of people and animals getting killed on camera. What's more, it's appallingly fake and really disgusting. For what purpose? To shock people, I guess. Catching a death on camera is bad enough, but going through the extraneous effort of faking it! It's so damn stupid! It was somewhat entertaining at first, and I found myself laughing at the infamous "monkey brain" scene. As it went on though, it got repetitive and boring. What really turned me off was the annoying narrator, who continuously brought into view how unique and unusual the death we just witnessed was. That gets old, as does the rest of the film. It's amazing that people would actually take part in the making of this thing. I'll bet their careers are in the toilet by now. My advice to the filmmakers: you should have dropped the project while you still could. What scares me more than anything is that there are a number of people who really like the "Faces of Death" series. People actually buy it! I think one reviewer at "Amazon.com" went as far as to call it "brilliant"! If "Faces of Death" displays a niche of brilliance, it shows us how low our society has gotten, that human beings will actually waste their time and their good, hard-earned money on something like this. The whole series should be banned and completely destroyed, so that it cannot brainwash innocent young minds. Of all the bad movies that have come and gone over the years, this one ranks as the World Champion! Don't even rent it to see how bad it is. You won't get any enjoyment out of it, and you will always regret it.

Half of this was sickening reality. The other half was a pathetic sham.

This is worth a look for the freak value alone.

The autopsy footage was gut-churning. This was one of the few real spots. Seeing real faces of the dead wasn't easy. The fact that said faces weren't deformed in any real way made it all the more chilling. The lady's suicide was also tough to watch.

The faked footage (executions, croc attack) almost subverted the intention of the film. Dealing with death. If they wanted to show executions, show something that can be verified.

The bear attack was probably influenced by the fake lion attack in 'Great Hunting.' And the middle eastern restaurant (with a white staff) serving the fresh monkey for killing was ripped off of 'Man From Deep River.' The scene with the grieving father trying to raise his dead son & wife through a medium may have been hard to watch for all the wrong reasons.

Most people see this...just to say they've seen it.

Real open-heart surgery footage opens this bogus mockumentary, about Dr. Francis B. Gross' journey, which took him "around the world in search of an understanding of death. Many years ago I was plagued with a recurring dream....." Segue that into a mock dream sequence, then into a fairly interesting bit about the mummies of Guanajuato, Mexico; and the infamous monkey brain-eating sequence, which was later reused ad nauseam. As effectively gruesome and simultaneously goofball as this scene is, multiple camera angels reveal it to be staged.

Dog-fighting follows (ugh) As an animal lover, I found this sequence to be more revolting than the open heart surgery.

Our host, narrator Dr. Francis B. Gross, keeps using the word "my", when he says "my travels" etc., but curiously, his presence is only in voice-over narration, he is never shown in any of the footage of, for example, the Maasai people in the Serengeti Plain. While the Maasai may be real, the Iboro (sp?) in the Amazon appear to be completely bogus, as I can find no mention of any tribe with that name. Complete with multiple camera angles and edits, it looks more like a 1970s jungle/ exploitation flick than authentic jungle footage, and it looks more like New Guinea, than the Amazon.

The alligator attack scene, featuring a cameo appearance by Mr. Chia Pet hair from "channel 9 news", balding, and with the (thankfully rare) male cameltoe, during the alligator attack, was obviously staged. No other identification is given as far as, let's say, "Channel 9 News in Miami" or a station id, something like "WXXX Channel 9 News". It doesn't display the interviewer's name or the names of the people he's interviewing, and they keep editing away from the actual gator attack. I counted at least 23 cuts in that 45 seconds long scene, which was most impressive, considering there was only one cameraman from channel 9 on scene.

We are introduced to assassin Francois Jordan, whose voice is distorted, and he is wearing a black mask over his head and face. Why did they bother to distort this alleged assassin's voice and face if they tell us his name is Francois Jordan?

Gross mentions Gary Mark Gilmore's Utah execution in 1977 (which was real) but he claims the gas chamber was introduced in California in 1938. Wrong. It was introduced in Nevada in 1924. Larry DeSilva's faked execution follows, lamely.

The bear attack was more funny than frightening, because it was so badly staged and obviously faked: again, multiple quick cuts and camera angles could not have been achieved

Nature runs amok in Wilkes-Barre, PA, in 1972; tornadoes, volcanoes, wildfires, etc. segues into pompous, incredibly cheesy singing about conservation, with apparently the filmmakers' girlfriend in a green top and white shorts receiving quite a lot of screen time, as a protester allegedly sets himself on fire to protest something or other.

Stunt driver's accident was comically bad. The clapperboard reads "Hell Raisin'", which should be an indication as to how real the footage is. (The rest of the information on the clapperboard is illegible) A real collision of 727 with small aircraft over San Diego lends a slight bit of credibility to otherwise mostly bogus claims of authenticity.

The portions of the movie dealing with real slaughterhouses, cryogenic freezing and rioting, again, are fairly graphic, but again they're done in a documentary type of way, and have more story to go with the gore, unlike some of this film's later ripoffs.

There is more of a story to go along with the gore and shocks here. Granted, it doesn't make much sense and is rarely believable, but that's part of the fun. Exploitive, nonsensical fun, which held my attention from start to finish, as I watched this on video as a teenager many times.

This isn't for those with a weak stomach, but watch it in the same frame of mind you would watch "National Geographic" on safari in Africa or something like that and it can be fun for fans of gore, and unintentionally funny cinema. (Note to the producers: in one scene the narrator refers to 'the country of Africa' - Africa is a continent, not a country)

"Faces of Death"--or any of its library of sequels and ripoffs--is a collection of death scenes. Yes, that's it. Some comprise of actual footage, and some are merely staged. But the point is, "Faces of Death" is for the morally depraved only. Anyone who wants to spend money or even time watching people or animals dying has a problem. And the staged footage is an attempt to satisfy the bloodlust of the depraved people who have chosen to watch this. "Faces of Death" stands as a symbol to a symptom of a sick society.

The movie itself is horrible, but if you look at it from a marketing standpoint it's brilliant! "Faces of Death" is in all of our collective conscience. The infamous "monkey brain scene" has been talked about in this forum ad naseum. Most everyone has seen or at least heard about this movie. It WAS a right of passage from when I was a teenager. "Banned in 46 Countries" made me HAVE to see this as a 15 year old in the late seventies. Look how the country is transfixed by "reality television" of today. This was definitely a precursor. The makers of this movie were not concerned about how the movie looked artistically, they wanted to get your attention, they wanted, no, dared you to watch. I'm sure the people that made this are all retired now and living on private islands with all the money they've made off the FOD series. As well they should! The curiosity of people and the word-of-mouth strategy used worked perfectly for them all over the world (This was well before the internet world we live in today). Masters of marketing they all are. Movie makers today only wish they can get this sort of buzz and interest in a movie. And to all of you that say that the people who watch this are sick and depraved, you know what? They got you too! Your curiosity made you look and watch. That's what the makers of this film wanted all along and you took the bait. It is people's curiosity that got them watching, not their morales. BRILLIANT!

This is a very tacky and extremely false documentary showing the various deaths of animals and people from across the globe. The narrator tries to explain and justify with reason, but it is so blatantly staged and faked that it just comes across as very amateurish exploitation trash. Most of scenes are so appallingly simulated that they don't even offend. A complete and utter mess.

I remember finding a copy of this when I was 11 and being so excited I hopped up and down until my head hurt. Why? I really don't know. Maybe it's because that glandular disorder the doctors keep yapping about. Or maybe, just maybe, it's because so few of the things that are legally verboten to a kid of a eleven actually interest a kid of eleven . I cared not for smokes or beer, and since my dad's magic cable box provided me with all of the softcore porn that I could handle, death videos were the only cool things that were completely out of reach. I was attracted to shiniest of the forbidden fruits.

This was before you had so many choices in death videos, bear in mind. The special interest section at Dollar Video has at least twenty of them nowadays, ranging from the rather benign "Traces of Death" to the surprisingly gruesome "Banned from Television." In 1992 it was either "Faces of Death" or "Mondo Cane," so this was the FIRST time that I had ever seen anything like this. I called over a friend and we popped in the tape.

Total disappointment.

It was so friggin staged that even at such a young age and even without knowing a damn thing about death videos I could tell that most of it was fake. Horribly produced fake newscasts introduced poorly acted scenes, dulling whatever effect the rare shots of actual cadavers might have had.

I do find appeal in intense gore and watching horrific videos, even to this day, as I know a surprising amount of other people do. I don't consider this a perversion since I gain no recognizable gratification from doing it, but I am well aware it is still a very socially unacceptable thing to do. But unlike most of my other aberrant habits (and trust me, there are many), I've never bothered to come up with a justification for my gore fascination: I get nothing out of it, it serves no purpose, and it's creepy. So why do I do it? Raw stimulation, I think. That's my best guess, and since a more complicated explanation would most likely be the convoluted result of a tired mind trying to justify himself to himself (rather than to those he is explaining himself to), I will leave it at those two simple words. Raw stimulation. Seeing things that you have never seen before and so feeling things that you've never quite felt before. Bud Dwyer's fountain flowing fast like a faucet. Vic Morrow's helicopter blades. Beheadings. Immolation. Things you never see on TV making you think thoughts you've never thought before without having to read or interpret. Nothing gets you thinking like death, and nothing gives you death better than moving pictures.

And that's exactly why "Faces of Death" sucks. It takes horror and waters it down. It's like opium diluted with talcum powder. When I want a quick fix, I want the hard stuff. Don't insult an addict, that's how you get cut.

I had lonnnnnng ago forgotten this movie even existed but then it turned up viewable for free recently on a streaming app. And I was like, heyyyyyyy, wasn't Faces of Death this super scary VHS movie from a million years ago I used to see at the video rental store but wouldn't dare to watch? But now I thought (out of mildly piqued curiosity) that I'd give it a go, all these decades later.

I didn't complete watching but a small portion of the movie before bailing. Once I realized graphic animal cruelty and animal death was going to be shown, that's it, I was done.

It was a momentary lapse of reason to think that I could watch this kind of unblinking and sordid expose of violent deaths of both humans and animals. It was more like okay, so what was the fuss about this movie all those years ago?

Reading some of the reviews and details of this movie on here, I realized I made the right decision to abandon watching this movie quickly. I'm proud to say I don't have the stomach or soul for this kind of movie to be EVER considered to be "entertainment." Cheers to those of us who actually find the suffering and death throes of other living beings is not at all good for our minds or hearts, and we aren't so bored or jaded that we want to go that far to be "entertained."

What was real? What was faked? Doesn't matter, don't want to see or know.

Faces of Death is a curious viewing experience. The variety of emotions it triggers is unusual. From pure revulsion to unbridled laughter, this film certainly covers a lot of bases. Where the real material is genuinely disturbing, the faked stuff is often so poorly done it makes for unintentional comedy. At the very least, Faces of Death can certainly not be accused of being boring.

The credit sequence kicks in with scenes from open heart surgery and an autopsy. It's pretty grim stuff quite frankly and not exactly the kind of material you want to digest immediately after dinner. The early parts of FOD in general are more horrific; in particular, the slaughterhouse sequence. It's pure horror. If there is any positive legacy from this documentary then it must surely be that it's made a few more people aware of the terrible route some animals are forced to take on the way to our dinner plates. The treatment of the animals in this environment was nothing short of barbaric and very difficult to watch. After this opening bombardment I was actively hoping for some of the famed fake material and thankfully I didn't have long to wait. The political assassination and alligator attack were spliced into the flow, and both were incredibly unconvincing and silly but also a relief from the unremitting heaviness of the preceding material. Some view the fake material in FOD as a weakness, a reason to disparage it. I, on the other hand, thought it was a welcome change of tone and a bit of unexpected comedy relief. The combination of the ultra-grim with fake schlock was ultimately what made it palatable for me.

It has to be said though, that there is an undeniably fascinating aspect to much of the real atrocities on display. It is very exploitative but you do see things that you normally would never see, or perhaps wish to see. The footage of the aftermath of the aircraft crash was haunting and is something I will not forget; the autopsy scenes are grimly fascinating; the Liberian execution is a no-holds-barred presentation of capital punishment. While the scenes of animal cruelty do serve a purpose in that they confront the viewer with some very cruel practices and are legitimate in the sense that they expose some very terrible things that man does to other creatures on this planet; in addition to the aforementioned slaughterhouse scene, there is the extremely unpleasant footage of the seal cull. While stuff like this has been selected with exploitative purposes in mind it does make the viewer think about wider issues, which is certainly unexpected. Some of the most famous sequences turn out to be fake however, for example the monkey meal and the electric chair scene. Although these, along with the death cult section, are all pretty graphic none-the-less and operate successfully as tasteless exploitation fodder.

Overall, I found Faces of Death to be compelling. I was genuinely sickened in places, disturbed in others, fascinated at times and even enlightened here and there. I also was amused too by the more ridiculous fakery. It's a hell of a combination that some people will regard in highly dubious taste. Some of it SHOULD shock you and some parts of it will stay with you long after. It's not a film to sit down with the family after a good meal. But this shockumentary/mockumentary is certainly something to behold.

Now I am against censorship, but not at all costs. I like gore movies and sick and perverted stuff in movies. Although a lot of what is in Faces of Death is faked, but there are real autopsy footage and animal slaughter, footage of the aftermath of a plane crash, and a scene of a suicide which I believe is real, which has no place in the movies.

I have seen a lot of horror movies, sick stuff from all over the world and that's fine, it's the movies (make believe). But why anyone would watch this to be entertained is beyond belief.

Why did I watch it you ask? Well I have an obsession with finding and watching banned MOVIES (Make believe) and since this was banned by the BBFC who also banned everything from The Beyond to Zombie flesh eaters. Naturally I was Curious.

Movies should Entertain or teach or enlighten, not satisfy some sick perverted lust to see dead people being cut open. Or body parts lying around after a plane crash, Yes things like this do happen, but this movie has no artistic redeeming quality whatsoever.

If you are a fan of horror movies or extreme cinema, then don't watch this, you might find mildly entraining the faked stuff like the executions and the bear attack. But the real stuff will just repulse.

If the director is to believed, he received death treats, and I am not surprised. I wonder what he would think about showing his wife or mother's autopsy in faces of death 7

While not the most vile form of Mondo out there, Faces of Death still packs a punch. Opening with pitt bull fights, this film shocked me. The vile sick nature of these films should ONLY be viewed by those with strong stomachs. Although 85% fake, it still packs a punch that many earlier mondo's did not. Although the first is not the best of the series, it does come close. I made the mistake of taking this film to a friends house, only to be called 'sick and gross' but that happens. The film has no plot and frankly, Dr. Gross is a sick human. I dont know which was scarier, him or one of the stiffs.

All over I give this film a 6/10. While not the best mondo, its certainly worth checking out.

On a minor note, theres this part where the cut this horse's throat and let him bleed to death. I dont know if this is real but it sure as heck freaked me out. I just wanted to throw that out there and say again if you have a weak stomach or heart, do NOT watch the film. You wont like it. But if your in the mood for a good old mondo, then check it out.

Thirty years ago, a documentary burst on to the scene featuring vignettes of animal cruelty, cannibalism, suicide, execution and accidental death. Today, the legend of this video remains strong, with many still believing in this alleged chronicle -- writer and director John Alan Schwartz's masterpiece banned in 43 countries! Of course, we know better than the average person that much of the footage was faked, something even more evident thanks to the new edition's audio commentary.

As a younger lad, maybe twelve or so, this was one of those films -- along with its sequels -- that was a necessary part of any good sleepover. Looking back, I'm not sure why my mother allowed us to rent so many films full of nudity, murder and cursing. Maybe if we had spent more time watching "The Last Unicorn" I wouldn't have ended up as demented and macabre as I did. Oh well. The film, a fond memory of mine, stands the test of time moderately well. While it's clearly dated with its dry, educational approach and video/sound quality, I see no reason gullible adults today or the youth of America couldn't enjoy this one as I did.

The electrocution scene? Classic! Monkey brains? Oh my! The San Francisco (where else) cult leader? Oddly appropriate. Even those who have never seen this film have a vague understanding of what it is... that's a reputation that ought to be respected. For those who are looking for true scenes of death, there is a fair share available. Particularly if you want to know how animal slaughterhouses work. One thinks that today in the world of PETA that some of the practices shown have been eliminated, but you may be surprised.

Any real student of the darker lessons in life needs to own a copy of this film. Now, thanks to Gorgon Video's DVD 30th Anniversary package, you get even more -- improving on what was already a solid investment. Feature-length commentary and a behind-the-scenes look at the movie's gore. Even deleted scenes, which I suspect few people even knew existed. This is the sort of film that can never be remade but only enjoyed as was originally intended. Pick it up today -- the perfect stocking stuffer for the precocious nephew who spends too much time in the basement.