Hello, In the early 80’s a series of documentaries called “Faces of Death” were all the rage with us morbid teens. Either the first or second, “Faces of Death II” included the ritual that is described in Cecil’s latest column. The live monkey’s head sticks up through the center of the table. As it screams and spins in comolete terror the guests of the restaurant chisel open the head and consume the brains. I even thought that was sick, although I was eating pizza through most of the movie. The Narrator said that people believed that eating the brains would make you smarter.
No link yet.
I had heard of this too, and always thought it was a complete UL. I am NOT happy to find that it’s true. Let me be the first to post:
SHUDDER
Gawd, that’s hideous.
I have never seen Faces of Death, but I’ve long heard that at least some of the scenes were faked. (And even if it wasn’t, it doesn’t mean it’s a regular ritual somewhere.)
I’ve never seen Faces of Death, but I’ve long heard that at least some of the scenes were faked. (And even if this one wasn’t fake, it doesn’t mean it’s a real ritual somewhere.)
There is an unimpeachable account of the crueler side of classic Chinese cuisine in Guanlong Cao’s remarkable 1996 memoir The Attic. If my memory serves it includes details about the eating of monkey brains, as well as other meals involving the consumption of tortured and not-yet-quite-dead animals. It was the live baby mice that got to me.
Dagnabbit! Not only did I double post, I forgot what forum I was in. This is obviously about a Cecil column I haven’t read yet, so forget what I said. (Though I still think FOD isn’t a great source…)
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Jeff Bruner is correct. Faces of Death I, if I remember correctly, contains a scene where diners ate fresh raw monkey brains.
The scene was staged for the show, but apparently only for production value and to make the location unknown. The country that the brain eating occured in was not China, however. I believe it occured in Pakistan or a country in the Middle East; Dr. B. Gross, the narrator, reveals the country but I forget exactly where he said it was. What is definitally not in doubt is whether the actual killing, prying open the brain and eating the brain occured.
The eating of species brain, raw or cooked, is so well documented in so many cultures that I find it strange that people are finding this hard to believe. At my local super market in the US I can buy cow brains for eating. Anyone eat authentic Tamales? To me this isn’t that strange, but for someone from India this would be so immoral that it would make our reaction to monkey brain eating seem like complete acceptence. Then there are the documented cases of human brain consumption by cannibals, and the list goes on and on.
domina, Faces of Death and the more modern Traces of Death videos do not need to stage their clips. Humans are a violent, sick, perverted and cruel species. The unimaginable amount of violence that occurs on this planet by us every day has often been captured on film and video from the begining of the technology. You may live in a shrouded world where people just wouldn’t even dream of doing this, but decieving yourself into thinking these things don’t occur is very dangerous. Even the FBI denied Snuff Films are not censidered snuff because people don’t sell the movies. There are dozens of movies where people are killed for the viewers enjoyment. I really enjoy how the FBI has denied these videos with their strict definition that to be a Snuff Film it must be made for the intent of selling the film.
The most shocking part, for me, in the Faces of Death series was the police raid on a Satanic cults home. Something like eighteen corpes were found on the property, two bodies were found in the home dismembered and placed in various parts of the home, and a video of one of their ritual slayings was found. It made the monkey scene seem like child’s play.
Jeff Turner is correct.
I did see the Faces of Death in discussion and I was under the impression the scene took place in Africa. It seems to me an interesting point would be the possibility of disease transfer to humans via this type of activity. Uncooked primate parts would seem to be a wonderful way to transfer disease(s) to humans. I wouldn’t want to make a judgement call on what is disgusting or not as that is going to be cultural issue. (After all what is the culmination of a Christian mass but simulated ritual cannibalism…)
From Cecil’s column:
“The monkey’s head was supported by its neck in a bracket, two pieces of wood with a semicircular hole on each side such that when you put them together, they form a complete circle around the animal’s neck, allowing the head to be exposed above the plank. The hair around the head is shaven with a shaving razor. A small chisel and a hammer is used to quickly chisel a circle around the crown, and the top part of the skull is removed. A teaspoon is used to scoop up the brain, which is immediately eaten. This has to be done before the monkey dies.”
—My father always told me he saw EXACTLY this himself, in the Philippines, during WWII. Of course, my father ALSO told me the monkey kicked him under the table, which makes me suspect Dad was having me on . . .
Faces of Death Summary at urbanlegends.com. Don’t worry, no pictures or anything. Just a scene-by-scene text description of the movie. The author describes the monkey dinner scene as “unconvincing”.
With no knowledge of the number of cameras present, with no knowledge of the editing process, with no knowledge of the monkey’s actions the author of this post is at best “unconvincing.” And, I am just a little curious how thousands of movies have been made with two or more cameras without “a second cameraman appearing in the long shots.” Could Cecil, please, explain that mystery; it is just totally bewildering to me.
If memory serves, Dr. Gross explains that the act being shown is illegal in the country it is taking place in. Therefore, one would assume, editing to try and exclude the dinner’s servers would be used that might remove footage that would add to the visual authenticity. Given the obvious production value, which is poor, and the very obvious detailed anatomy and gruesome quality of the movie, one gets the distinct feeling this is real. To reproduce what I saw with special effects would be very very expensive, and given the quality the FX would need to be, I am very doubtful the FX technology of the time would even be possible.
One detractor of this scene is the horribleness of it. I was joking around a little when I down played this scene in my earlier posts. It is one of the worst scenes of all the FOD scenes in all the FOD videos, and that is saying something. It would not be an unfair assumption that many people would deny its validity just on the grounds that it is so horrible.
One last point. This is a problem on this board and in articles by Cecil and his staff. You, Cecil and Staff, rely on reports, like the urbanlegends.com report, when you can easily experience them yourself. If you are so easily inclined to deny something you have never even seen, then, it would be prudent to experience it yourself before you open your uneducated mouth. People rely on you to tell the truth as best you can. So far, all the denials of the FOD scene have come from people who haven’t seen the film. Shut your holes and rent the film, and then call the producers of the film and ask them about the scene. That would be alot more convincing than just flapping your gums about something you know nothing about.
I could very well be wrong on all my points, but at least I am talking from an experienced perspective.
I for one have seen FoD many years ago, Brain, including the monkey scene. Even as a teenager in 80’s, I had that scene spotted as a fake a mile away.
Come on, isn’t there some cause to doubt the veracity of a film narrated by “Dr. B. Gross,” a name that should only be mentioned with a :rolleyes:? And you claim the producers managed to get authentic film of “the police raid on a Satanic cults home” where:
Yet there are no real-life names and places attached to this incident, even though it would make many of the well-known mass killers look like pikers in comparison?
As for your general credulity regarding snuff films, you might wish to take a look at Cecil’s column on the subject.
Skepticism is your friend. 
I too immediately spotted the Monkey Brains scene as a fake in Faces of Death. If you look at the scene, you will notice that the monkey’s head is always spinning in a very regular, circular motion. The quick cutting tends to mask this. It’s almost as if they put a fake monkey’s head on an LP turntable hidden underneath the table. If a real monkey were undergoing such torture, it’s motions would be much more jerky and irregular.
Cecil mentioned a site called Queer Food with a broken link. For those who are interested, here is Google’s cache of that page. Those whose appetites are merely whetted by that site may enjoy the book Unmentionable Cuisine by Calvin Schwabe. I don’t think he mentioned the eating of the brains of live monkeys in the book (I think I’d remember that), but he did mention all manner of interesting dishes like roast suckling puppies and drunken rats.
I’d be wary of eating anything’s brains, living or not. That’s not because I’m squeamish about eating innards (I’m not), but because of the danger of prion diseases. Kuru, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (“mad cow disease”), and scrapie can all apparently be spread by eating the brains of those infected. I don’t know of any similar disease in monkeys, but I ain’t taking any chances.
Here is a link to an interview with the director of all the FOD movies: http://www.sptimes.com/News/102600/Weekend/Lifting_the_mask_from.shtml
While he doesn’t commit specifically on the monkey scene he does mention the Satanic scene (he was in it), the electrocution being fake, most of it was fake, and that the real scenes where stock footage found in film archives.
BTW, I’ve seen most of the FOD series (1-5) and I always had questions about the monkey scene. If you split it’s head with a mallet; where’s all the blood and wouldn’t you have to worry about picking pieces of skull out of your delicacy?
Nice shootin’ Minty.
Brain, arguing that the scene in FoD was real because “it was scary” ain’t gonna cut it. Especially when the director has admitted to faking scenes int he flick.
I mean, hell, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover was horrible. But no one thinks it was real.
The book Culture Shock! China talks about eating live monkey brains, and says that it is a myth. The authors say “This is total garbage, of course, but thousands of people who have never seen it swear it is true. … Old China Hands love to repeat such ridiculous yarns to turn the tender stomachs of the delicate newcomers.”