Faceless (1988 film)

Faceless (Les Prédateurs de la nuit) is a 1988 slasher film directed by Jesús Franco. It’s a co-production film between France and Spain. The film is about Dr. Flamand (Helmut Berger) and his assistant Nathalie (Brigitte Lahaie) who lure unsuspecting victims to use their skin to perform plastic surgery on the doctor's disfigured sister - a plot reminiscent of Franco's earlier film, The Awful Dr. Orloff (1961). Hallen (Telly Savalas) is a New York businessman who hires private detective Sam Morgan (Christopher Mitchum) to find his missing fashion model daughter Barbara (Caroline Munro). Other elements of the story include a Nazi doctor (Anton Diffring) and a chainsaw/power tool tormentor (Gerard Zalcberg) who are called in by Dr. Flamand.

Plot
A former patient of Dr. Frank Flamand, a disfigured Mrs. Francoisis, seeks revenge for a botched operation by throwing acid at him, but she misses and catches his sister, Ingrid, full in the face, resulting in severe burns.

At a photoshoot in Paris, the doctor's assistant and lover Nathalie, lures Barbara Hallen outside with promises of cocaine and kidnaps her. Barbara is then locked in the basement of Flamand's clinic, where it is revealed that Flamand kidnaps young women and uses their blood and skin and other body parts for his "miracle treatments" for his patients. Whilst checking on other kidnapped girls, a scuffle starts with Natalie and one kidnapped girl leading to Gordon, a mute henchman who lives in the basement, chopping off the girl's arms with a chainsaw.

In New York City, Barbara's father, Terry Hallen, is desperately awaiting news of his daughter and hires her ex-boyfriend, private detective Sam Morgan, to go and find her. Once in Paris, Morgan visits a morgue with Brian Wallace of the Paris police to see a decapitated body, but knows it is not Barbara due to a missing mole.

Flamand and Nathalie go to see a surgeon, Dr. Orloff, about an operation to amputate Barbara's face and attach it to his sister Ingrid's face. Orloff tells them to track down Nazi doctor Karl Heinz Moser, who agrees to assist Flamand with his surgery. They return to find Barbara's face has been badly cut by Gordon, who sexually assaulted her.

Morgan interviews Barbara's photo director Maxence and gets some information through intimidation before Maxence's bouncer, Doudo, forces Morgan to flee. Meanwhile, Flamand has kidnapped another woman, the call-girl and former patient Melissa, to use for the face transplant. Morgan updates Terry with limited information on Barbara - that she was addicted to cocaine and that when she was kidnapped, she had on an expensive gold watch which has led to her employer believing she stole it to trade for more drugs. Meanwhile, a patient in the clinic who is upset that Flamand has assigned Natalie to tend to her instead of doing so personally, reveals that she has seen from her hospital bed window, Gordon removing dead bodies from the basement. Natalie responds by killing the patient with a hyperdermic needle into her eye.

Moser arrives for the operation, performed while Melissa is living, but destroys Melissa's donor face due to complications. Gordon severs Melissa's head from her body using a chainsaw, killing her. Flamand and Nathalie seek a replacement. At a club, they find an actress, trick her into going to the clinic, drug her and hide her body. Morgan traces a credit card belonging to Barbara Hallen to the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud, and to Flamand's clinic. Meanwhile, Natalie and Ingrid share a moment where Ingrid admits to being jealous of Natalie and her brother's relationship as it is revealed that Ingrid and her brother have an incestuous relationship, and that Ingrid and Natalie once had sex together during a threesome with Flamand. Ingrid has become jealous of not being with a man since her disfigurement, so Natalie arranges for a male prostitute to be brought to the house so that Ingrid, wearing a mask, can have sex with him. But when the male prostitute removes Ingrid's mask before having sex with him and insults her over her disfigurement, Natalie comes to Ingrid's defense and stabs him to death.

At the clinic, Morgan sees a watch Natalie is wearing and later sees this in pictures at his hotel as being the gold watch Barbara had on during her photography shoot when she was abducted. As Morgandecides to return to the clinic, a nurse at the clinic who overheard the patient that Natalie killed talk about strange doings at the clinic, enters the basement and finds all of the girls locked up. She is caught and killed by Gordon. At this moment, Moser, Flamand, and Nathalie remove the actress's face and show it to Ingrid.

Morgan returns to the clinic and is attacked by Gordon but manages to impale him on some hooks. Morgan finds keys and locates the girls and Barbara but is locked in Barbara's cell with her by Natalie. Flamand, Moser and Nathalie then brick up the cell. Barbara and Sam find themselves trapped and gasping for air.

Sam, however, has sent Terry a message, saying that he has traced Barbara to a clinic in Paris and that he's going to it to look for her, and that if he doesn't leave a message in 12 hours, "send in the marines, Merry Christmas." Terry says to his office executive to get him on the first flight to Paris in hopes of rescuing the two.

Alternate ending
The original ending of the film involved Sam successfully rescuing Barbara, and arresting Flamand, Nathalie, Moser, and Ingrid, with Terry going to Paris to pick them up. Jess Franco wanted a slightly different touch to make it different, so while switching the ending around, this time it is mentioned that Terry Hallen is going to Paris to the clinic, but it is left open, if he gets there in time to save them or not. The mentioning of Christmas in the message hints that he didn't make it in time.

Cast

 * Helmut Berger as Dr. Frank Flamand
 * Brigitte Lahaie as Nathalie
 * Christopher Mitchum as Sam Morgan
 * Telly Savalas as Terry Hallen
 * Caroline Munro as Barbara Hallen
 * Anton Diffring as Dr. Karl Heinz Moser
 * Gerard Zalcberg as Gordon, the henchman
 * Howard Vernon as Dr. Orloff
 * Stéphane Audran as Mrs. Sherman
 * Tilda Thamar as Mme François
 * Daniel Beretta as the man from the Bois de Boulogne

Release
Faceless was released in France on June 22, 1988. The film was released in different languages, including French. It was released on UHD and Blu-ray by Severin Films in 2022.

Reception
From contemporary reviews, the film was reviewed by a critic credited as "Len." in Variety who reviewed the film on June 26, 1988. "Len." referred to the film as a "routine gore-and-softcore shocker" noting that the "Special gore effects are part for the course. The director, Jesus Franco, a specialist of porn and horror films, seems to have directed with his eyes closed."