'FACES OF DEATH' VIDEOCASSETTE IS TRUE OVERKILL

By DENNIS HUNT

July 26, 1985 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Sitting around the TV and watching assorted brutal animal and human killings doesn’t seem like a fun way to spend an evening to me, but it must be to some people.

They’re the ones who are buying and renting the videocassette “Faces of Death” (Maljack, $59.95), the year’s big oddball hit. Stores around the country are reporting that it’s a hot rental and sales item.

It’s a graphic, grisly and gory documentary showing death in every possible form--from decapitations and suicides to executions and animal slaughters. This is the real thing--no fake Hollywood deaths in this movie, which was originally made in the United States for the Japanese film market, where it was a big hit.

“Faces of Death” was sitting around for months on video-store shelves, getting little attention. The video company stirred up some controversy about it, which attracted the media. Now all the publicity has made a lot of people curious.

No one seems to care that the film is aimless and shoddily made. Watching all those deaths becomes boring after a while. It’s true overkill.

NEW AND COMING MOVIES: This has been a fairly slow month for videocassette debuts of recent major movies--nothing new of any real significance will hit the stores this week or next. But August will be a big month for new movies.

Early in the month, the prominent releases are Burt Reynolds’ “Stick” (MCA, $79.95), and “King David,” starring Richard Gere (Paramount, $79.95). During the last week in August, “The Killing Fields” (Warner, $59.95) should be a popular newcomer, along with Woody Allen’s “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (Vestron, $69.95).

For fans of the “Friday the 13th” horror series, the latest chapter, “Friday the 13th, Part V--A New Beginning,” will be released Sept. 11 by Paramount at $79.95. The following two months, Paramount will offer the first four films of the series--already in release--for $39.95. So far, the most important September release is “A Passage to India,” a major contender in the last Oscar competition. Available on RCA/Columbia, it’s expected to be a big hit. At the same time the same company will release “The Slugger’s Wife,” a Neil Simon comedy which wasn’t a big box-office attraction.

BETA BLUES: To buy Beta or not to buy Beta, that’s the question for many who are investing in VCRs. Industry watchers estimate the Beta share of the market to be 14% to 16% and dropping. VHS is by far the dominant format. Some experts contend that sales of the new Beta Hi-Fi machines have slightly increased Beta’s share, but detractors claim that in the long run, Beta Hi-Fi won’t be a significant boost to Beta.

The big problem continues to be availability of prerecorded tapes. Most stores have meager Beta selections; in urban areas, there’s a better chance of finding Beta titles. But in smaller towns, particularly those not on either coast, it’s much tougher to find a decent selection of prerecorded Beta cassettes. Retailers simply stock what the people want. They are well aware that about 85% of VCR owners have VHS machines.

Still, companies like Sony and Sanyo continue to produce Beta machines. Also, store owners have been selling Beta VCRs very cheaply, sometimes much less than $300. Such bargains will continue to entice people into the Beta fold. Beta may be on the decline but it’s not dead yet.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Two 1977 Glynbourne Opera Festival productions are out on Video Arts International at $79.95. One is Stravinsky’s opera “Rake’s Progress,” with Felicity Lott and Leo Goeke. The other is Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” with Benjamin Luxon and Goeke.

Two notable recent releases from Sony: the most famous works of “Domenico Scarlatti, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel,” filmed at the Chateau de Sceaux in Paris, featuring cellist Misha Maisky and pianists Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire; also selections from the works of “Wolfgang Mozart, Antonin Dvorak, Bedrich Smetana and Leos Janacek,” performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vaclav Neuman. Both, about 48 minutes long, sell for $39.95.

BUSINESS BITS: Surveys continually are spewing out startling figures confirming the videocassette boom. The latest, prepared by the Fairfield Group, predicts that the 1985 revenues from the sale and rental of videocassettes ($3 billion) will be three-quarters of the total domestic film revenues ($4 billion). Further, the survey forecasts a whopping increase next year, with cassette revenues expected to top $4 billion.

Those Live Aid concerts that raised millions for African famine relief generated profits for video stores as well. An unofficial survey by Billboard magazine indicates that the concerts were a boon to blank tape sales. Fans were buying blanks to tape the historic shows on their VCRs.

This is a bad year for pirates. According to figures released by Firm Security Office of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, more than 25,000 pirated videocassettes were confiscated during FBI raids in the first half of the year--that’s more than the 14,000 illegally copied cassettes picked up in raids all last year. These raids haven’t really hurt the pirates. According to a friend who’s well acquainted with piracy, such raids don’t even make a dent in that illegal activity.

WHAT’S HOT AND WHAT’S NOT: The new Prince videocassette, “Prince and the Revolution Live,” will be in the stores Monday. This nearly two-hour Warner Music Video tape of a March concert in Syracuse, N.Y., should be a big seller--possibly No. 1--for the next month or two. Its inexpensive price tag, $29.98, will definitely inspire fans to buy rather than rent.

“Pinocchio,” which has benefited from an elaborate advertising campaign, is as popular as expected. Though expensive--$79.95--it’s still a fast-seller. Various stores have reported rapid sellouts. Some retailers say sales are exceeding rentals, which at that price is remarkable. But it has not been out long enough to be reflected in the charts.

“The Mean Season,” the Mariel Hemingway-Kurt Russell movie, is off to a slow start. That’s no surprise, considering it didn’t do well at the box office.

TOP CASSETTES, RENTALS 1. “The Karate Kid” (RCA/Columbia).

2. “The Terminator” (Thorn/EMI).

3. “Starman” (RCA/Columbia).

4 “The Flamingo Kid” (Vestron).

5. “2010: The Year We Make Contact” (MGM/UA).

6. “Places in the Heart” (CBS-Fox).

7. “Missing in Action” (MGM/UA).

8. “Nightmare on Elm Street” (Media).

9. “Micki & Maude” (RCA/Columbia).

10. “Protocol” (Warner Video).

TOP CASSETTES, SALES 1. “We Are the World, the Video Event” (MusicVision).

2. “Jane Fonda’s Workout” (Karl).