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1993 mondo shockumentary film

Traces of Death is a 1993 Z movie mondo shockumentary that consists of various scenes of stock footage depicting death and real scenes of violence. Unlike most earlier Faces of Death which usually included fake deaths and reenactments, Traces consists mostly of actual footage depicting death and injury, and consists also of public domain footage from other films. It was written and narrated by Damon Fox. Since its release, Traces of Death has been followed by four sequels. The first sequel, Traces of Death II, was released in June 1994. This was followed by Traces of Death III in December 1994, Traces of Death IV: Resurrected in 1996 and Traces of Death V: Back in Action in April 2000.

In the first two films of the series, Damon Fox was the narrator. Darrin Ramage, who would later become the founder of Brain Damage Films, would become the host for the third, fourth and fifth volumes. Unlike Faces of Death, the footage throughout the entire films are real and are not staged or reenacted. Starting with Traces of Death II, scenes were accompanied by background music from death metal and grindcore bands. Also contained in the series, especially in the first one, is footage of step by step autopsy procedures, which are shown from a coroner's point of view. Most of the other footage is recognizably notable. Among the footage samples seen on Traces of Death and in the sequels that followed are listed below.

The music clearance were provided by Subtempeco Muzik (pseudonymously credited as T. O. D.), which derived from various film soundtracks. Later in Traces of Death 3, the first soundtrack album was released on CD. The soundtrack for the first installment were tracks by J. R. Bookwalter from the 1989 film Robot Ninja.

In 2003, a box set of the entire series was released on DVD by Brain Damage Films.

The original Traces of Death has run into controversy worldwide due to its graphic content. In 1997, Amy Hochberg, a woman living in Coaldale, Pennsylvania rented the film from a video store and was so disgusted by the film's content that she considered keeping the tape to prevent children from procuring it from the store. She also contacted multiple animal rights groups after witnessing a scene in the film wherein a pig is experimented on with a blowtorch. She also lodged a complaint with the video store she had rented it from, as she thought the film was simply "911 calls with a little more". In 2003, a DVD boxset of the film and its sequels were confiscated by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, after being deemed to "contravene Regulation 4A(1A)(a) of the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations." In 2005, the British Board of Film Classification refused to give the first film an age certificate, effectively banning it. The BBFC considered the film to have "no journalistic, educational or other justifying context for the images shown", while also suggesting that the film could potentially breach UK law under the Obscene Publications Act.