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->''"GIVE ME YOUR FACE!"''
-->-- '''Optimus Prime''', ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen''

There are few sights more gruesome than that of a human face with all the skin removed. Something about the absence of eyelids, lips, and the nose combined with the [[{{Gorn}} rather bloody results]] makes this an extremely powerful image. Sometimes, a character will have their face completely destroyed, while other times, their face will be cut off and preserved. The one who does the cutting may end up [[FaceStealer wearing the face for themselves]]. Note that simply damaging the face isn't enough -- to qualify, the entire face must be removed, leaving only some combination of muscle, teeth, blood, bone, and (usually) {{eyes|AreUnbreakable}}. In a more cartoony version, it's probable that only the skull will be left behind the face. Despite having just been deprived of lips, the victim's ability to talk will be rarely impeded.

Very much the scariest part of FlayingAlive, and often the M.O. of the FaceStealer.

Subtrope of FacialHorror. Not to be confused with the end of a ScoobyDooHoax (in that case, it's DramaticUnmask).

----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Manga/AkameGaKill'', Nyau, a bodyguard to the evil general Esdeath, does this to the bodyguard and daughter of the former prime minister. He also plans to do it to Tatsumi and Bulat.
* In ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'', Lambada has done so to Rice, although in a less gory manner -- the polygonated Rice was left with with no apparent injuries, save for not having polygon edges or colour on his face. The face also turned into a nice little rectangular brick thing. It has been said that Lambada does this to defeated enemies regularly.
* One scene in ''Manga/DGrayMan'' has Road Kamelot demonstrate her HealingFactor by tearing her own face off and regrowing it.
* In the first of many horrific injuries she suffers over the series, ''Manga/{{Dorohedoro}}'' features [[LizardFolk Kaiman]] biting on Ebisu's face, then Fujita comes in through a dimensional door, grabs her by the arm and pulls her out. A few scenes later and Ebisu's face is hanging around Kaiman's teeth.
* Happens [[{{Gorn}} all the time]] in ''Manga/FrankenFran''.
* Hayato Jin's introduction in the original ''Manga/GetterRobo'' manga has him tearing the face off a student planning to desert his group of revolutionaries. Another would-be deserter "merely" loses his eyes, ears, and nose.
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' features a particularly brutal version. [[spoiler:Seras Victoria finishes off Zorin Blitz by grinding her face against a wall until all that's left is a mass of blood and bone.]]
* In one ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'' arc, [[BigBad Naraku]] expels his heart, which takes the form of a naked faceless man, who proceed to slay a whole bunch of bandits and rip their faces, looking for a suitable one for him. Without them he's shown to be TheBlank.
* Creator/JunjiIto:
** The ''Manga/JunjiItoKyoufuMangaCollection'' story "Flesh Colored Horror" has [[spoiler:Chikara's mother rip Maya's face off (revealing that she wears a skin suit like her in the process), in a desperate attempt to save herself after Chikara dissolves her skin suit]].
** This also happens in the story "Layers of Fear", in which [[spoiler:the mother does this to ''herself'', thinking the curse afflicting her family would make her young again by doing this]].
* During the American Tour arc of ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'', Beauty Rhodes gets part of his face ripped off by Skull Bozu. When we later see him, he's had that part replaced by a metal plate.
* Orochimaru ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' does in his first appearance. Offscreen thankfully.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Franky accidentally causes an explosion while exploring one of Vegapunk's labs. Next we see, his face [[EyesAreUnbreakable minus the eyes]] has been blown to ash. The whole thing is played for laughs, as Franky is a cyborg that can replace his face (even though that part appeared to be flesh).
* A more mystical example in ''Manga/SazanEyes'': a minor villain from the second series tries to force Pai into lending her Triclop powers by forcibly putting the souls of her best friends inside a monstrous, two-headed marionette she can control and threatens to burn. The ritual involves making the faces of the girls disappear entirely and reappear on the doll's heads. Fortunately, Yakumo give them back their faces and souls.
* ''Manga/SoulEater'' features Free and Eruka Frog hallucinating that their faces are being chewed off.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
** In ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'', Joker's vampire henchman [[TheDragon Mr. Creach]] rips a gangster's face with his ''fangs''.
** {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''ComicBook/{{Joker}}'' - instead of the face, an unfortunate bartender is stripped of everything but.
** The cliffhanger to #1 of the ''ComicBook/New52'' ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'' is the Dollmaker freeing the Joker from Arkham ... and leaving the Joker's face pinned to the wall. This sets up ''ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily''; an event that happened issues later. [[spoiler:''ComicBook/BatmanEndgame'' had the Joker with his face again and revealed he had a {{healing factor}}.]]
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': A [[spoiler:Parallax-possessed Hal Jordan]] does this to [[spoiler:The Specter]] during the climax of ''ComicBook/BlackestNight''.
* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': The Female of the Species has a tendency for maiming, delimbing and mutilating her enemies/victims. At one point, she walks into a room for a hit early on and while we don't witness it directly, the face of one of the criminals inside splatters against the window. We do get to witness her do this in a fight against a low tier superhero team, where she rips the face off clean off a rather pretty superheroine without actually killing her.
** She is not the only source of this in the comic however. [[spoiler:During the Russia Arc, a Russian ally's worker is sent on an errand and the protagonists end up receiving their pizza order with his sliced off face plastered across said pie. Also let's not forget what happened to the President during the final arc...]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'': Issue #56 featured a demon that ripped the face off an angel and now wears it as a mask. It would make [[DealWithTheDevil deals]] for fame and fortune.
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Judge Fear demonstrates this when possessing a resistance fighter as his new host body, reaching somewhere down his throat to present the man's torn off, leathery face.
* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': [[Characters/ShazamBlackMarvelFamily Black Adam]] did this to Father Time in the ''World War III'' miniseries, while cracking a joke about Americans always trying to "save face".
* ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'': It's normal for Mazikeen to be missing half her face, just don't try to "fix" it.
* ''ComicBook/MoonKnight'': Moon Knight infamously cut Bushman's face off, even ''wearing'' it once!
* ''ComicBook/{{Necronauts}}'': A medium tears off his face when he's possessed by entities from beyond during a seance.
* ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'': SerialKiller [[spoiler:Si Coltrane]] is shown to have not only cut off the face of one of his victims, he nailed it back upside down. The only thing he can say is "kuh muh".
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
** In ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderMan1999'', Peter once ripped part of [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Norman Osborn]]'s face off when he stuck to it with his [[WallCrawl stickum' powers]] during ''American Son''. Not how Creator/StanLee imagined it being used, but awesome regardless.
** In ''ComicBook/GrimHunt'', after Spider-Man has been pushed to his limit, he presses his hand to Sasha Kravinoff's face and uses his [[WallCrawl wall-crawling ability]] to [[TearOffYourFace rip the skin off]].
** This is a parallel to Spidey's imperfect clone, Kaine, whose spider-powers are amplified and twisted; back in the '90s comics, before his HeelFaceTurn in modern times, Kaine uses his gripping power to burn his handprint into his murder victims' faces, leaving scars from the crisscross patterns of the lines of his hand (the so-called "Mark of Kaine").
* ''ComicBook/TalesFromTheCrypt'': The story [[http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/290943.html "Only Skin Deep"]] (later adapted for [[Series/TalesFromTheCrypt the TV version]]) features a man who elopes with a woman he met at Mardi Gras, who refuses to remove her mask and insists on consummating the marriage in the dark. He gets curious and tries to remove it, and...well, it's listed as an example here, isn't it?
* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
** Overlord does this near the end of ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'' - since this came out after ''Revenge of the Fallen'', cue fandom yelling the page quote.
** Vos from ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' is a bizarre inversion-- he removes ''his own'' face, which is actually more like a mask lined with numerous spikes, drills, and other painful implements, and forces it over someone else's face as a means of torture.
---> '''Vos''': Wear my faaace.
** Optimus Prime does this to Ultra Magnus in ''ComicBook/TransformersShatteredGlass.'' Before you're too horrified by that mental image, note that this is a MirrorUniverse where the Autobots are the bad guys and Optimus Prime is an evil, megalomaniacal dick--one who could put the Megatron of our universe to shame when it comes to ''really'' being cruel.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'': ComicBook/RedSkull did this and gained his red face after killing over 200 men ''at 17'' in order to reject his father [[spoiler:ComicBook/CaptainAmerica]].
* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'': In ''ComicBook/UncannyAvengers'', the Death-Seed resurrected (and completely insane) Sentry did this, in excruciating detail - even ripping away everything bar his eyes and brain and continuing to communicate telepathically - while giving Thor a [[BreakThemByTalking Breaking Speech]] and a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown. Since the Sentry's powers include de facto immortality and a HealingFactor that makes things like being disintegrated mere passing inconveniences, this is not entirely surprising.
* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} is subjected to this via shotgun blast from ComicBook/ThePunisher during a crossover. Due to being Wolverine, having all the skin and muscle tissue destroyed down to his indestructable skull isn't even an inconvenience and he's still able to kick Castle's behind easily.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/MyHeroAcademiaUnchainedPredator'': With the Slayer in the MHA world, this is more likely to occur than not.
** In Chapter 14, he rips off a Saber's visor along with his face before [[YourHeadAsplode popping it like a zit]] and stealing the M2 Browning to kill off the Sabers in the I-Expo district.
** In Chapter 16, [[CruelAndUnusualDeath Slice has her hair ripped off with so much force, it also ripped off her face, muscles and eyelids, leaving her bare skull, before the Slayer smashed her head into paste.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'': With SuperStrength, facial destruction couldn't be any more creative.
** Original version:
*** Chapter 4: Kyril rips a {{mook|s}}'s [[EyeScream eyes]] and [[TongueTrauma tongue]] out with his bare hand, destroying the face in the process.
*** Chapter 10: Kyril rams his Saw Cleaver into a {{mook}}'s face, ruining it beyond recognition with a [[SickeningCrunch crunch]].
*** Chapter 11: Kyril [[PistolWhipping slams the butt of his pistol]] into a mook's face, with enough strength to utterly shatter it.
*** Chapter 20: Sanakan caves a mook's face inwards by punching him in the face with her [[PowerFist metal bracer]].
*** Chapter 34: Kyril shatters a {{mutant|s}}'s face via a punch while giving an order to Bergen.
** Remastered version:
*** Chapter 5: Kyril blasts an orc in the face with his Hunter's Blunderbuss, its face being destroyed by the shot.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheSacredStarOfMilos'', this happened to [[spoiler:Colonel Herschel aka the real Ashleigh Crichton]] in the past. It's the reason why [[spoiler:he wears a mask]].
* Done rather subtly in ''[[Anime/GhostInTheShell1995 Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]]''. You don't know that the person is a cyborg [[RoboticReveal until the face is taken off to plug in data cables]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' features [[MonsterClown a clown with a tear-away face]]. Behind his face is only a black void, though he can still somehow speak, albeit in a much '''deeper''' voice.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ShrekFourD'' at Ride/UniversalStudios, Gingy at one point smashes into a tree, causing his face to become attached to the tree.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/ArmyOfFrankensteins'', one of the Frankensteins tears off a Union soldier's face.
* In ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'', Barbra hangs herself in her closet by her dress via a clothes hanger, pulls her own face off, her eyes fall out of her face and screams in an attempt to frighten off the Deetzs from their home. Unfortunately, she soon realized they can't see her when they moved her like a shirt.
* In ''Film/BirdsOfPrey2020'', [[BigBad Roman Sionis]] has his henchman [[AxCrazy Victor Zsasz]] peel off the face of a fellow crime boss who refuses to work with him (and then does it to his wife and daughter). Sionis also threatens to remove [[VillainProtagonist Harley]]'s face and pickle it.
* In ''Film/BrainDead'', one of the victims of the zombie outbreak has his face torn completely off.
* ''Film/ButterflyAndSword'': Yip's first onscreen kill is that of an Imperial traitor whose face he cleaves off with a single swipe of his sword.
* ''Film/ChildsPlay2019'' has Chucky rip off the face of his first victim and nail it to a watermelon. He then brings it to Andy's room (possibly inspired by the below mentioned ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2'', which Andy is shown watching in a prior scene).
* Inverted by ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'': A character gets everything ''except'' his face destroyed.
* ''Film/CreepVan'': In the film's climax, when confronted by the killer, Campbell shuts the killer's van's razor-sharp window, slicing his face (as well as half his head) off.
* Preston in ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' kills a dude by slicing his face off with a katana.
* The other obvious example is ''Film/EyesWithoutAFace'', where Dr. Génessier's main goal is to find a replacement face for his disfigured daughter Christiane by any means necessary.
* In ''Film/{{Faceless}}'', beautiful women are abducted by Dr. Flamand's female assistant and kept hostage. The doctor uses the skin of the women to perform plastic surgery on his disfigured sister, but the experiments leave the victims mutilated and dead.
* The obvious example is ''Film/FaceOff'', in which Sean Archer and Castor Troy, for contrived reasons, end up surgically switching faces (and taking each other's places). After Castor wakes up and finds himself missing his face, when his cronies abduct Dr. Walsh and bring him to the Walsh Institute, Castor is briefly shown walking around without a face (literally, briefly - for the most part we only see Castor's shadow or shots of him from behind where the damage can't be seen, until Castor claps and says "Bra-fucking-vo!" upon seeing the conclusion of the videotape of the surgery.
** There is also a scene when Archer-as-Troy, high on a massive dose of drugs he had to take to keep up his cover, goes off on a rant about how he is going to take Archer's "...face... off! His eyes, his nose, his... mouth... off!" which manages to creep out even Troy's jaded goons.
* Jason Mewes' character gets his face torn off early in ''Film/{{Feast}}''.
* ''Film/GoingOverboard'': Dickie Diamond does this to his face at the end of Shecky's nightmare, when he [[MediumBlending becomes animated]] in a BigLippedAlligatorMoment.
* In ''Film/HanselVsGretel'', [[spoiler:Gretel]] removes [[spoiler:Jacob]]'s face with her bare hands after he rejects her advances.
* One of the villains in ''Film/Hellboy2004'' is a cybernetic Nazi MadScientist named Karl Ruprecht Kroenen, who, we're told, became addicted to surgery and amputated most of his own face. We only briefly see what he looks like under his gas mask, but it's very nasty.
** This is in contrast to Kroenen's characterization in the comics, where he wore the gas mask at all times due to an intense case of germophobia, and there was never any indication that there was anything especially wrong with his face.
* A very graphic and detailed example is shown in ''Film/{{Hostel}}''. A scalpel is used to cut an outline onto the face, before the torturer uses the scalpel to pry away the top layer of skin. Then, using his hands, he slowly peels off the rest while the man being tortured screams in absolute agony, being alive afterwards while an audience of rich elites watch in enjoyment before the torturer places the skin on a mannequin head like it's an art piece. It's definitely one of the harder example to watch.
* Happens in ''Film/HouseOf1000Corpses'' and ''Film/TheDevilsRejects''. In the former, Otis guns down Denise's father, then he skins off the face and chest, wearing it to taunt the captive Denise, even trying to kiss her. In the latter, Otis holds two men at gunpoint in the desert, before a fight breaks out and he kills one and injures another. He grabs the wounded one after he shot him in the throat and uses his combat knife to skin off his face while he's still alive. He then wears the face in front of the man's wife, then forces her to wear it.
* In ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', [[spoiler:Furiosa kills [[BigBad Immortan Joe]] by hooking his mask to a harpoon and spooling the cable around the axle of his car, gruesomely ripping his face and throat off in the process.]]
* In the old {{Wuxia}} film, ''Film/MagnificientBodyguards'' (one of Jackie Chan's earlier movies), one of the characters is named Chang Wu-yi the Face-peeler, and lives up to his nickname by ripping off at least three victim's faces with his ''bare hands'' in the movie. Including the main villain's daughter-slash-henchwoman.
* A JerkAss farmer named Edgar gets his face ripped off along with the rest of his skin by a cockroach-like alien in ''Film/MenInBlack''. It tears the "suit" off so it can fight properly.
* The Emperor from ''Film/TheMummyTombOfTheDragonEmperor'' uses this trope ''as a combat tactic'', ripping his own terra-cotta face off like a death mask and hurling it at the heroes. His curse immediately rebuilds his ceramic features.
* In ''Film/{{NightBreed}}'', one character starts to cut his own face off as part of his passage into Midian.
* In ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984'', Tina rips off Freddy's face as she struggles with him. But he allowed that to happen to scare her even further.
* Angela rips a girl's face off with her bare teeth in the ''Film/NightOfTheDemons2009'' remake. When the victim returns as a demon, she's still faceless.
* In ''Film/{{Poltergeist|1982}}'' one of the scientists investigating the Freelings' house hallucinates that he pulls off his own face.
* In ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'' this happens to Amber Sweet during the song "Blame Not My Cheeks", thanks to a botched surgery.
** It's also her brother Pavi's MO. He seems to have done it to himself at some point, as underneath his masks his face is skinned muscle, but the masks themselves are the faces of women he's murdered. He even buys the face that fell off his sister in the above mentioned scene at the end of the movie, to wear "with pride".
* The "Pride" victim in ''Film/{{Se7en}}'' has her face mutilated and nose cut off by John Doe.
* Lamon Cranston does this in a dream in ''Film/TheShadow'', revealing the face of Shiwan Khan underneath.
* ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', Hannibal Lecter. [[spoiler:He does this to a guard and [[FaceStealer wears his face]] as part of his legendary escape.]] In the {{backstory}} to ''Hannibal'', he talked Mason Verger into cutting his own face off. Admittedly Verger was high at the time.
* In ''Film/SonOfTheMask'', Loki removes Dr. Neumann's face from his head and places it in a glass case. As it's a G-rated movie, no blood or gore is shown, and the victim is alive and rather disappointed about the whole situation rather that being in pain.
* In ''Film/{{Surrogates}}'', this is done to some of the surrogates as a surgical procedure.
* In ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2'', a character gets his face cut off with an electric carving knife.
* In ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'', [[GoodIsNotSoft Optimus Prime]] shouts "[[BewareTheNiceOnes Give me your FACE!]]" at The Fallen, the progenitor of the Decepticons of sorts [[ItMakesSenseInContext whose face appears to have inspired their logo]], right before ripping it off. Regardless this quickly [[Memes/{{Transformers}} became a meme in the Transformers fandom]].
* Mike Strauber, the lunatic psycho in the low-budget flick ''Film/TruthOrDareACriticalMadness'' cuts a chunk of his own face off because one of his hallucinations dares him to.
* The killer from the half-comedic SlasherMovie ''Film/UnmaskedPart25'' rips the first victim's face off, and then [[AndShowItToYou pulls his heart out]], all with his bare hands. Later killings are not nearly as brutal.
* This is the MO of the killer in ''Film/{{Wrestlemaniac}}''.
* One guy has his face cleanly sliced off by a swinging scythe trap in ''Film/WrongTurn3LeftForDead''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''[[Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo 1635: The Eastern Front]]'', an explosive trap set to take out the John George blows the face of his wife off her skull, the face winding up plastered onto the hindquarters of one of the horses hauling their carriage.
* Downplayed in ''Literature/AfterTheRevolution'': After escaping Pleno under heavy fire, Roland (a black SuperSoldier [[RacialTransformation who had been disguised as a white man during his visit]]) notices that his HealingFactor is causing all the skin he lost to re-grow in its original colour. He promptly decides to tear off the rest of his disguise, starting with his face, [[NoSocialSkills much to the consternation of everyone else in the escape vehicle]]. Luckily, his real face is (mostly) intact underneath.
* Creator/TomClancy is rather fond of this. Multiple books feature somewhat graphic descriptions of a well-placed headshot plastering someone's face against a wall.
* ''Literature/TheCurseOfTheBlueFigurine'': In the later sequel ''The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie'', Johnny Dixon has a nightmare about this -- in it, the book's villain, a hideous old woman named Corinne [=LeGrande=] (better known as Mama Sinestra), shows up at the Halloween party at his school, looking like herself. When it's time for everyone to take off their masks, she removes her entire ''face'', revealing only a grinning skull underneath.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': In ''Literature/{{Changes}}'', [[spoiler:Murphy]] slices the front of a Red Court noble's skull off with one of the Swords of the Cross. Not as horrific as some examples, as the vampire in question was wearing a mask, so the actual face is fully covered as it falls to the ground.
* In the ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' book ''Frantastic Voyage'', one of Franny's experiments going wrong because of her dog Igor's meddling has her Automatic Face Scrubber tear her face clean off. Fortunately, she had the surgical skills needed to reattach her face.
* This happens to several people in one of the stories in ''The Further Adventures of ComicBook/TheJoker''.
* At the end of the ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' novel "Fear to Tread", a very angry Horus pulls off Erebus's face and keeps it as a trophy. Since Erebus is a SuperSoldier and blessed by the Chaos Gods, he survives, and by the present of the setting, ten thousand years later, he seems to have regrown it.
* In the ''Literature/LauraCaxton'' books, when a vampire brings a victim BackFromTheDead, the psychological trauma of the event causes the revived person to rip their own face to shreds.
* ''Literature/TheSagaOfArrowOdd'': When the half-trollish Ogmund and Odd fight at Geirrodsgard and Ogmund once again realizes it is looking bad for him, he tries to escape from Odd by diving into the earth (as trolls can). As Ogmund sinks into the ground, Odd gets hold of his beard, and rips his entire face off. As Ogmund is nigh-indestructible, he survives and takes to permanently wearing a mask.
* ''Literature/SmallerAndSmallerCircles'': This, plus evisceration, is the primary M.O. of the DepravedDentist SerialKiller. The sight of a faceless victim is enough to make one priest throw up his whole breakfast (although in fairness, the child's corpse was found in a garbage dump, so the nauseating smells of decay certainly played a part).
* ''Literature/ThursdayNext'': Acheron Hades took the face from his dying {{Mook|s}} Felix and applied it to a succession of abducted and brainwashed replacements. He later threatened to make Thursday the next Felix.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Happens at least once in ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'', when a dumbass drunk gets a literal face-full when operating a machine...
* ''Series/BattleBots'': [=DUCK!=] had its entire "face" (= front plow/shield) ripped off by a massive hit from Cobalt in the show's second Discovery Channel season.
* In ''Series/TheBoys2019'', Kimiko does this to a Russian gangster as part of an InternalHomage to her first appearance in the [[ComicBook/TheBoys original comic]].
* The first and only victim of the villain in the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "About Face" is killed this way.
* ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'':
** Like in the book series, finally has enough of [[spoiler:Mason Verger]], gets him high, and compels him to cut off his face and feed it to dogs.
** [[spoiler:Verger]] intends to have his doctor Cordell Doemling cut off Will Graham's face and attach it to his own head. [[spoiler:Hannibal turns the tables on him here, too.]]
* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In the climax of [[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E1InThroesOfIncreasingWonder the first episode]], Lestat de Lioncourt's SuperSpeed punch through a priest's head results in a large, empty hole where the latter's face used to be.
* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': Kilgrave tell two cooks under his control to do something if he doesn't return within a certain time.
-->'''Kilgrave:''' Alva? Laurent? If I'm not back within two hours, please remove the skin from each others' faces.
* ''Series/KamenRiderGotchard'': Supana does this upon [[spoiler:having to remember the truth that his parents were killed by Geryon through being turned into Kamen Warrior Valvarad then ripping the helm off before transforming into the Wheel Malgam. Supplementary materials reveals that becoming Valvard makes him part human and part machine, so he just ''ripped his face and skull'' off his head for a third arm to cradle!]]
* Inverted in the [[BLAM/PuppetShows "Operatic Orange"]] sketch from ''Series/SesameStreet''. "L'AMOOOOOUUUUURRRRR-" (face explodes).
* An underground pit fighter in ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'' does this to defeated opponents, then wears their faces as masks.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'': The MonsterOfTheWeek in the episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E06Sanguinarium Sanguinarium]]" conducts a ritual that will allow him to change his face by [[HumanSacrifice killing hospital patients as sacrifice]]. In the end, he cuts his face with a scalpel and rips it off, revealing the new one underneath it. Mulder later finds the old one lying on the floor.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* The music video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHwlNdvVJlk "Mono"]], created by the ''ARG/CatGhost'' crew and premiered in Candy Bowl 2017: [[spoiler:shows a cat girl whom has an unrequited crush with a rabbit girl, [[NotGoodWithRejection not handling her silent refusals very well]]. Eventually [[FlayedAlive skinning the latter alive]] and then [[GenuineHumanHide wearing their face]].]]
* The {{Trope Namer|s}} is "Pirahna", by Exodus.
* Music/LouReed's video for "No Money Down" is a head and shoulders shot of an animatronic Lou singing - already creepy, then halfway through "he" starts pulling his face off down to his ''robotic skull''.
* Music/{{GWAR}} often rips the skin off of people's heads during live performances.
* In the video for [[Music/{{Slipknot}} Slipknot's]] "The Devil In I," Mick Thompson thoroughly rips the skin off of his own face!
* In the video for Tricky's "Evolution Revolution Love"; he, Music/EdKowalczyk, and Hawkman (the singers on the track) peel their faces off when the singer changes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' supplement ''Terror Australis''. The Mimi are creatures from Myth/AboriginalAustralianMyths. When angry at a human they may eat all the flesh from his face, leaving the victim alive but horrendously disfigured.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Vours, introduced in ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', are floating, tentacled undead with the odd habit of "carefully, almost lovingly," peeling off their victims' faces and eating them, the only part of their prey they consume. If a corpse is converted into a new vour, the first thing it does is tear off and [[{{Autocannibalism}} eat its own face.]]
* This is why Iuchi Karasu of ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'' wears a mask. Being forced to cut off his own face was one of many tortures inflicted on Karasu by Moto Tsume.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* A bunch of disembodied hands do this to the titular character of ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns'' during the introduction.
* This is the M.O. of [[SerialKiller the Identity Thief]] in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity''. First he paralyzes the victim's vocal chords, then removes the face while they're still alive.
* In ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', the special attack "Face Melter" (originally a generic term for a particularly powerful guitar solo in HeavyMetal) literally melts the faces off any nearby enemies who have one.
* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2'', Guido Szandor, the final acolyte you need to fight, gets [[YouHaveFailedMe "rewarded"]] with this by [[BigBad Satan]], who's very unhappy that he never took notice of the fact that Dracula has been tailing him. Noticeably, either due to Guido's or Satan's endurance, Guido's face is ''still moving'' as Satan's holding it in his hand.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'', Susie -- who's some kind of purple lizard attending high school with the other monsters -- has a habit of threatening to bite people's faces off when she wants to scare them. The first time, feeling like she's doomed to be expelled and ponders going out big, threatens to bite off Kris' face and it's not entirely clear if she was serious before she thinks better. [[spoiler:When she shows a [[{{Keet}} perky]] IneffectualSympatheticVillain how to be scary in almost the exact same way, he is ''very'' briefly dismayed and then has an "oh, ''I'' get it" reaction.]]
* ''WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}}'' Joel discovers a ''horrifying'' instance of this on the game over screen of a Russian bootleg ''VideoGame/FelixTheCat'' Genesis game.
* An [[MissingTrailerScene ultimately unused scene]] in the ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1'' trailer showed [[HairRaisingHare Bonnie]] removing his face to reveal the [[SkeleBot9000 endoskeleton head]] underneath. This ended up becoming true (in a fashion) in [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 the sequel]], where Bonnie is worn away and damaged, including his face being removed save for his lower jaw.
* The [[PuppeteerParasite headcrab]] zombies in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' can be seen to have had their face eaten away (and what's left of it set in a scream) if you shoot off the headcrab.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Phantom Ganon does this to himself before the fight begins.
* One of Reptile's ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'' [[FinishingMove fatalities]].
* One of Shinnok's [[FinishingMove brutalities]] in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX''. Appropriate that it's called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Face Off]].
* One of Baraka's new fatalities in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' involves him first tearing off the skin of the victim's face once for pain, again to reveal their skull, then ripping their skull open, impaling their brain and eating it.
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': When party members first rip off their [[MaskOfPower Persona masks]], their face becomes appropriately bloodied as if it were their actual face. Ripping the mask off Shadows also hurts them, giving you an advantage in battle.
* One of ''VideoGame/PocketGod's'' more nightmarish sacrifices.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil''
** A few enemies in the series can do this (for example the [[BigCreepyCrawlies novistators]] from ''4'' if they kill Leon with an acid-to-the-face attack).
** [[TragicMonster Lisa Trevor]] ripped the faces off several Umbrella employees who tried to pose as her mother.
* In Episode 4 of ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'', Rhys's first order of business is to find the body of his recently-dead rival Vasquez so he can scan its face for a disguise... only to find that said face has been sliced off and that he'll need to get it from a Psycho wearing it as a mask.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', murders where the corpses end up like this happen repeatedly in some of the different arcs. Often, half the face is left on - Beatrice says that this is to prevent Battler from always arguing in response that the corpses are planted and aren't actually any of the people they're identified as by the clothing. However, the first twilight in the first arc has a case where five of the six victims wind up with their entire faces removed. This pretty thoroughly traumatizes all of the cousins who see it (save Maria, who doesn't see it directly and has her own... [[CreepyChild issues]]).
-->'''Battler:''' Dead people are supposed to have faces like they're asleep, right?! They've got ''no'' faces! [[spoiler:My dad and Kyrie]] have no faces! Oh God! I can't picture what they looked like before they died! What's wrong with me?! Will I have to picture ''this'' every time I remember them?!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Jacob from ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan''.
* In [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120602140031/http://www.aorange.com:80/?p=177 this]] ''Webcomic/{{Femmegasm}}'' strip, Grimlock tears off [=Fizzy McBeer=]'s face to prove he's as good as Optimus Prime.
-->"Oh well. At least my breasts are okay. [[MyEyesAreUpHere No one looks at my face, anyways.]]"
* Happens in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcbazH6aE2g this]] excerpt from the ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'' movie.
* In ''Webcomic/MallMonkeys'', Mikey has this [[TimeSkip an hour after]] being advised by Nicholai that "chicks dig scars". Apparently on his skateboard, judging from the new blood stains on it.
* Happens to one unfortunate woman in ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}''.
* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': When they ambush her Elka spells one of the Ethelmik constable's faces off in a rather gory panel.
* In ''Webcomic/TheZombieHunters'' a MauveShirt gets his face eaten off. He is [[AndIMustScream alive and paralyzed]] during this process. He shows up in the next couple pages as a faceless zombie.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the [[WebAnimation/AOKRuinsYourChildhood AOK]] short, "[[WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984 MUPPET ELDERLIES]]", Kermit does this to Fozzie when the latter continues making inappropriate jokes about Miss Piggy dying from complications in her hip surgery.
* In WebVideo/BartBaker's 22 Parody, Taylor Swift slices off Harry Style's face.
* Harry, the Handsome Butcher of ''WebAnimation/CyanideAndHappiness'' shorts does this to himself when asked for the most handsome meat he has. He uses a knife though.
* In the ''WebAnimation/DingoDoodles'' Fools Gold series, this is the reason [[spoiler:Gothi is always wearing a mask.]]
* The "Don't eat my face" meme, although it has a GoryDiscretionShot and ends with someone incredulously asking "You ate his ''face?''"
* In the Kickstarter video for ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'', the page from the anthropomorphic Sketchbook with her face on it is briefly shown on the ground. Given that she's a sketchbook, it could very well be the equivalent of this trope for her.
* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'', naturally. Some examples include "Flippin' Burgers", where [[AxCrazy Fliqpy]] shoves Petunia's face onto a piping hot grill, and "This Is Your Knife", where Fliqpy shreds Cuddles's face with a jagged rock.
* Do you know why Strong Bad from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' never removes his "mask?" It is actually his ''face''. Shortly after getting a new chair, Strong Bad got an email asking him to remove his mask; he does, but the experience was incredibly painful to him ([[GoryDiscretionShot and we thankfully do not see anything because of his chair blocking everything]]).
* Zalvetta from ''WebAnimation/ThrillingIntent'' has been known to do this.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' episode "Warner's 65th Anniversary Special" has a scene where Daffy Duck recalls a cartoon where the Warners got flypaper stuck to their butts. Dot gets hers ripped off when she tries to remove the flypaper from Yakko, and upon seeing this Wakko then rips his own off.
* ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheFuture'': In "[[Recap/BackToTheFutureTheAnimatedSeriesS1E9SolarSailors Solar Sailors]]", Doc and Clara, on a second honeymoon far in the future, see a musician who looks like Marty and go over to talk to him. "Marty" pulls off his face, revealing himself to be an actor (who is actually not very happy about the role or the {{Loony Fan}}s who apparently come with it.)
* In the ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' episode "Courage the Fly", Eustace accidentally rips off Muriel's face while trying to grab Courage with flypaper. When she orders him to put it back, he puts it on upside down and then fixes it, and predictably she [[RunningGag hits him with her rolling pin]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' episode "Requiem for a Reality Show", during a montage of Captain Hero and Foxy bonding over their newfound love of sadomasochism, Foxy plays golf with the tee in Captain Hero's mouth. When she swings the club, his whole face comes off, and it can still emote.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/EvilConCarne'' episode "The Right to Bear Arms", where Boskov and Skarr switch arms but can still control their arms on the other's body, Boskov makes Skarr do this to himself. When they're recovering in the medical wing after Ghastly has chainsawed their arms off and reattached them to their respective bodies, she also sewed Skarr's face back on but sewed his lips together.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** Peter does this to Chris in a CutawayGag when telling his friends about how he is better than Chris at everything, even magic tricks.
** In "Grumpy Old Man" Peter thinks that one of the residents of the retirement home is [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Old Man Withers, owner of the amusement park, and tries to unmask him and find out who he really is]]. After finding a skeleton, Peter refuses to give the man his face back and tells him he is going to jail.
** This happened to Chris again in another episode; while impersonating a corpse he took from the morgue, it turned out the man had gave his body to science and a part of him is given to [[RippedFromTheHeadlines a girl whose face was torn off by a chimp]] (see below in RealLife).
** In "Connie's Celica", while trying to clear Lois's name after she's arrested for murder, Peter figures that he and Brian are basically Shaggy and Franchise/ScoobyDoo and goes around ripping off random people's faces to find the real killer.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' makes this into a RunningGag with Billy ([[MajorInjuryUnderreaction who never seems to notice it when it happens]]).
** In "Tricycle of Terror", Billy gets sent flying off his bike and has his face run into ground against the road. When he lifts his face up, only small shreds of skin are left, and his skull is visible - all in front of a group of children selling lemonade, too.
** Providing the page image, in "Reap Walking", Billy puts his mouth on a running egg beater to taste the waffle batter he's making and ends up ripping his face off with it, only commenting that the batter tastes smooth.
** In "The Loser from the Earth's Core", a visiting Nergal tosses away a push mower and it lands on Billy's face, shredding it clean off.
** In "He's Not Dead, He's My Mascot", the school's cat mascot claws Billy's face off his skull as he tries to take care of it. It later does the same to Grim, but since Grim has no skin, he's just left with a hole where his face was.
** In "Billy and Mandy Save Christmas", Billy wanders into a [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack wampa's]] cave and mistakes it for Santa when the group visits the North Pole. The monster tears Billy's face clean off in response to his entrance.
--->'''Billy:''' Santa has sharp nails.
** In ''Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure'', Billy's face gets caught in an explosion caused by his future self returning to his own time, and is totally vaporized as a result, leaving his skull exposed.
** In "Short Tall Tales", the sheer strength of the wind from a tornado causes "Pecos Billy" to have his face ripped clean off his skull.
* A [[DreamWeaver dream-controlling villain]] in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E5And6OnlyADream Only A Dream]]" rips off ''his own'' face in a nightmare as part of embracing his new abilities. (This isn't his own nightmare, incidentally, and he does this while announcing that he's going to "perform some surgery" on the victim. It's probably for the best that we're not shown what happens to her, instead simply being told that she died in her sleep.)
* In ''WesternAnimation/KorgothOfBarbaria'', Korgoth does this to a thug who spends too much time monologuing about the "Whole new spectrum of pain" he's going to introduce to Korgoth.
* Roll does this in ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'' to a cosmetics robot.
* ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse2013'': In "Nature's Wonderland", Mickey and Minnie ride in a mine train that runs so fast, that the white "mask" parts of their faces peel off.
* ''WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit'' demonstrated the ability to attach and detach his face at will, with no justification other than the RuleOfFunny in which is shown in the short "Africa Before Dark".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyLouderAndProuder'': In "New Kids on the Block", Michael tries to make [=LaCienega=] look beautiful again by using hot wax and paper to remove her unwanted facial hair. Instead, he rips her entire face off, and she's somehow still able to see and talk from the paper.
* The title characters of ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' have had their faces ripped off on several occasions, one specific example comes from "Travelogue" in which Ren has his torn off by a baboon who collects the faces of "lucky tourists".
* In a ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' sketch, an unfortunate jock has his face ripped off by John's Terminator bodyguard for making fun of him.
* This has happened a couple of times in ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', such as in "Carnival Knowledge" when on a roller coaster, the ride gets so intense that it peels Heffer's face off.
* A mountain lion does this to Chef as part of his death scene in his final episode in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** [=SpongeBob=] has had his face ripped off a few times, the first and most memorable example being in "Squid on Strike" where after getting fired from the Krusty Krab, [[RuleOfThree the third time]] Squidward pries him off of the doors, his entire front is gone [[ArtisticLicenseBiology revealing his skeleton and circulatory system]].
** In "Doing Time" when [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick come up to Mrs. Puff revealing themselves to be disguised as prison guards, they walk away and two real guards appear. Mrs. Puff accuses them of being [=SpongeBob=] and "that guy who likes the chili" and rips off their faces, at which point they decide she's gone completely insane.
** In "Spy Buddies" when everyone is revealing themselves to be someone else in disguise, [=SpongeBob=] rips off Squidward's face revealing his flesh. He then angrily takes his face back and walks away.
** In "Don't Look Now" when Squidward is stalking [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick dressed as the fisherman from the SlasherMovie they saw, Patrick gets the hook from Squidward's fishing rod stuck in his face. When he goes into [=SpongeBob=]'s house and the fishing line gets caught in the door, Patrick tries so hard to break free that his face comes off, revealing his skull underneath. He grows a new one by simply stretching the skin on his forehead over his skull.
** In "Stuck on the Roof" when Squidward's face gets stuck to the grill, his face gets ripped off and sticks to it when he pries himself loose. It's fairly more graphic than the "Spy Buddies" example.
* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Squidbillies}}'', the Sheriff does this to himself when he goes insane after a young Rusty inadvertently shampoos him with over half a million dollars of crystal meth. Later at the end of the episode "Butt Trouble", he gets his face ripped off by [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext vampire squids]], and near the end of "Forever Autumn", he's shown with his face removed again in Dan Halen's latest ad.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', all locomotives have faces, but this is how one of the Scottish Twins actually kills the Spiteful Brakevan (a bullying caboose) at the end of the episode "Brake Van", by ramming into him [[{{Pun}} face-on]], smashing the caboose to bits, and tearing off his face.
* An episode of ''Westernanimation/TheTwistedTalesOfFelixTheCat'' has Felix trying to remove the mask of someone who looks just like him... and only finding a skull below once he manages to do so.
* In one of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Villainous|CartoonNetwork}}'' shorts, after the statue-making machine the whole cast has been abusing runs out of power and gets stuck in a statue of them all in a big hug, [[BigBad Black Hat]] facepalms, followed by ripping his face off. Yes, he has a bit of a temper.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Peeling the skin downwards from the forehead, exposing the frontal bone, is one of the first steps in accessing the brain during an autopsy.
* Wild animals often target the face due to instinct, as it's an easy target to blind people in - Chimpanzees, for example, aim for the face when fighting threads or rivals, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_(chimpanzee) and in one case, a pet chimpanzee tearing off the face of an owner's friend]]. Bears have a similar tendency, such as in the case of [[https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/content/news/A-man-attacked-by-a-brown-bear-describes-the-attack-on-his-life--386872171.html Dan Bigley]]. Both cases required facial transplants.
* There's a reason why heavy machinery requires people to tie their hair up while it's in use, as hair getting caught in a machine often results in the skin of the face being torn off, such as [[https://www.postbulletin.com/col-surgeons-reattach-womans-face-after-farm-accident an incident in Australia]], [[https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/05/22/polish-face-transplant/2351889/ Poland (surgery picture warning)]], and [[https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-successful-full-face-replant-(self-donor) India]], which resulted in the first successful facial reattachment.
* The so-called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_cannibal_attack "Miami zombie attack"]], where a man very likely having a bad trip bit off most of a homeless man's face before being shot dead by police.
* This happened to a Russian grenadier at the [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars battle of Eylau]]. He was trying to stab Captain Marbot with his bayonet, but he was so drunk that he hit Marbot's horse instead, and the horse in question (a ferocious mare called Lisette) bit his face off.
* In Chinese history, Sun Hao, Fu Sheng and Gao Heng all skinned the faces off of their enemies.
* Common and horrible tactic used by many drug cartels, especially in Mexico. The face is cut off, sometimes while a victim is still alive as a punishment and as a scare tactic. The victim can live for quite a while afterwards.
* A facial degloving injury can result in something like this, ''especially'' if it's severe. A degloving injury is when the upper layers of skin and tissue are ripped off of the lower ones or even off of the bone. You should '''NOT''' look up "facial degloving", [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned even if you think you have a strong stomach]].
* A zebra once got its face torn off by a crocodile while attempting to cross a river.
[[/folder]]

----
''[[Film/CabinFever Oooh faced!]]''