Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.
This movie contains 26 potentially triggering events.
There are white birds seen in cages throughout the film. None of these birds are discussed by the characters, harmed, or directly interacted with aside from the final scene where they are released. However, the subject matter of the film and the fact that some birds are kept in the room where the dogs are caged for experimentation comes with the implication that they are there to be harmed in some way. Since their placement is anxiety-inducing I wanted to state that the birds are not hurt, but I imagine being placed next to barking dogs was stressful for the animals, as well as the cage being fairly small.
Dogs are kept in cages with the implication that they are being used in experiments. Some of them are bandaged, but no injuries are visible. Dogs are never shown being harmed on screen.
After the face skin is peeled off a very bloody face is shown for a few seconds. At the end a man is gored by dogs and his body is shown for a few seconds. Gore is pretty minimal