Faces of Death, 2026.
Directed by Daniel Goldhaber.
Starring Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah, Charli xcx, Jermaine Fowler, Aaron Holliday, Nathaniel Woolsey, Jared Bankens, J.D. Evermore, Britton Webb, Tadasay Young, Sarah Voigt, Brandon Sutton, and Paris Peterson.
SYNOPSIS:
A woman, employed as a website content moderator, comes across a series of violent videos reproducing death scenes from a film.
Co-writer/director Daniel Goldhaber’s technology-fixated serial killer slasher Faces of Death defies classification. It’s technically not a remake or a sequel, but rather a meta work set in our world, where the original, an unrated amalgamation of real and fictional death featuring a pathologist providing commentary over each grisly situation (ranging from antiquated executions to historical footage of World War II atrocities), is an actual film.
Smartly, the film (cowritten by Isa Mazzei) isn’t using that meta-textual aspect solely to earn some points with fans, but more so a plot device and vessel to explore the current state of graphic content filling up social media feeds, the psychological effects of monitoring flagged reports to decide which doesn’t cross the line enough to be taken down, a capitalistic angle in the companies running these apps encourage these overwhelmed and traumatized (whether they acknowledge it or not) staffers staring in front of a computer screen like a zombie clicking through some of the worst actions humanity has to offer to let some of it slide and “give the people what they want”, a riff on the evergreen piece of wisdom “if you gaze into the abyss long enough, it stares back at you”, and a truly psychotic killer centered by an unhinged, convincingly sociopathic turn from Dacre Montgomery, who is using that original film as his murderous inspiration and motivation.
Barbie Ferreira’s Margot works for this fictional company, taking down any images or videos that may contain actual violence, sexual assault, or something else similarly horrific. The guidelines enforced by her carefree boss (Jermaine Fowler) are questionable, emphasizing not thinking too much about what she sees and being lax with the rules, as, after all, the platform is a moneymaking machine. This means that sometimes seemingly appropriate material gets taken down (instructions on how to put on a condom), while violence is sometimes allowed.
While going about her routine, Margot also comes across what appears to be videos either remade or taken from the original Faces of Death (a movie she isn’t aware of, but conveniently enough, her roommate has a VHS copy of when the time comes to provide context to her character), with her not only uncertain if the deaths are real or not, but disturbed enough to spread awareness to her boss and coworkers (which bizarrely includes Charli XCX in a nothing role) who either don’t care or openly mock her, as they enjoy wading through these sickening Internet waters, completely desensitized and in some cases amused by what they come across.
Granted, this is a kooky premise for a film that consistently borders on silly and unconvincing, asking both those familiar and unfamiliar to essentially buy into the idea that this is a cursed artifact, even as it sits with mostly terrible online reviews and has spawned a number of disliked copycats. Once Margot starts posting on Reddit for advice and thoughts on the videos (the moderators of that forum would take this down instantly), that element only becomes more ridiculous while also taking liberties with just how much interaction her threads would receive. There is also an unnecessary, strenuous reveal about her character that feels undercooked. Nonetheless, this is a clever approach that justifies this version of Faces of Death. Thankfully, if one doesn’t have that reverence for the original to make the concept work, there is much more going on here thematically to appreciate.
What follows is an obsessive spiral with these videos that continuously pop up in Margot’s content review feed, juxtaposed with the previously mentioned serial killer’s routine of locating victims through a work database filled with information and an expertise in computer hacking, reaching them, knocking them out by drugging them, and bringing them back to his lair filled with mannequins and other such creepy touches, where he rigs a different type of kill to be sent out across social media in hopes of building upon his popularity. Given the reputation of the original film, it is no surprise that those kills here are intensely graphic.
Faces of Death is unsettlingly affecting, though not just for that violence, but the commentary it gets at regarding consuming awful behavior on the Internet and the dangers of existing on it, just as much as the one creating and distributing it. This is a familiar story of an individual no one takes seriously, compulsively tracking a killer, but yielding different results, told through a more modern lens concerned with the horrors circulating around the Internet. It is also unapologetically nasty and brutal, to the point that there is no telling who will live or die among the central cast, or what the final outcome will be.
What can be said though is that both Barbie Ferreira and Dacre Montgomery excel in their roles, with the former gradually transitioning into a primal ball of fury and the latter consciously depicting split personalities to deflect suspicion in the real world.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
