Faces of Death (2026 | USA | 98min | Daniel Goldhaber)
For an entire generation, 1978’s Faces of Death became the most grotesquely alluring of cinematic forbidden fruit when it hit home video in the early 1980s. The movie stirred together gruesome news footage, not-always-convincing pseudo-documentary sequences, and accidentally-captured real-life grotesquerie into one decidedly unsettling gumbo. And while it play-acted as a sincere examination of mortality, it also subjected viewers to the kind of sensationalistic shocks that could only be classified as exploitation of the most wonderfully gratuitous variety.
The movie’s lo-fi, patchwork execution (and a much less media-savvy environment) lent a weird sense of creepy verité ambiguity to even its most flagrantly phony moments. Plainly put, dumbstruck viewers felt like they were seeing something they were never, ever meant to see. And they couldn’t look away.
Faces of Death was far from the first movie to smack audiences upside their heads with a combination of real-life imagery and con-man theatrics—an entire subgenre known as the Mondo Movie had been already been blazing this dubious trail for almost twenty years. But Faces’ wide circulation on VHS, its garishly creepy video box art, and some lightning-fast, old-school word of mouth combined to make it a massive hit.
At least four direct-to-video sequels, scores of equally stomach-churning knockoffs, and a whole lot of outrage followed. Multiple countries banned it outright. Great Britain even threw it into the crosshairs of that country’s Thatcher-era Video Nasties witch hunt.
Then the ensuing decades saw an increase in viewer sophistication (regarding special effects, at least), the onslaught of reality television, and the hellscape that is the internet, all of which effectively diluted Faces of Death’s initial blunt-force impact.
Viewed today and divorced from the mystique that once preceded it, the movie generates an odd combination of revulsion, amusement, and (for the right horror hardcore demographic) nostalgia. It stands as a fascinating relic of a time when the public could still have its collective skull walloped by something unexpected. Vinegar Syndrome, one of the top boutique video labels currently in operation, is even capitalizing on the movie’s cult following with a painstakingly remastered, extras-packed Faces of Death 4K that’s as respectfully crafted as a Criterion Collection reissue of some hallowed arthouse classic.
It was only a matter of time before Hollywood’s fetish for remakes and reboots of established genre properties extended to even this most unsavory of horror franchises. The end result—a brand-new fictionalized sort-of reboot, also entitled Faces of Death—hits theaters everywhere today.
Thankfully, this reimagining avoids wallowing in the real-life autopsy, morgue, natural disaster, and animal slaughter footage that partially defined the first. And happily (if you could really ascribe happiness to anything associated with the Faces of Death franchise), this imperfect but surprisingly worthwhile update delivers solid performances, a few genuine surprises, and some world-class white-knuckle scares/shocks.
The new Faces of Death zeroes in on the Been There, Done That, Seen Everything climate currently pervading the 21st century, opening with a rapid-fire barrage of real-world internet content. Protagonist Margot (Barbie Ferriera), a moderator at a video platform called Kino, plows through a litany of posted videos, flagging them for approval or denial, when two stylized clips of apparent murders cross her workload. Apparently posted by different sources, they share a distinctive aesthetic—mannequins wielding tools of murder, as they snuff out actual human beings in harrowingly realistic fashion. Worse yet, they’re re-enactments of scenes from the original Faces of Death.
Soon, Margot’s defying company policy to ID the sources of the videos, unearthing information on possible victims, using modern technology to confirm the reality of the filmed deaths, and attempting to track down the (possible) killer. Not surprisingly, shit gets real, really fast.
This reboot’s script by director Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei attempts to address a lot for a low-budget modern horror flick. It levels a righteously angry stink-eye at internet culture and its tendency to numb its consumers to even the most loathsome content. Corporations turning a blind eye to the unconscionable in the service of profit rear their head. Goldhaber and Mazzei also explore the meta nature of the thematic threads directly connecting this new Faces of Death to the original.
How effectively Faces of Death follows up on these oft-heady elements, however, varies wildly. Sometimes its over-over-the-top blows against its chosen targets just land with a thud; other times, that hyperbolic approach nicely amplifies the dark humor (Pop singer Charli XCX mines some darkly farcical gold in her small role as Margot’s dead-eyed, terminally nonplussed coworker). When the movie embraces its inner serial-killer, it betrays a lot of debt to Manhunter and Silence of the Lambs without really adding much beyond its ‘The Internet Sucks’ manifesto; but the copycat killings, done with the kind of realism allotted by 40+ years of special effects advances, serve up a stylish and seriously disturbing call-and-response with the source material.
That jerkiness generates some real frustration at times. But the most cogent trait by which a horror movie should be judged is how effectively it scares and unsettles the viewer. And on that front, Goldhaber hits a home run. He’s invaluably aided in that objective by Ferreira, whose ostensible final girl exhibits the kind of tenacity, pluck, vulnerability, and obsessiveness that renders her the most riveting of audience avatars (mega bonus points for her being a queer, plus-sized woman whose build and sexuality remain NBD throughout the entirety of the movie).
Even when the script occasionally hobbles her by steering her into doing Dumb Horror Movie Character Things amidst a couple of Dumb Contrived Horror Movie Trope Moments, there’s never an instant when audience support and empathy for her wane. And warts and all, the movie’s last half builds some damn near unbearable tension thanks to Goldhaber’s assured work at the helm.
Ferreira’s also the reason that the escalating sensory overload of the movie’s ending ultimatey lands. Without spoiling anything, her full-throttle energy in the final stretch drives home one of this reimagining’s bluntest but most relevant points: In the end, thanks to the pervasive influence of algorithms and the animal impulses they exploit, anyone diving too deeply into the fetid waters of the web can end up subjecting themselves to a proverbial Faces of Death of their own making.
Faces of Death opens Friday, April 10 in theaters everywhere. Image Courtesy IFC/Legendary Pictures.