An online content monitor stumbles onto a serial killer using the infamous Faces of Death as a basis for his spree. Daniel Goldhaber’s film is a nasty gem, giving the audience exactly what they want in Faces of Death. Faces of Death premieres at the Overlook Film Festival this weekend.
Faces of Death, of 1978 and followed by several sequels, may not be real, but Faces of Death, the 2026 film, is the real deal. The Daniel Goldhaber-directed film is a nasty little number, a bleak post-modern slasher. A better Scream film than Scream 7.
It’s so weird to me to go sit down in a multiplex to see a film about and kinda remaking the infamous faux-snuff film. Especially one that delivers the absolute goods. The Faces of Death films were that whispered rumor when I was a kid, the flicks your older cousin saw, or claimed he did, swearing up and down it was real, upping the gore and nasty content. As Dacre Montgomery’s fantastic villain says, “It was the first viral video.” I can see that, and that concept is what drives Faces of Death, written by. Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei.
Someone is remaking Faces of Death. Margot, played with a driving passion by Barbie Ferreira, works for a TikTok-like company, reviewing flagged videos to see if they pass the check. Once an unwanted viral sensation for a video of a terrible accident she was involved in, she’s pretty much off-line, hanging with her horror-loving bestie (introduced watching Blood Feast, the first gore flick; fitting) and trying to get over the trauma. When she starts seeing ultra-realistic murder set pieces, she determines they’re real, setting in motion her internet sleuthing and bumping up against the villain played by Stranger Things‘s Dacre Montgomery, just as savvy in what he does. It’s smartly written in how they each work, and for once, this sort of thing better understands the internet (though we surely have several shortcuts). Reddit is nearly a main character. Ferreria, as the main character, is truly fantastic. She carries the film with a frenetic, determined energy. She’s utterly watchable, compelling, and we feel for her. Her trauma, and everything since, feels real.
And it works. Faces of Death is nasty. Many set pieces, done with a cold care chill, while, yes, making the horror hounds in us howl. Blood-soaked and sneering, it’s a humorless affair, outside of “oh you in danger girl” moments when Montgomery sets up victims. I loved Montgomery’s villain. There’s a lot of a Thomas Harris killer here. I can’t help but think of his actions and look, he studied the recently passed Tom Noonan’s Francis Dollarhyde of Michael Mann’s Manhunter (you may know it more as Red Dragon, the name of the novel and bad Ratner film). Inspired by, not copying. That’s important. He’s giving an all-time menace, fitting how the film portrays everything.
The film has a diseased, grainy look, highly appreciated. Not overdone, don’t think Grindhouse, but enough to give a specific texture. Slightly sick, leaning into a 70s styling without being overt. It’s a subtle throwback, noting some less subtle influences. Sustained takes and a note of split screen harken to DePalma. The delirious ending of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is touched on. Dare to say a moment from a favorite of mine – Tourist Trap? It’s a wonderful sickness, holds on the blood and gore; setting an uncomfortable complicity.
That complex nature of complicity is the center of the film. You watch something like Faces of Death with a knowledge that even if you don’t think it’s real, there’s an itch it might be? Not the same subgenre, but isn’t it weird that people went to The Blair Witch Project with the expectation of seeing people they thought were real have nights of terror and death? Later iterations of the concept came with websites like Rotten dot com (I’m totally not typing that to accidentally link. Hell, I don’t know if it’s still open, but I’m not looking) when the internet was forming as a cultural renaissance. Now, with so many streamers and dark corners of the internet, along with better home fakery methods in practical, CG, and deep fake technology, anything can be out there. Is sharing it making us complacent? Are we, the audience, part of the problem?
Are people that cruel? Is that what they want? Several films across the way have used the anonymous streaming of the internet to try to make the point. Feardotcom, Halloween: Resurrection, and My Little Eye all bandied the concept but fumbled the execution. Scream 4 even tried, but didn’t follow up well enough. Faces of Death does. It deftly explores the relationship of the internet viewers, today’s viral sensations, the click and scroll of sites like TikTok, feeds on Facebook, doing it all for the clicks. It’s in this where I mean it’s better at being Scream than the latest sequel. It’s a stabby commentary on today’s culture, horror, and, yes, remakes. But it’s not throwing it in your face outside of a few choice lines. Not trying to be clever, but real.
While the ideas are big and strong, with fantastic vibes, on a screenplay level, Faces of Death falters a tad. The first while becomes a bit repetitive in dialogue and in action, making me wonder if it was going ot break the hold. It does, thankfully. Interestingly, the transition from two to three is also awkward, involving several contrived notions, including bad police and hospital staff, even by horror movie standards. Little contrivances are about in the film, such as asking why no one else is doing what our lead is acting on, but those are slideable. But damn, those cops are terrible. Distracting so. Final dig – there’s a specific facial appliance on Ferreira for a while that is terribly done, sticking out like a sore thumb. For a film with much better effects throughout, it was weird.
Minor story needs and some bad line-to-line writing aside, Faces of Death, from Daniel Goldhaber, is a big surprise in solid quality, full of 70s-inspired nastiness, while painting a bleak look at the modern world through the video nasties of the past. Two great performances square off with a dynamic lead and a top-notch villain performance.
Faces of Death is presented at the Overlook Film Festival, April 9 – 16, in New Orleans and in wide-release.