Faces of Death (2026)
What does it mean to make an exploitation flick in the age of viral content, clicks, and acts of real-life cruelty that can be seen on anyone's phone, at any time? That's the question Faces of Death poses to boldly bloody (if not always successful) results.
The new film is inspired by, though in no way a direct remake of, the famed exploitation film of the same name, originally released in 1981. That film, a pseudo-documentary which purported to depict real acts of violence and murder, was widely condemned upon its release but has since become a cult classic of extreme horror.
This new film takes the original's envelope-pushing ethos (i.e., the extremes to which consumers of video violence will go) and flips it on its head, while also adding some narrative thread. This time, protagonist Margot (Barbie Ferreira) is an online content moderator for a social media company named Kino who stumbles upon a series of chillingly bizarre videos. The videos, patterned after the original Faces of Death, appear to depict real-life people being murdered while surrounded by mannequins. Unsettled by the content (as well as her own violent viral infamy, which we will learn of later), Margot takes it upon herself to identify the source and veracity of these online executions—and possibly even stop a murderer (Dacre Montgomery) in the process.
Faces of Death's biggest assets are its '80s-inflected style and two lead performances. Ferreira, of recent Euphoria fame, brings both sensitivity and guttural intensity (particularly in the blood-soaked finale) to what could be a stock traumatized-heroine part. Montgomery, as the film's antagonist Arthur, projects a slippery intelligence and thinly-veiled psychosis that gives the film its necessary bite.
Where Faces stumbles a bit is in its desire to "say something" about the culture at large. Beyond some sermonizing from Arthur about the "attention economy," the film doesn't feel like it has anything particularly astute or profound to say about consuming images of violence in the digital age. The film occasionally lets its pontificating get in the way of tighter plotting or effective scares, meaning the middle of the film particularly drags.
However,
if you're looking for a slasher with a little more on its mind than mere
blood-letting, Faces of Death is still pretty sharp.
