PLOT: A woman, employed as a website content moderator, comes across a series of violent videos reproducing death scenes from a film.
REVIEW: I’m not sure there’s ever been a “remake” announced that was more out of left field than Faces of Death. The original film was always so controversial and never seemed like the type of story that could be done again. But now we’re getting a film that is essentially inspired by the original, recreating moments, but not exactly falling in the remake space. It’s just too bad its nothing more than a silly slasher with dumb characters making even dumber decisions.
Faces of Death follows Margot (Barbie Ferreira) a content moderator who spends her days watching shocking videos. But when she comes across a series of videos that appear to be snuff films, she goes on a journey of discovering that someone is recreating the kills from a controversial 70s movie. But her search puts her in the crosshairs of the same man who’s making the videos and finds herself in over her head.
Ferreira doesn’t really work as the lead, and I’m not sure whether it’s the character or the actor, but it makes the watch fairly miserable. Margot is a bland character and fails to have much driving force, until she randomly has all of it, but it pushes her in the wrong direction, without any thought. So much of the film would have been solved if Margot had just explained her actions, but she’d rather scream and yell instead. If there’s one genre where that’s not really acceptable for a lead, it’s horror. If anything, her involvement just gets more people killed, making her pretty hard to root for.
Dacre Montgomery is easily the highlight of the movie and the most intriguing element. His character could have easily felt very “been-there-done-that” but he completely elevates it with an unhinged performance. I always love seeing someone who’s so inexplicably evil, and he seems to revel in it. There’s a moment where he tricks some cops and the contrast to the act he puts on to look weak and how he actually behaves is brilliant. Fans of Charlie XCX should probably keep their expectations in check though, as she’s hardly even in the film and it’s really just a bit part. I think she’s only in two scenes and it’s a pretty nothing role. Feels like a wasted opportunity.
Sadly, Faces of Death is mostly just a generic slasher from start to finish. Outside of the villain, the characters are one-dimensional and obnoxious, and few of the victims are even given a chance to breathe. Even the violence doesn’t go as far as you would expect it to. There are a few gross moments but nothing you would expect from a film baring this name. I did enjoy the commentary on shock videos and the public’s satiation for the depraved. But it never goes past surface level and seems to intent to stay a bit generic. Had it focused on that versus going full blown slasher, it could have had some interesting social commentary.
I really enjoyed Daniel Goldhaber’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline but his style clashes a bit with the story at hand. While the film certainly looks good, the plot develops in such a way that I was constantly rolling my eyes. He and Isa Mazzei (who made the underrated Cam together) end up going more for a generic slasher versus sticking with the shock video motif that’s prevalent in the first half.
Overall, I found myself completely checked out of Faces of Death. This completely missed the mark on what made the original film interesting and feels so superficial. While I liked the concept of following someone that works in content moderation, it loses itself very quickly and that is nothing more than set dressing. It’s simply used to get us into the slashery moments. Montgomery is fantastic and worth the price of admission, but there’s little else that works here. I would say just watch the original but I’m not sure I’d recommend that to anyone either.
Faces of Death releases to theaters on April 10th, 2026.
The post Faces of Death Review: A great villain can’t save this tame slasher that lacks in smarts appeared first on JoBlo.
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