FACES OF DEATH
(director/writer: Daniel Goldhaber; screenwriter: Isa Mazzei; cinematographer: Isaac Bauman; editor: Taylor Levy; music: Gavin Brivik; cast: Barbie Ferreira (Margot), Dacre Montgomery (Arthur, psycho killer), Josie Totah (Samantha, Online Influencer), Aaron Holliday (Ryan), Jermaine Fowler (Margot’s boss), Charlie xcx (Gabby, co-worker), Kurt Yue (Local TV News Anchor), Ash Maeda (Drew); Runtime: 98; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Don Murphy, Susan Montford, Greg Gilreath, Adam Henricks; Shudder release/IFC Films; 2026)
“An unwatchable exploitation film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The low-budget gory faux documentary “Faces of Death” (1978), a follow-up to the 1970 Mondo Film, was a cult film about supposedly real-life and staged murders. It did well money-wise on VHS rentals even if it turned out that everything was staged.
It had seven remakes before its demise in 1999. Daniel Goldhaber (“How to Blow Up a Pipeline”/ “Cam”) and his regular co-writer Isa Mazzei try to bring something new to it but have the same bad results. They shot it three years ago.
The New Orleans resident Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at Kino Moderation as the moderator of social media videos depicting deplorable online physical and mental situations. Her stomach for such revolting films impresses her boss (Jermaine Fowler), who tells her that he’s in the business to “Give the people what they want!”
Margot acts as an amateur detective as she comes across videos of the grizzly killings from the serial killer Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), a cell phone store manager, who recreates the killings from the Arthur of the 1978 flick. She gets hold of the new Arthur’s videos, with him in red contact lenses and wearing a white stocking mask, as he imprisons several people in cages in his basement. Since her boss won’t let her call the cops, she acts on her own to track the serial killer down and gets into a dangerous situation with the killer.
Margot lives with Ryan (Aaron Holliday), an artist who has a thing for watching misogynist videos, and on the job she deals with the glum stoner Gabby (Charlie xcx). To keep from losing it, Margot loads up on stimulants.
Moving the sleazy film’s story-line to the online world doesn’t make it more tolerable, or socially redeeming, or give it more value. I found it to be an unwatchable exploitation film made by mercenaries for an audience that finds such crap entertaining.
REVIEWED ON 4/8/2026 GRADE: D
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