We’ve discussed the intricacies of crafting a remake before on this page, but surely one of the more outside-the-box ones seen of late has to be this bold reimagining of Faces Of Death. Essentially the poster-boy of the early 80s era during the so-called video nasties, the infamous 1978 movie took the form of a fake documentary that saw pathologist Francis P. Gröss (sic) narrate his experiences with death over footage of so-called real instances of murder, execution and other such misadventures (laughably fake) and regrettable examples of animal cruelty (occasionally real). But the question remains: how the hell do you remake something like that for a modern audience? Simple, go meta as fuck.
Using the original mockumentary as a springboard to launch a self aware slasher movie from, Daniel Goldhaber, the director of 2018’s Cam, has returned to offer yet another probing look at the darker, more sordid corners of the internet.
Margot Romero works as a content moderator for Kino, an on-line video platform that’s blatantly supposed to be TikTok, and she mostly spends her day watching flagged content and deciding if violates the community standards. A skateboarding accident? That’s fine. Hardcore nudity or drug use? That’s a big no-no – but while Margot hopes to get a promotion some day, a traumatic event from her past is what’s truly driving her to do this thankless job.
One day, she comes across a video that seems to simulate a bunch of mannequins simulating a political decapitation, but assumes that it’s fake and eventually passes it. But soon another video rears it’s head that sees a man’s head stuck through a hole in a table have his skull bashed in by mallets and there seems to be a reasonably good chance that it could actually be real. However, when Margot brings it to her superiors, she’s told that it’s probably fake and to bring the police in would not only harm Kino’s image, but violate her NDA.
But while Margot wades through the moral ramifications of what she’s experienced, Arthur Spevak is doing his utmost to see that his grim work continues. You see, he’s been the one murdering people and posting it online and he’s been using the fake snuff film, Faces Of Death, to do it. Kidnapping people and recreating such moments from the movie such as a police shooting and an execution by electric chair, Arthur soon gets wind of Margot’s ever-more clumsy attempts to bring attention to what he’s doing.
Gradually becoming utterly obsessed with uncovering Arthur’s deeds and letting her traumatic past guide her into taking some pretty serious risks, can Margot manage to get proof that an online serial killer is at work, or will the frighteningly smart Arthur outwit her and get her to star in the next one of his Faces Of Death remakes?
As remakes of classic IPs go, Faces Of Death certainly isn’t short of a spot of innovation here and there – I mean, how many remakes have you heard of when the remake deals with a killer trying to remake the film that the filmmakers are remaking? If I’ve made it sound a bit too complex, I can assure you that Goldhaber (and his Cam co-writer Isa Mazzei) actually manage to keep things pretty simple for the most part. Maintaining that the shock value of the original Faces Of Death was the equivalent of a viral video back in the day, the filmmakers use this slightly tenuous link to once again shine a light on how unhealthy and obsessive our on-line habits have become. While parts of Goldhaber’s movie seem a little too similar to disposable 2008 Diane Lane serial killer flick, Untracable, thankfully the amusing link to a forgotten video nasty, some good performances and a zippy script makes the experience well worth facing.
In fact, I’m fairly impressed at how this smart slasher has managed to snag some fairly relevant faces of its own. Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira manages to play a young, upstanding woman who has tasked herself with helping to clean up the Internet after her sister died doing an online trend, but gradually comes apart at the seams as she discovers that, between her bosses and the acres of pithy comments left with every video, no one actually seems to give a fuck that people are getting violently killed. Hooked on stimulants and determined that she’s going to pull a “Don’t Fuck With Cats”, watching the actress get more and more bloodied while she gets more and more incredulous with the situation is a refreshing alternative to the usual “final girls”. Conversely, while most people would know Dacre Montgomery from either Billy from Stranger Things, or the Red Power Ranger from that reboot no one seems to talk about, it turns out he also makes quite a mean serial killer too, as his hissable Arthur Spevak is loaded with legitimately arresting quirks that go way beyond his affinity with a fake snuff film. Kitted out with a white face mask and blood red contact lenses, he’s quite the formidable sight, and when Margot gets close enough to get the cops involved he proves to be something of a chameleon too.
Maybe if both actors weren’t visibly giving Faces Of Death their absolute all, some of Goldhaber’s more obvious targets might have run aground (asking us to look at ourselves and the media we consume through the prism of a video nasty was pretty much the main thread of 2021’s Censor too), but both actors are willing to beat the hell out of themselves (and each other) so much, you can’t say that the film isn’t utterly gripping on a visceral, cat and mouse, level. Goldhaber isn’t about to skip on the red stuff either and delivers plenty of nasty moments, such as a novel use for some mannequins and a how-to guide for disposing of chopped up supporting characters with acid. However, while his attempts to not-really-remake Faces Of Death may confuse some, once you look at it as the filmmakers actually taking the piss out of studios clamouring to get their hands on recognisable brand names whether it makes sense or not, the film takes on quite the amusing tone. In fact, the very notion to remake Face Of Death at all is complete nonsense when you look at it logically, and appreciate the way that the filmmakers have come at it sideways, proves to be genuinely amusing once you’re in on the joke. In fact, the jabs and mindlessly remaking everything actually land better than the social commentary about the internet mist of the time. Of course some will cry foul that the film is merely a shallow attempt to wring cash out of a long-expired franchise (There were five of the original bastards. Five!), but guess what, both Goldhaber and Mazzei seem to openly agree with you – hence the impressive undulating the film does in order to tie in – and simultaneously renounce – the very act of the film existing.
There’s a frequent feeling that the filmmakers are in danger of outsmarting themselves as they somehow turn a grotty mockumentary, “snuff” series into a self aware slasher. But, I have to say, if more remakes came at their material with such enthusiasm to rip things apart and piece it back together again, maybe we wouldn’t flinch so much when another one comes along. The deeper you cut, the more layers Faces Of Death has, and while some are hardly groundbreaking (People online are dicks? Get out of town!) there’s plenty here lurking both on the surface and below to keep things ticking over nicely. If you don’t take things at face value, of course.
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