Faces of Death (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Daniel Goldhaber

Starring:  Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Jermaine Fowler, Josie Totah, Aaron Holliday, Charli XCX

I'm dating myself but I recall combing video stores with friends looking for videos to rent and Faces of Death sat on the shelf, waiting for someone to rent it and see what the fuss was about.  For those unfamiliar, Faces of Death (and its two sequels) was a pseudo-documentary which recreated (and in some cases used actual footage) horrific deaths such as a SWAT team opening fire on an armed man, a monkey bludgeoned to death and then having its brains eaten, and other assorted pleasantries.  All hosted by "Doctor" Francis B. Gross (get it?) who narrates the affair with monotone detachment.  Dr. Gross is played by actor Michael Carr, who assures us all he's as horrified and puzzled as the rest of us.  The box on the videotape promised that Faces of Death was "banned in 66 countries" but obviously not the United States. 

The 2026 movie isn't based on Faces of Death directly, but its serial killer uses the killings in the VHS video as inspiration for his crimes.  The elevator pitch for Faces of Death could be Seven meets Untraceable (an underrated 2008 Diane Lane film) in which its killer posts grisly murders that mimic the crimes on Faces of Death and gets way too many likes from a supposedly civilized society.   Our hero is Margot (Ferreira), who works at a TikTok-like service reviewing posts and determining whether they should be tagged or deleted per its standards.  She underwent recent trauma in which her sister was killed by a moving train while both were posting a video.  Margot sees videos of a man being executed in the electric chair and another having his head bashed in by mannequins.   Surely, these are fake, right?  But they are disturbing enough for Margot to research them and then realizes they are indeed recreations of scenes from Faces of Death.  Her roommate just so happens to have a VCR and a copy of the movie for her to discover.  

The videos are courtesy of Arthur Spevak (Montgomery), a John Doe-like serial killer who kills not just for enjoyment but to spread a message about society's sickness as if he isn't contributing to it.  Montgomery is an effectively creepy killer while Ferreira gives us a wounded, but feisty protagonist who wants to stop the killings.  I didn't know what to expect from Faces of Death and on some level, I was pleasantly surprised by its slick production values and its simple story which focuses on the strengths of the genre.  And in some weird way, it harkens back to the days when going to Blockbuster or West Coast Video was an adventure in itself.  It was good to see Dr. Francis B. Gross again.