Faces of Death (2026) Review

       When the original Faces of Death (1978) became a ghostly presence haunting local video stores, hidden behind beaded curtains alongside the pornos, humanity had a very different relationship with death and film. Sure, morbid visuals had existed since the Vietnam War was first broadcasted on TV screens in suburban living rooms, but that was wildly different from what we see today. Spend enough time on any social media platform and you’re likely to witness something traumatizing with only a short caption to help contextualize the violence. With society numb from so much shock and awe, some even eager for more, it makes sense that Daniel Goldhaber would find it necessary to revisit this cult classic almost half a century since it first released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzlGqZQqehU

That being said, there are some key differences between the remake and the original, and those differences say a lot about the social commentary at the heart of this latest offering. Gone is the fake documentary approach of the 70s, replaced by a more traditional plot. It centers around Margot, a content moderator for a popular social media app discovering a series of videos being flagged aren’t just elaborate pranks, but are instead recordings of actual murders. When she brings it to her boss, he shrugs it off, saying ‘homemade horror’ is trending before reminding her that, first and foremost, their job is to ‘give the people what they want,’ a line that is later echoed by the murderer himself. When she catches her co-workers laughing at one of the videos and worries that those could be real people dying onscreen, they shrug it off. The issue is no longer that people are dying, it’s that no one cares. While ‘society is numb to violence and addicted to doomscrolling’ isn’t exactly new territory, I do think Goldhaber and co-writer Isa Mazzei do a great job locating this apathy within a capitalist context. What else can we expect from the director of How to Blow Up a Pipeline? The original movie existing within the world of this film adds an even more interesting layer by showing that this system has always blended violence and entertainment. Along with the meta element of the killer actively recreating scenes from the original film, this smart take on a classic IP becomes focused less on revisiting bygone thrills than it is commenting on our contemporary moment. For the last three years, we’ve witness children being dismembered by bombs overseas, mass starvation, entire countries plunged into darkness via criminal embargoes, and it feels like this film is speaking not just to the indifference that’s been engendered by a passive, defeatist, so-called opposition party, but also to the financial system that profits from so much suffering while keeping the masses distracted with instant gratification. In this way, even the casting is smart.

Margot is trying to escape a tragedy caught on film that made her an unwilling viral hit­; meanwhile, in the real world, Barbie Ferreira has left the pop culture phenomenon, Euphoria, and has instead vowed to focus more on indie projects. It feels like these two journeys can, in a way, be mapped on top of each other, making her the perfect fit for this role. She commits wholeheartedly, displaying the full spectrum of human emotion. Other internet celebrity castings, including Charlie XCX, deepen the self-awareness in this film, even if those moments aren’t explored as thoroughly as they could be. There’s also a drug issue Margot seems to have developed in her grief that I think could/should have been cut since it does nothing for her character, who has enough to deal with anyway; but I think the supporting cast all do a fantastic job of adding emotional stakes via organic-feeling interactions, especially Aaron Holliday as Ryan, Margot’s roommate. Dacre Montgomery’s performance as Ryan, the serial killer, is also crucial for this movie, eventually becoming a twisted emotional core that serves as a kind of foil to Margot. These actors’ raw commitment makes for a much more intense watch than I anticipated, and I’m happy to report that I was genuinely unsettled at several moments, an experience that’s at least partially due to the visuals.

The original version I saw on a sketchy Russian website in middle school had effects that were far less believable than these, and those effects were presented in a tongue-in-cheek manner. I was expecting some of that kitschy camp to remain in this reimagining. I was wrong. Don’t misunderstand, there’s plenty of gore here, but it feels much more visceral and graphic. I don’t think that necessarily has to do with the amount of blood, though. The performances, along with some great handheld camerawork and immersive music, all combine with fantastic practical effects to make for a much more unsettling watch. We don’t just see characters die; we’re given something that first makes us care about them, we see them struggling to survive, hanging longer than feels comfortable in certain moments, making the kills that much more impactful. A lot of this tension is created by Taylor Levy’s editing forcing us to sit in long moments of tension, increasing our sense of dread.

It’s no secret that these are violent times; but perhaps the scariest insight one can glean from this film isn’t how easy it is to find someone via their IP address, but rather that society has been violent for a while. What this movie does is ask, when everything can be packaged and sold, including this film, what does it mean to consume consciously? With entire infrastructures seemingly created not to protect us, but to maximize profit, it’s clear there’s a lot of work to do. Faces of Death is now in theaters, and is one of the scariest movies you’ll see this year.