Publication Date: 04-13-2026

Faces of Death (2026) review

Dir. Daniel Goldhaber

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

I remember my uncle telling me about the original, 1978 movie Faces of Death as a kind of urban legend that stayed with him for decades thereafter. A product of an era in horror when movies got more extreme, and flicks like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre both weaponized their lower-budgets to hone in on their scuzzy realism and intensify their depictions of graphic violence, the mondo documentary presented itself as a compilation of real scenes of human beings and animals being maimed, tortured, and killed.

In some ways, Faces of Death was the original viral video, its ominous VHS box art of a skull proclaiming it was “banned in 46 countries” enticing viewers who wanted their thirst for bloodlust quenched by something “real.” In reality, the movie was almost entirely fake. A good portion of the footage was obtained from news stations, medical researchers, and other sources, while no humans dying are featured in the movie. The few real corpses shown are archival footage. While some of the animal abuse is indeed real, most of that is bullshit too. No less, Faces of Death lives on in infamy. I watched it in high school, but I didn’t and still retain no desire to review it.

It’s not surprising that Faces of Death has been dug up and exhumed for a reimagining, but what is surprising is how damn good it is. While it’s not a tremendous challenge to surpass the original — this isn’t Friday the 13th (1980) or Halloween (1978) after all, let’s be real — it a toothless exercise to revive the Gorgon Video production and not give it some kind of depth and dissection, which is what director/co-writer Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei do. Faces of Death might’ve been fake, but a culture’s desire to see atrocities in the comfort of their own home isn’t something that’s ever quelled. In fact, social media makes it easier than ever to access real-life tragedies, often as they’re unfolding, in real-time. Goldhaber and Mazzei’s work smartly taps into this still-relevant phenomenon, and spares us any kind of sermon about the dangers of smartphones and rapidly advancing technology.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira, Unpregnant) is a shy young woman who works as a content moderator for a social networking platform called Kino (a raunchier stand-in for TikTok). Her job is to view flagged videos and determine if they belong on the platform, or if they’re too violent, taboo, or sexual in nature to pass. Committed to her job and friendly in a timid way, Margot is still reeling from viral infamy of her past, in which a stunt on their neighborhood train-tracks killed her sister on camera. Now with a flip-phone and an otherwise anonymous cubicle job, she quietly carries on while forgoing her own online presence, and retreats home to her queer roommate, Ryan (Aaron Holliday). It’s through Ryan she discovers the original Faces of Death after seeing videos of ritualized murders on Kino’s backend.

In short, a stealthy madman named Arthur Spevak (Dacre Montgomery, Stranger Things) is kidnapping and killing people in elaborate recreations of the original mondo film; only this time, they’re real. His targets are small-town famous types, such as an influencer (Josie Totah) and a local news anchor (Kurt Yue). He traps them in metal cages in the basement of his antiseptic Florida home while they await a prominent role in his next snuff film. Arthur is convinced his work helps a lot of people and industries, and the sad part is he’s right. In a seething monologue, he explains how the internet loves him (just look at the views on his videos); the gun manufacturers adore him because his work scares people into buying more guns to protect themselves; and the government appreciates a good boogeyman, as it affords them an opportunity to make their iron fist grip society just a little harder.

This material wouldn’t resonate if Ferreira and Montgomery weren’t so individually great. Ferreira has a friendly disposition, and her character’s backstory affords her more depth than a great deal of “final girls,” who lesser writers expect us to love solely because they’re all we have. Montgomery reminds me of a young Christian Slater with his slick hair, baby face, piercing eyes, and scowling demeanor. The casting is perfect.

In conjunction with Goldhaber and Mazzei’s smart writing, editor Taylor Levy flexes his muscles with one truly outstanding scene. As Margot frantically makes a Reddit account to try and source more information on one of Arthur’s videos, the screen is then split, with Arthur engaging with that same post. He uses an encrypted link-tracker he knows Margot will click to get the IP address and information he needs on the young woman rapidly becoming more in-tuned with what he’s doing. It’s a suspenseful dose of screenlife, and Levy juggles the dual perspectives, timing them perfectly for a crisp and deceptively difficult execution.

Goldhaber’s Faces of Death is sharp in a lot of ways, both as a mystery, a bloody horror film, and a commentary on society’s love of the macabre despite convincing itself otherwise. The latter points are deftly made, and faintly recalls the days when the Scream series similarly broke the rules by calling them out as opposed to dutifully following the playbook in recent sequels. Oh, how important vision is to a movie, and with the current era in horror gifting us a shockingly good Final Destination sequel, and now a worthy reworking of Faces of Death, there are simply no more excuses. Might I recommend August Underground as the next challenge for a horror filmmaker?

Starring: Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Aaron Holliday, Jermaine Fowler, Josie Totah, Kurt Yue, and Charlie XCX. Directed by: Daniel Goldhaber.