Faces of Death. If you know it, you might’ve been a kid who grew up believing the many deaths depicted in the 1978 horror sensation were real. I know I did, when the film hit VHS and we kids sneakily watched it when our parents weren’t around. A couple of years ago, Legendary set in motion a Faces of Death remake from Cam and How to Blow Up a Pipeline filmmakers Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber, and now it has landed a pair of hot young stars who recently left hit shows.
THR reports that former Euphoria actress Barbie Ferreira and ex-Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery have boarded Faces of Death. Details on their characters are unclear for now. When first announced, the story was said to center on a female moderator of a Youtube-esque video site tasked with weeding out offensive content, all while recovering from a recent trauma herself. She discovers a group that is recreating the murders from the original movie, but due to advances in digital technology and the prevalence of online misinformation, it’s unclear if the murders are real or fake.
The original Faces of Death was released in theaters, but truly took off when it hit home video and was spread around by curious kids like myself. The story followed a pathologist who was researching gruesome ways to die, using footage that you were meant to believe was pulled from actual deaths. The killings were extraordinarily convincing, and the response was inevitable. The film was met with revulsion and outrage by adults, and banned in many countries. All of this made it more desirable a film to find and watch, usually in secret. Seven sequels were spawned, as well, over the next two decades.
Legendary is reportedly aiming for this new movie to be “more in the psychological horror field than in the slasher mould”.
