DEATH PROVED
It was 1978 and no one had seen the likes of something like Faces of Death. Um, just like no one had seen the likes of The Exorcist and/or Pink Flamingos (yikes). Despite a critic's ribbing and decent box office receipts, "Death" still gained cult status, showing footage of different ways humans could bite that proverbial dust. 48 years later we have a revamping of Faces of Death titled well, Faces of Death (naturally). People are still getting executed, the flick is still pseudo mondo, the budget is still nil, and the antagonist is still "killing for no apparent reason." "Flag it, and move on." As if we could boss. As if we could.
Reflecting on various horror pics of the past and near present, Faces of Death (starring Barbie Ferreira and Dacre Montgomery) won't set the world on fire but it's perfectly passable as screenlife, snuff fodder. Beheading-s and shootings and home invasions and electrocutions oh my! "Death's" runtime is 105 minutes, the soundtrack reeks of John Harrison (that's a good thing), and unseasoned director Daniel Goldhaber thinks in cuts with his hyper-cutting giving Faces of Death a rather nimble pace. "Give the people what they want." Fo sho. Fo...sho.
So OK, don't go into "Death" thinking it's a documentary like '78's original version, with unknown actors and ultimately mealy footage. No Faces of Death is modern-day, only reverting back to the super-sounded 70s as a veritable springboard. I mean I've only seen the trailer of the first Faces of Death and there's no graininess here, just a sort of triple hybrid of Silence of the Lambs, Saw, and some Sam Raimi vestige on the low. Fairly well done, not as gory as I thought, saddled with building tension, and made for the millennial-s who like their Internet fabric spoon-fed to them. Flushed "faces."
Written by Jesse Burleson
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