Long before the internet became part of our everyday lives, 1978’s Faces of Death (and its sequels) had viewers wondering if the chilling footage they were watching was actually real, a sentiment that is eerily echoed in the modern era of viral videos.
It’s especially fitting then, that nearly a decade after collaborating on their streaming-centric film Cam, director / co-writer Daniel Goldhaber and co-writer / producer Isa Mazzei are diving back into the deadly waters of the online realm with a bold and timely new take on Faces of Death, in which a content moderator with a haunting past (Barbie Ferreira) investigates the unnervingly realistic murder videos posted online by an enigmatic filmmaker with a sadistic streak (Dacre Montgomery).
Ahead of the film’s April 10th theatrical release via IFC and Shudder and its screening at this year’s Overlook Film Festival, Daily Dead had the pleasure of talking with Daniel and Isa about their latest cinematic collaboration, including further exploring themes about our precarious relationship with the online world, honoring the legacy of the original Faces of Death film, and working with the movie’s talented stars Barbie Ferreira and Dacre Montgomery!
“In FACES OF DEATH, the exploration of the original film’s infamous “is it real or not?” conceit continues as a woman (Ferreira) working as a content moderator for a major video platform discovers what appears to be re-enactments of murders from the original film. In an online world where nothing can be trusted, she must determine whether the violence is fiction, or unfolding in real time.”
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Written by: Isa Mazzei & Daniel Goldhaber
Starring: Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah, Aaron Holliday, with Jermaine Fowler and Charli XCX
Runtime: 98 min
Rating: R”
