My quick rating - 5.9/10. I knew Faces of Death (2026) would come with built-in baggage. I vaguely remember being a kid and hearing it mentioned like it was cursed media. Something that got banned, whispered about, and supposedly showed “real deaths” that definitely made every playground conversation a little more dramatic. Of course, years later, when I finally tracked down the original, it turned out to be…kind of a slow evening of staged shock theatre and curiosity more than anything truly groundbreaking. Still, that mythos never really dies, and this new version knows it.
In this take, Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works as a website content moderator, which already feels like the most cursed job imaginable in 2026. She stumbles onto a series of disturbing clips that appear to recreate deaths from the original film, and suddenly she’s not just scrolling through internet sludge. She’s potentially watching a modern reinterpretation of a very old urban legend. Her last name being Romero is the kind of wink that makes you groan and nod at the same time. Yes, we get it. Horror lineage. Zombies in spirit. Very cute.
While doomscrolling seems harmless at first, this slowly evolves into an obsession when she discovers a VHS of the original film, Faces of Death, from 1978, suggesting that someone is either faithfully reproducing or resurrecting the legend. Arthur, played by Dacre Montgomery, enters the plot with just the right amount of creepiness to guarantee that every move seems like a terrible idea.
Director Daniel Goldhaber actually pulls off some striking camera work here. There are moments where the framing feels almost clinical, like the film is mimicking the detachment of watching violence through a screen. Very on-theme, very uncomfortable. The problem is Margot herself often makes choices that feel less like investigative journalism and more like “how to accidentally speedrun your own disaster.” Even the antagonist feels the need to ask her, "Like, how dumb are you?", which is never a good sign for your hero credibility.
The middle section works best as a messy but engaging mystery-thriller, bouncing between internet culture commentary and the kind of ethical panic that comes with not knowing whether what you’re watching is real. The police subplot, however, takes a hard turn into “no one in this scene has ever met law enforcement” territory. Suspension of disbelief doesn’t just get stretched, it gets folded into origami.
Where the film does land is in its finale. It goes all-in on practical gore and commits to a brutally staged ending that finally feels like it embraces the franchise’s reputation instead of tiptoeing around it. There’s also a fun visual callback in the credits that mirrors the original glowing red aesthetic, which is a nice “we did our homework” touch.
While the meta commentary on the violent nature of society and its penchant for digital voyeurism is evident and sometimes sharp, it does not quite deliver. It seems to be trying to make some deep observations regarding consumption and spectatorship, yet in the end, it comes off as merely an unformed hypothesis.
Still, as a modern riff on an old urban legend turned internet-era paranoia engine, Faces of Death (2026) is far from dead on arrival. Just don’t expect it to answer all its own questions. Like most viral content, it’s more interested in your attention than closure.
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