Faces of Death is a remake for the influencer era (Overlook 2026 review)

Courtesy of IFC and Shudder

The 1978 film Faces of Death is a notorious horror movie that was banned in 46 countries. It features plane crashes, animal violence, autopsies, and several depraved and grotesque sequences. Its documentary style only increased its viral quality, as did the fact it was banned so much. In fact, nothing worked better for its word-of-mouth and cult status than its controversy.

Now, it's 2026 and we have a Faces of Death remake, fit for the influencer era and social media age. Instead of simply recreating or trying to upstage the incredibly unsettling imagery from the original film, director/co-writer Daniel Goldhaber and co-writer Isa Mazzei take a different path. They essentially created a slasher movie that's aware of the initial movie and has a killer with a bloodlust to go viral.

The remake stars Barbie Ferreira as Margot Romero. She's a content moderator for a TikTok-like app. She and her coworkers spend their shifts looking at violent and sexual videos, deciding what's suitable for the platform and what's not. Margot doesn't exactly love the job, but hey, it pays the bills. Additionally, she's pretty desensitized to most of the content she accepts or rejects. She also struggles with immense trauma, after her sister was hit by a train and killed as they were filming a video on the tracks. Margot went viral, but for the very worst reason. This trauma causes her to rely on pills as a coping mechanism and generally avoid the public because everyone recognizes her from the train video.

Margot soon encounters videos that alarm and upset her, including one of an execution, and when she reports them to her boss, played by Jermaine Fowler, he ignores her. At one point, he labels them "DIY horror" and says that's trending now, so to allow the videos on the platform. Thanks to her horror-loving roommate, Ryan (Aaron Holliday), Margot realizes the videos are recreations of some of the original Faces of Death's most controversial scenes. Margot starts posting the videos on Reddit to determine if they're real or not. Since her boss ignores her, she wants to build a case to take to the police, but this puts her in the path of the killer, Arthur, played by Dacre Montgomery.

Arthur is obsessed with going viral, and the more brutal videos that he films and uploads, the more fans he acquires. He also targets influencers and those with a platform, knowing it'll draw more eyeballs when he films their murders. There's also a lot of conversation within the film about the influence of the original Faces of Death, which is dubbed the first viral video at one point. However, more than anything, this movie is a slasher, complete with a big bad, Arthur, who wears eerie red contact lenses and a white stocking over his face, and a final girl in Margot. A few of the kills are bloody, but certainly tame in comparison to the original Faces of Death. There's simply no way any remake would be able to top the original movie, and maybe that's a good thing. Do we really need more depictions of animal violence?

While some of the minor characters are fairly forgettable, including Charli XCX's role as Margot's co-worker (it's basically just a glorified cameo), Montgomery and Ferreira are really good in their roles. Montgomery gives Arthur weird little quirks, such as clicking his tongue and chattering his teeth. Arthur also has an obsessive-compulsive quality, and there's a funny scene late in the movie where he freaks out after blood gets on him. Meanwhile, Ferreira transforms into one hell of a final girl, especially within the last act. She also conveys the weight of her character's trauma well. Ferreira is the true standout in this movie.

The second half of the movie, though, becomes a bit too paint-by-numbers. It feels like Silence of the Lambs mixed with slashers we've seen prior. The first half is much more interesting when there's a broader conversation about influencer culture. However, the movie never really says much about it, and rather, it simply reacts to it and how desensitized we've become to violence, in part because we see so much of it online.

Overall, as a remake, Faces of Death doesn't seek to outdo or upstage the original film. Instead, it's a slasher movie that reacts more than it comments upon the social media age and voyeurism. Ferreira carries much of this film and transforms into a compelling final girl, while Montgomery is a good foil and memorable villain.

Faces of Death just screened at the Overlook Film Festival. It's also now playing in theaters.

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