Horror remakes are a thing that is becoming more and more common place with each passing year however we now have an issue in that all of the really popular horror films have been remade. Therefor Hollywood is now turning to the more lesser known horror films and remaking those with the latest one of this films having just been released and well I thought that i'd take a look at it and so then join me as I review the film that really should have been unrated with the film in question being called simply just "Faces Of Death" enjoy.
The plot of this film is when a series of videos that seemingly depict real life killings start appearing online content moderator Margot takes it upon herself to wok out who is killing all of these people and put a stop to them before its far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. This films plot does do something was actually a pretty clever way of updating the original films concept by having the characters watch the original film and have that be a key part of the films plot with this being something that does serve as a nice way to tip your hat to the original whilst also very firmly doing your own unique thing. However tho this films plot does feel like it's not as strong as it perhaps could have been with the makers of the film spending alot more time in setting up the plot then it does in actually telling a good story and indeed the first half of the film has next to nothing happen that actually impacts the plot of the film with it only being in the last forty to thirty minuets of the film being where the films plot gets to be interesting and you get to see the few brief glimpses of just how good that this films plot could have been but with all that being said this films plot is a pretty good plot and out of all of the horror remakes out there this films does get points for at the very least trying to do something new with the original films idea with it's plot with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Euphoria star Barbie Ferreira as Margot Romero and Power Rangers 2017 star Dacre Montgomery as Arthur Spevak. Also starring in this film is Saved By The Bell 2020 and Spider-Man: Homecoming star Josie Totah as Samantha Gravinsky , Aaron Holliday as Ryan , BoJack Horseman and Coming 2 America star Jermaine Fowler as Josh , Charli XCX as Gabby , Kurt Yue as Neal and Isa Mazzei as a woman talking about Narcan,
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. The fact that this films acting is as good as it will ever be is something that is to be expected as to be truthful here all of this films actors are at the very best very little known actors and therefor while we do have an understanding of just what kind of performance that they are going to bring to a film it still would have been wise to expect there to be good acting from this film, however thankfully alot of this films actors really did bring it in this film with alot of them being shockingly really good in this film with the only slight let down being Josie Totah and even then that's more due to the fact that she isn't on screen all that long and therefor doesn't get much a chance too show off just what it is that she can do as an actor. With the best actor in this whole film being a tie between Barbie Ferreira and Dacre Montgomery as with Barbie you do get this really powerful performance that does help us the audience fall in love with her character but on the flip side of that is the fact that Dacre Montgomery is just so creepy in this film with him being able to go from 0 to 100 at the drop of a hat. With the acting in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it doesn't give any of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Character wise while this films characters do fair alot more better when compared to the characters in other remakes in general when it comes to this film they are still pretty bad characters. As this films characters whilst there not bad persay as there is alot of potential with them especially with Margot who very well could have become a really good horror character but the film just doesn't seem all that interested in them as the film doesn't spend any time in giving us any kind of information about these characters to the point where we the audience want to see them succeed and come out of this film alive and well. This is despite the fact that the film does have some good ideas for characters like for example the character of Samantha is a social media obsessed person who will go on this films version of TikTok and complain about being famous as there are people staring at her but then in public will have a go at people for walking into her shot even tho she's the one that's causing the issue yet the film does nothing with her character with the film outright dropping her character for a huge portion of its running time when it could have gotten some more milage out her and it's like that for all of its ad yet if the makers of this film did take the time to actually make us care about this films characters and what it is that there going threw then the films death scenes with those characters would be all the impactful as we would have gotten the chance to get to know them as characters and the fact that the makers of this fil had this film wrapped and in the can in 2024 and still didn't take the time to fix this issue does say that they just didn't care enough to fix it as they think that just having the "Faces Of Death" name would be more then enough to get people to watch this film and yet by doing that they are robbing us of the chance to have some really fun characters.
Whilst this film does have the "Faces Of Death" name this isn't a true remake of the first film as for starters the first film pretty much has no plot as it's just a character talking over deaths of things and people dieing. Yet this film does somewhat lean into the controversy that that first film spawned by having Margot question of the things that she is been sent to review are real or fake which is a good idea as is the fact that the original film is a film that does exist in the world of this film as the characters are seen watching the film alot of the time this is something that does make this film stand out as no other remake has dared to feature the film that they are remaking in there film with all of them just being a straight forward modern retelling of the film and that's it. Whilst this film does take the opposite approach which in all fairness is something that they did kind of have to do as there was no way that they could do a straight up remake of the original film as if you think the film was controversial back then it would been twice that today and the original film as was mentioned doesn't really have a plot to speak of and therefor the makers of this film were forced into doing there own unique thing and this is something that does help the film as it means that this film won't be able to be compared to the first film as outside of the name they have nothing in common with each other this is something that could be seen as being both a bad and a good thing it's bad thing in that the people that are more then likely going to be seeing this film are fans of the original film and are therefor going to see this film expecting it to be like the first film an it's a good thing as it means that this film now has the chance to be it's own thing whilst still being connected to this franchise.
It could very well be argued that this film is more of scathing satire on how any innocent video be it on TikTok or Youtube gets banned or removed whereas the more dangerous ones get kept up. As at several points earlier on in the film we see Margot at her job doing exactly that she's adding warnings to videos that are giving us health advice and she's outright banning several clips that are harmless but then she come across the first video where she sees someone get killed and she allows it to stay up with her only leaning a comment wondering if it's fake or not and this is something that is still going on with Youtube today as there are plenty of videos out there that do get pulled of the website for no good reason yet all of the dangerous ones are allowed to be kept up with them only pulling them down when someone on the outside does something public and it becomes public knowledge. Whilst this isn't top level satire its so close as it's something that anyone who runs a Youtube account or who uploads to TikTok can relate with and thankfully it's something that the film doesn't shy away from as they do take the time to say that these videos are only being allowed to be kept because of the fact that they draw traffic to the website with the sad part being that it's true as videos like those do indeed draw traffic to there various websites as people will indeed be curious to see what all the fuss is about and because of that these big video hosting websites like TikTok and Youtube won't take those videos down because of the fact that are still a busisness and if people are coming to your website or are using your app then that's still good of busisness even if those videos aren't good business, yet those companies only resolve to take those videos down when it becomes public and it makes them look bad and this is something that this film does capture perfectly.
Like Terrifer 3 this is s film that really did need to be released unrated as by forcing this film into an R rating you robbing the film of that extra something that it needs to be as good if not better then the original film. As whilst this film isn't tame by any means it's also not as extreme as you'd expect it to be and that is something that a film with this title really should have been and yet because of the fact that the film was rated R which is still a good rating for a film like this one to have it does mean that the makers of this film have to force cuts to the film which do rob it of that something that it needs to work in the first place. What that something is tho is hard to say as the film does have plenty of decent gore and kills both of which might be in the first film as well but the film also can't be as special as it could have been and yet despite the fact that the film was made by Shudder and oddly enough Legendary Pictures the film just feels like it's not got that extra something to make it a great film as all of the ingredients are there to make it a good film it has good actors and the writing and directing are passable enough for a remake but even so its like this film needed that extra something extra just to be a really good film and yet due to the fact that it's an R rated film the film isn't allowed to have whatever it is that it needed to have in it in the first place, this is a good reason as to why this film needed to be unrated as while The Toxic Avenger didn't prove that being unrated can equal a hit film both that film and Terrifer 3 proved that not all films need to be rated as sometimes the directors vision does mean making the film unrated and that's exactly what a film like this one really did need to be.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty seven minuets and nine seconds. Which is pretty much the exact grand total running time that you'd expect a film like this one to have in the first place and to be fair to this film it is a film that does need that amount of running time in order to tell its story as it's essentially telling a new story and it's can't tell that good of a story and have some decent characters as something is bound to cause the film to fall in on itself and while yes that does still happen the fact that this film does have a solid running time does show that the makers of this film knew just what running time would best suit there film with the film having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. However tho this film doesn't really use its running time all that wisely due to the fact that the films plot is left feeling underdeveloped due to the fact that the film does take alot of time in even getting the films plots started and when it does nothing of note happens until the end of the film by which point its far to little to late with it being made clear as day that the makers of this film are more focused on giving us some really transitions then they are in giving us a well thought and developed plot. This is also something that does effect the films character development due to the fact that none of the films characters get any kind of character whatsoever with us knowing just as much abut them coming out of the film then we did coming into the film with the same thig even applying to how little we care for the films characters and yet if the film did take the time to fully develop its characters then we would end up caring for them and feeling something literally anything for them when they die but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho/
So now then as this is a horror film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. The fact that this films kills aren't that bad is something of a good thing as they are one of the more better elements in the film with this mainly being due to the fact that alot of the films kills are quite literally remakes of kills from the original film which is something that would be seen as being a bad thing but given the context of what this film does with the original film that is something that does make alot of sense. With the best kill in the whole entire film being the death of Arthur as without giving away who the killer is he and someone do have this dragged out fight at the end of the film with both characters getting in some really good hits with Arthur using a lit rock like object in his house to do some damage but then this person does get a small knife that was introduced near the start of the film as a joke and uses it to just go nuts stabbing at him and while yes a stabbing is a pretty generic kill it is one of the shockingly few kills that we get to see on screen in this film which is a huge bugbear as you go to a horror film not only expecting but also wanting to see the kills and yet out of all of the kills that we do get to see of which there is maybe three of them and that's it with all of the others happening off screen with the rest of the films kills being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall yeah its not really all that hard to see just why this film flopped as hard as it has done as not only is Faces Of Death a smaller known horror franchise even in the world of horror it's not that well known but it's also due to the fact that whilst this film did have all of the potential to be really good the film just crumbled under its own weight and wasn't allowed to be as good as it could have been in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that re in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 110 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all pf the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies ad gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
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