Ever since the upcoming remake of Faces of Death was announced way back in 2023, one question has haunted horror fans. How exactly is a modern version of John Alan Schwartz's notorious 1978 faux-snuff cult classic going to navigate the controversy at that film's center -notably, that among the fake footage of people meeting various grisly ends, Faces of Death did contain clips of real-life violence, and real-life death.
In a new interview, director Daniel Goldhaber and co-writer Isa Mazzei (Cam) tease more about the unsurprisingly R-rated Faces of Death, which hits North American theaters on April 10 via Independent Film Company (their widest release to date) and Shudder.
Speaking with Variety about how the Faces of Death remake will navigate modern audience expectations that a big studio horror movie probably isn't going to contain a whole lot of real-life violence, Goldhaber gave the following, pretty ominous, answer:
We came up with a solution to that problem that required a lot of legal and logistical footwork. It’s very important to us to honor the parts of that aspect of the original. We have done our best in the movie to do that within the bounds of the law.
What exactly ‘we have done our best to remain within the bounds of the law' means, remains to be seen, but we're incredibly excited (and, honestly, more than a little scared) to find out.
Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria) and Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) star in the gory new pic, with support from Josie Totah, Jermaine Fowler and Miss Brat Summer herself, Charli XCX.
The new Faces of Death ditches the documentary format of the original, and revolves around a female moderator of a YouTube-like website (who herself is recovering from a serious trauma), whose job is to weed out offensive and violent content. Her world is shaken when she stumbles across a group that is recreating the murders from the original film:
But in the story primed for the digital age and age of online misinformation, the question faced is are the murders real or fake?
Goldhaber also confirms that his version of Faces of Death won't just be a relentless onslaught of gore, and will instead be a film that seeks to entertain everyone:
We wanted to make a film that would appeal as much to hardcore fans of the original as it would to somebody who is a more casual horror filmgoer. The movie deals with real-world horrors in a way that’s still very elevated and entertaining, and it’s also very funny. It was really important to make something that honors the original, honors the mondo horror world that the original comes from.
Part of what was exciting to us was to be able to make a wide release horror movie that’s about mondo horror and services that, but in a way that won’t alienate a broader audience, that can bring that kind of filmmaking to a broader audience without diluting it.
Faces of Death is already off to a controversial start, with last week's teaser already pulled from YouTube. Gulp.
Head over to Variety to read the full interview with Goldhaber and Mazzei, and look out for more on Faces of Death as we get it. For more, here's all the other upcoming horror movies we're excited for in 2026.
