The upcoming Faces of Death reimagining firmly plants itself in a contemporary world consumed by social media and largely desensitized by endless scrolling and immediate access to violent imagery. For the uninitiated, the cult film originally released in 1978 became more myth than movie.
It was largely believed that the events unfolding on the tape were a collection of actual snuff films (a rumor later debunked to the chagrin of many). It's a concept this contemporary reimagining from Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei plays with in some very interesting ways.
The stars of the new horror film, Barbie Ferreira and Dacre Montgomery, both hail from massive series that became part of the zeitgeist and pop culture lexicon (Euphoria and Stranger Things, respectively), but both have also proven to be avid champions of indie film, and it’s an incredible thing to see.
Dacre Montgomery’s character, Arthur, is something of a Buffalo Bill for the social media age. For the actor, it also presented a unique opportunity to play an almost dual role as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. At times, Montgomery presents as meek and mild, softspoken and non-threatening.
But when that public mask comes off, Montgomery transforms with a chilling effect, serving up two very distinct energies in his performance. “I'm quite sensitive as an individual, and I think most people in society put on a mask, between the private self and the public self, with the mask being for the public,” Montgomery explained.
“I think that Arthur has grown up inside this kind of chrysalis of being outwardly a very introverted and sensitive person, has actually bred this kind of incel superhero in his brain. If I build my body up and if I put these things on and plan this thing, I can be the strong perception of masculinity personified. I can be that thing. And I think in society, we can all relate in our own ways.”
Montgomery opened up quite candidly about the discomfort that comes with sort of allowing a peek behind the curtain for such a personal process.”I'm so self-conscious as a person, and I do certain things that are like my armor. Sitting on this call today, I'm like, I've got my armor. I can hide under my hat. I can do my thing. I can sit on the floor and seem relaxed, but I'm really just really anxious to be talking a lot about a very private thing, which is kind of my art, my process, right, which I'm sure Barbie feels the same way,” he shared.
“It's a revealing thing, so I tap into that with every character as I did with Billy [Montgomery’s character from Stranger Things] and with Arthur in particular, I think there's a lot of me in that, in the sensitive side of him, in the OCD side of him. There's a lot of me in society trying to go to the gym and be this thing that I am not, to make myself feel better. I think it's just expanded on the most horrific kind of scale of a much more micro, micro, micro version of little bits of me in there, if that makes sense.
“I wanted to really identify this hurt little boy inside of Arthur that just didn't have a great experience of life. And the alchemy of that with a really toxic mix of chemicals in his brain and the need to be famous to think that it will solve everything, including a society that constantly has gun violence. I mean, it's just a recipe for disaster. I don't even need to say that because it's all over your news every day, unfortunately. And I think that's the scariest part of the film, not Arthur, but this ideology that's just pushed all the time is terrifying.”
As the protagonist, Margot, Barbie Ferreira is playing with a familiar (and frustrating) trope. The hysterical woman. The writers (Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei) subverted the concept, and Ferreira absolutely ran with it. “Margot's living this very real female experience of not being believed at every step of the way. And so at the end of the day, she is the only person she can lean on,” Ferreira explained.
“That's why the movie works, she has no one. She has nothing to lose. She has no one who believes her. There is no one by her side. For her, this is the only way through, to not just give up and walk away from it, but to see it through to the very bitter end, no matter what it costs, because of her trauma, because she has nothing. I mean, that sounds really dark, but it's like she does have nothing to live for at the moment. Her purpose is this. And that's also the scary part of this movie, this woman is descending into madness when all of this chaos is happening.”
As Margot descends into madness, the audience's frustration with the people around her will likely carry them along for the ride. “It's a real big story, at the end of the day, it's only you. You're the only person who can advocate for yourself. In a very different way, I totally relate to her. Having these scenes with the police and these authority figures that don't believe a woman who's in a crisis is… I mean, how many times have we, as society, been there? How many times has someone accused a prominent figure or anyone of something? And people are like, ‘No, you're overreacting. This has to be a lie.’ I also think a lot of people would rather think that someone's overreacting and someone's crazy than to accept the reality that people can be extremely violent and can be really, really, really bad, and there could be these awful things in the world.”
Dacre Montgomery had a bit of a dual role to play, and in some ways so did Feirrera, vacillating between that aforementioned descent into madness and calmly trying to get someone… anyone… to believe and help. “Those scenes were always really fun to do because it's really great to build that tension of just like, how am I going to explain to someone calmly something that is awful that's happening?” she explained.
“I look like I'm in psychosis because I'm covered in dirt. I'm in khaki. I have blood on my face. I'm wide-eyed. The cortisol level's high, all of these things. It was so interesting to always be grappling with Margot's intense reaction that she totally should have because of watching all of this violence and this death and this horrible thing that's happening, but also trying to be normal, so people believe her. No matter what she does, no one believes her. It's just a waking nightmare. That's honestly one of the scariest parts of the movie, is she gets so close all the time to having other people see what she's seeing, but they just refuse to look at it because of the repercussions.”
Aside from the social commentary on our relationship with social media and the strange landscape of chasing fame and parasocial relationships, art imitates life in more ways than one here, with everything Feirrera has pointed out. “I think with women, it's a lot of proving that stuff happened. It could be anything, and people just want to disprove it, whether it be mansplaining something, a fact that you know, or a pain that you're having, or this person did this to me. It's immediately like the person is innocent until proven guilty.
“People's immediate reaction to a woman saying something is, how can I disprove it? And I think it's so subconscious. I don't think people are meaning to do it. I see it all the time. It's just a very subconscious societal thing with hundreds of years of just prescribing lobotomies to women for being hysterical. It's just so innate that even women can do that to other women, you assume crazy first and then real. It was really fun to play with that and kind of just go for it.”
You can watch Barbie Ferreira and Dacre Montgomery absolutely go for it when Faces of Death hits theaters April 10. For more, check out Faces of Death on the subscriber cover of FANGORIA #31. If you missed out on the subscriber exclusive, don’t worry, our newsstand cover will still take you on a deep dive behind the scenes.
