It was a surprisingly good weekend for indie horror at the box office. While The Super Mario Galaxy Movie continued to dominate the conversation with another $69 million domestically in its second weekend, genre storytelling had a significant showing a little lower down on the charts thanks to two very different offerings. Namely, IFC’s much-discussed Faces of Death remake and NEON’s video game adaptation Exit 8.
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Director Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death pulled in an estimated $1.7 million in its debut, which is very good for an IFC release. Generally speaking, the company isn’t generating big opening weekends but landing at number seven on the charts behind BTS World Tour Arirang: Live Viewing ($2.4 million) comes as a welcome surprise.
Meanwhile, Exit 8 opened with $1.4 million, good enough for number eight on the charts above the faith-based flick A Great Awakening ($1.2 million). Directed by Genki Kawamura, NEON’s latest is based on the video game of the same name. Also of note, it played on just 495 screens, while Faces of Death played on 1,600. So the per-screen average for Exit 8 was at a damn good $2,837. Especially considering we’re talking about a non-English language thriller with minimal advertising, this is a great result.
The Faces of Death remake centers on a content moderator who stumbles upon a series of violent videos that appear to re-enact death scenes from the original, infamous 1978 movie. Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria) and Darce Montgomery (Stranger Things) star. Critics have been a little mixed on the movie but the positive reviews have been eye-grabbing. You can read Fango’s review right here.
Exit 8, meanwhile, centers on a man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway who sets out to find Exit 8. His quest comes with some seemingly simple rules but even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Critics have been very kind to this one, including Fango’s own Amber T. Word of mouth could be kind to this one in the weeks to come.
Looking ahead, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (which graces the newsstand cover of FANGORIA #31) hits theaters this upcoming weekend alongside David Lowery’s Mother Mary. April 24 then brings with it Over Your Dead Body before May kicks off with Hokum and Deep Water. Then, the summer truly gets going with Mortal Kombat II. Much for genre fans to look forward to in the coming weeks, to be certain.
Faces of Death and Exit 8 are in theaters now.
