Faces of Death

Directed by Daniel Goldhaber, Faces of Death follows a content moderator (Barbie Ferreira’s Margot Romero) as she eventually crosses paths with a cunning, vicious serial killer (Dacre Montgomery’s Arthur Spevak). Filmmaker Goldhaber, armed with his and Isa Mazzei’s screenplay, delivers a solid horror picture that grows more and more compelling as it unfolds, with the movie’s deliberately-paced opening stretch ultimately demanding a fair degree of patience from the viewer – although it’s clear, certainly, that even in its less-than-enthralling stretches, Faces of Death benefits from Ferreira and Montgomery’s first-class efforts here. (Montgomery, in particular, offers up an often electrifying turn that elevates the proceedings on a recurring basis.) There’s little doubt, then, that Faces of Death benefits from a midsection rife with memorable, engrossing sequences and set-pieces (eg a breathtaking split-screen interlude wherein Margot is cyberstalked by Arthur), and while some of Margot’s decisions are less-than-convincing (ie she periodically behaves like a horror-movie victim), the gripping, violent, and thoroughly satisfying third act ensures that the picture concludes on about as positive a note as one could envision – with the end result a solid piece of work that’s also impressively topical and relevant.

*** out of ****