Common Sense Media Review
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Horror reimagining takes unique look at onscreen violence.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Faces of Death
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In FACES OF DEATH, Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at Kino, a video-based social media platform, spending her days trying to flag iffy content as a way to atone for a horrible mistake that changed her life. She stumbles on a series of murder videos that could be fake but might also be real. Her boss (Jermaine Fowler) isn't concerned, saying that videos like that are popular and good for business. Through her horror-fan roommate, Ryan (Aaron Holliday), Margot discovers that the videos are remakes from segments of the notorious 1978 movie Faces of Death, a "documentary" that claimed to show real deaths on camera. As Margot becomes more and more obsessed with finding the source of the videos, the killer (Dacre Montgomery) takes notice of her and decides to add her to his "cast."
Is It Any Good?
Evoking the infamous 1978 horror "documentary" this reimagining does something different: It finds parallels between that movie and today's online world, and it has something to say about both. The title Faces of Death may still have the power to shoot shock-waves in some viewers' brains, but co-writer/director Daniel Goldhaber (Cam, How to Blow Up a Pipeline) isn't interested in exploiting it with more gore for gore's sake. Like 2025's surprisingly good remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night, his movie has an entirely new angle. The character of Sam (Josie Totah) is depicted as an everyday influencer who thinks about nothing but ways to get more clicks, more likes, more traffic, while Margot has learned her lesson from that lifestyle (a video she once made went tragically sideways) and now seeks penance, trying to protect others through her work. Even the villain looks at life through a camera lens; ironically, while the blood flows in his videos, he's violently revulsed by it (he can't bear to touch it). And pop star Charli XCX plays one of Margot's co-workers who's so desensitized that the violent images that go by in a flurry barely affect her.
The movie comments on the popularity of the horror genre, but doesn't examine it in detail. Rather, it focuses on the horror of not being able to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake. If fake horror is somehow therapeutic, then real horror is the opposite: It causes trauma, as Margot well knows. The movie's formula cat-and-mouse chase doesn't really offer much to the equation—it feels a little too generic—but overall Faces of Death gets its commentary right on the nose.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Faces of Death's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
Is the movie scary? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes enjoy being scared? How is this different from real-life trauma?
How does the movie depict drug use/abuse? How does this affect characters' behavior? Are there realistic consequences? Why does that matter?
Margot watches disturbing videos online as part of her job. How can we tell whether something we see online is real or fake? How might watching violent or shocking content affect us?
The movie asks whether just watching something disturbing can make someone complicit. Are viewers responsible for what they watch?
Movie Details
- In theaters : April 10, 2026
- Cast : Barbie Ferreira , Dacre Montgomery , Josie Totah
- Director : Daniel Goldhaber
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s) , Queer Movie Actor(s) , Latino Movie Actor(s) , Transgender Movie Actor(s) , Middle Eastern/North African Movie Actor(s) , Multiracial Movie Actor(s)
- Studios : IFC Films , Shudder
- Genre : Horror
- Run time : 98 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : strong bloody violence and gore, sexual content, nudity, language and drug use
- Last updated : April 13, 2026
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