Movies
‘Faces of Death’ Remake Rated “R” for Strong Bloody Violence, Gore and Nudity
Hey, remember that there’s a Faces of Death remake on the way from Legendary Entertainment and Cam filmmakers Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber?! It’s been a while since we’ve heard a peep about this one, but the film’s MPA rating has been handed in this week.
The upcoming Faces of Death remake is rated “R” for…
“Strong bloody violence and gore, sexual content, nudity, language and drug use.”
Musician Charli XCX will make her feature debut in Faces of Death.
Dacre Montgomery (“Stranger Things”), Barbie Ferreira (“Euphoria”), Josie Totah (“Saved by the Bell”) and Aaron Holliday (Cocaine Bear) are also set to star.
How do you remake Faces of Death? It sounds like Mazzei and Goldhaber have come up with an interesting approach for this one. Here’s what we know about this mysterious project.
[Related] Looking Back on the Fact and Fiction Behind ‘Faces of Death’
The original Faces of Death, released in 1978, is one of the most infamous films of all time, allegedly showcasing real footage of real death. In actuality, of course, much of the horrifying footage seen in Faces of Death is staged, with gory special effects often being paired up with real footage to create the illusion of gruesome reality. Early found footage, in other words.
The new story was conceived by Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber. Like the original film, Legendary is reportedly hoping the new one will spawn a multi-film franchise.
“Faces of Death was one of the first viral video tapes, and we are so lucky to be able to use it as a jumping off point for this exploration of cycles of violence and the way they perpetuate themselves online,” said Mazzei and Goldhaber in a recent statement.
“The new plot revolves around a female moderator of a YouTube-like website, whose job is to weed out offensive and violent content and who herself is recovering from a serious trauma, that 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?”
The original movie was written and directed by the late John Allan Schwartz.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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