Warning: Major spoilers ahead for ‘Faces of Death’Daniel Goldhaber’s meta remake Faces of Death is loaded with plenty of the gore that made the original 1978 viral videotape initially memorable, but the scariest element of the new horror movie is undoubtedly the serial killer at its heart. Starring Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria), Faces of Death examines the desensitization to violence that has permeated modern culture thanks to the easily-accessible nature of the worst, most graphic imagery imaginable. The new movie is based off a viral videotape from 1978 that allegedly showed a variety of real methods of death, which at the time gained a cult following due to the belief that the footage in it was real.
In Goldhaber’s remake, a young woman who moderates content for Kino, a TikTok-esque social media platform, identifies a series of videos of someone reenacting the death circumstances from the 1978 videotape. Her pursuit of the videos’ source leads her into the clutches of the very real serial killer who is in fact mimicking the original Faces of Death. While the remake does not skimp on the grisly details of the murders, the most unsettling part of the whole affair is the man behind them, played with skin-crawling delight by a former star of the Stranger Things series.
Dacre Montgomery Is Legitimately Unsettling as the Serial Killer Arthur in ‘Faces of Death’
Dacre Montgomery, who played the semi-villainous Billy Hargrove on Netflix’s global hit Stranger Things, plays serial killer Arthur Spevak in Faces of Death. The audience is given virtually no backstory on who Spevak is or what his obsession with the original Faces of Death is, which plays a big role in how creepy he comes across. Montgomery is able to pull sort of a double role out of it, as the mild-mannered cell service salesman Arthur Spevak and the deranged, volatile Faces of Death serial killer. Even when he’s being the more charming, disarming version of himself, Montgomery manages to make it clear there’s something not quite right about him.
What makes his villain so memorable is that unpredictability. The unhinged killer is bubbling just under the surface in every scene, and his public-facing alter ego almost becomes even creepier once you’re introduced to the blood-red contact-wearing psychopath that lurks within. Despite knowing just how vile a person he is and what level of crimes he’s committing, Montgomery manages to make the audience want more screentime for Spevak. Taking nothing away from Barbie Ferreira, who is also downright excellent in Faces of Death, Montgomery’s serial killer is the most memorable part of the movie.
‘Faces of Death’ Marks a Revitalized Career Arc for Dacre Montgomery
After his breakout role in Stranger Things and the failure to launch of the Power Rangers franchise he was set to star in, Dacre Montgomery took a brief hiatus from acting in order to “reverse engineer” his acting career, as he told People. After being pushed in a much more commercial direction following the acclaim and popularity he gained from his Stranger Things role, Montgomery opted to reorient the direction of his career, eschewing commercial and franchise fare for high-quality arthouse films.
In just the last three years, he’s starred in three well-received dramas and thrillers, and has now added Faces of Death to his expanding filmography of lower-budget movies. He’s set to star in Brad Anderson’s upcoming psychological thriller Moral Capacity alongside Tim Robbins, Diane Lane, and Sofia Boutella, and is also hard at work on his directorial debut The Engagement Party. Montgomery’s performance in Faces of Death is just the latest in what appears will be a long line of memorable roles for the 31-year-old Australian actor.
- Release Date
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April 10, 2026
- Runtime
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98 Minutes
- Director
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Daniel Goldhaber
