‘Faces of Death’ Brings Viral Murder to Tubi FrightFest

The question that made Faces of Death notorious in 1978 was brutally simple: is any of this real? Nearly five decades later, Daniel Goldhaber’s reworking drags that doubt into the age of content moderation, viral clips and platforms built to keep viewers scrolling. The film will receive its English premiere at Tubi FrightFest on Friday, 28 August, bringing its updated take on the cult shocker to London audiences.

Barbie Ferreira stars as Margot Romero, a moderator employed by the video-hosting site Kino, where her job is to assess a constant flow of disturbing material and decide what should remain online. She is used to seeing the worst people can upload, or at least she thinks she is, until a series of murder videos begins to appear with an unnerving resemblance to scenes from the original Faces of Death.

Her concerns are initially dismissed, leaving Margot to investigate the footage herself with help from her horror-obsessed flatmate. The deeper she looks, the harder it becomes to tell whether the clips are staged recreations or records of killings taking place in real time. Her search also attracts the attention of someone who would rather she stopped asking questions.

Goldhaber directs from a screenplay co-written with Isa Mazzei, the pair behind Cam, another horror film concerned with identity, technology and online spectatorship. Here, they take on a title long associated with moral panic and video-store infamy, but shift its central trick into an environment where fabricated violence and genuine atrocity can circulate side by side. Or maybe the distinction is less stable than that now. The film does not appear especially interested in making the viewer comfortable about it.

Ferreira, known for Euphoria, leads a cast that includes Dacre Montgomery of Stranger Things, Josie Totah, Jermaine Fowler and Charli XCX. Montgomery plays Arthur Spevak, while Totah appears as influencer Samantha Gravinsky. Aaron Holliday and Fowler feature as figures in Margot’s personal and working life, with Charli XCX playing one of her colleagues at Kino.

The new film takes inspiration from the 1978 mondo production rather than functioning as a straightforward remake. That earlier release became infamous for presenting staged death scenes alongside authentic footage while encouraging viewers to question what they were watching. Goldhaber and Mazzei retain that uncertainty, although the setting is now a fictional platform modelled on the rapid turnover and blunt moderation systems of contemporary social media.

Produced after Legendary Entertainment acquired the rights, Faces of Death completed principal photography in New Orleans in 2023, with additional filming finished the following year. It premiered in the United States in April 2026, including a 35mm screening at Beyond Fest Chicago, before its English premiere was confirmed for FrightFest.

Faces of Death screens at Tubi FrightFest on Friday, 28 August 2026 at 6.00pm. Festival tickets and full screening information are available through the official FrightFest programme.

Faces of Death trailer