The Story on That 'Faces of Death' Remake

While I wouldn't say Gorgon Video's Faces of Death series evokes a sense of nostalgia in me, it does make me think of those big honking clam shell boxes with the FOD logo lurking in the corner of the horror section. I'm sure if VHS horror movies were sentient, the FOD tapes would be the mongrel children of the lot, being feared and derided by the others. Either that or I've had way too much coffee and I'm over thinking this. Anyway, as Scott Weinberg posted last October, Faces of Death -- the video series that purported to show actual scenes of death and dismemberment but were in reality more fake than fact -- is getting a remake. Rotten Tomatoes has just posted an update on the project, with the news coming directly from producer Rick Bennatar.

"We've got a story, we've got a director, we've got a writer, J.T. Petty, who did a couple of indie films," said Benattar. "He's coming in and he wrote a script. We're sort of taking a look at in the world of Saw and Hostel, who are the people who actually go watch these movies? So we've tied that in with Faces of Death. We have a narrative story which the original never had, and we also nod for the 'fans.' I use that word loosely. Guys like me who watched it as a kid, who snuck away to go watch these things. We have a few nods to those original films."

So I guess the big news here is that the movie eschews the documentary style of the original for a traditional narrative -- which I saw as a given -- and the fact that the project is still alive. Writer director J.T. Petty (check out Scott's interview with J.T. here) was also behind the documentary S&Man, which I'm still dying to see. With Hostel: Part II and Captivity tanking at the box office, I suspect the new Faces of Death may be arriving at the torture porn party just as everyone else is packing up their knives and fetish gear.