The Faceless Man

The Faceless Man

By far the he best thing i can say about this movie is, you wont forget it. For years you will remember the insane character choices, the scenes stolen whole cloth from other movies but with none of the subtelty or or intentions that made those scense great in the first place, you will remember the meta refrences, that feel forced and completely out of place, the terrible practical effects, the wodden and very un-human like acting from most of the cast and the random fever dream orgy..... the only thing you wont remember is the plot, as this movie features no less then 37 of them, each one as undefined and incomplete as the last. A monster plauges the main character but don't worry its just in her mind as an analog for her father, but ALSO for the cancer that she beats at the start of the "film" but DO worry! As the monster is real for twist one of the three endings! A hot fuzz like sleepy little town up to no good, a plot line about stealing the steryotyped mafioso's drugs, how about an axe murdering friend? No, not enough? Lets bring in some bikies then. Nothing connects in any coherent way, and then the main character walks into the ocen and drowns hereself, fade to black now fade back in, shes alive! Looking stright down the camera telling you the story. Dont waste the 1h 46mins (feels like10) it takes to watch this movie. Best part of the movie was the coke i had at the start of it.

I watched this movie on drugs and I actually think it would be even less coherent if I were sober.

The Faceless Man is an Australian horror movie from James Di Martino, making his feature-length debut. It deals with a group of friends heading out for a getaway and running afoul of a violent gangster, a biker gang, finding lots of drugs, and being haunted by the titular creature. If that sounds like a lot of things, well it is. Di Martino does not lack ambition and luckily, he has the acumen to back it up. The Faceless Man seamlessly jumps from one style (the dry, dark humor and violence of the gangster) to the other (the fear of cancer coming back) with relative ease. Each person (or group) represents a specific tone and when all the tones come crashing together it is chaos... in the best possible way. Of course, if the cast were not up to the task, all the ambition in the world could not save Di Martino (nor could the 8-minute tracking shot that opens the film). Happily, the director lucked out here, as everyone is amazing. They all understand the strange combo that is this movie and deliver appropriately. This means that the horror is reacted to with real scares, the comedy gets big laughs, etc. The true star of the film is the Faceless Man himself. The makeup effects on the creature are top-notch and on their own, would make one believe the budget was much higher than it was. The Faceless Man is hard to pin, but it is very much worth your time.

At least 3 different characters in this really had a problem with people bringing drugs into their town!! And whoa some nifty speeches about the TOWn as well. Nifty I say!!! Oh WOW how bad this movie was. It really should have stayed in Australia. And I'll tell you another thing, I've heard the expression 'Go Pound Sand', but pounding sand with a fist was actually DONE in this 'movie'. And that's something I've never seen in a movie so this movie really has to get at least 2 stars! 2/10

I don't know where to begin. As a movie with a well developed narrative and strong character motives it fails miserably. It's like a long violent episode of Fat Pizza, or Psychovillie if you're British. I can't think of an American equivalent. But it's enduring and I got some laughs out of it. Sadly it's not really about the faceless man, he's just tacked on at random intervals, which is a shame because the design is very well done. It's about young city dwellers clashing with country folk while a drug dealer is on the hunt. At one point they get served filtered coffee by a waitress and that simply doesn't happen in Australia. Apart from that, it's a good cheesy effort in... making whatever this is.

A must watch horror, The Faceless Man delivers exceptional quality and quantity of horror elements that viewers will love. Can't recommend enough!

The subtext is there from the first shot. The Faceless Man means so much more than the creature. Now I could be going into this too deep and perhaps I am. There are many aspects to The Faceless Man that require an additional watch to piece the film together. For me the many layers adds a lot of depth that is not often seen in general horror films.

Wow, for a film that promotes the anti-drug message, it is ironic that you may need to do drugs to enjoy or maybe understand it. The film seems so random although the twist at the end seemed a bit forced or an after thought to include. The horror element had promise but it never truly realised. The multi storylines in this film is far too convoluted to make for great viewing.

Emily is a recovering cancer survivor of three years. To celebrate completing her treatments, her best friend Nina plans a weekend getaway at a remote country house with four of their closest friends. Yep. It is party time-complete with drugs and booze. . . . And it goes from bad to worse pretty quickly for the sextet-as it normally does for (unsympathetic) spoiled, life-is-a-perpetual-party city kids who "vacation" out in those parts where they don't belong in the first place-especially when a biker gang shows up. And you act like CENSORED at the local roadside diner. And smart mouth the local law enforcement. And the owners of your cabin rental don't like you. And your friend stole a briefcase of blow for the occasion-and the gangster-owner wants it back. Oh, and there's a serial killer, aka The Faceless Man, on the loose. And the cabin is haunted (maybe) and ties into the murderous nom de plume (who may be bogus). Oh, (there's a lot of "ohs" in this movie) and Emily's having treatment withdrawals and puking bile-accompanied by hallucinations of a spindly-fingered creature leaving blood-scrawled messages on mirrors. And the hallucinations and who-done-it murders-and-kidnappings of the others follow in quick succession. Do the devil-may-care city kids deserve to have the collective Devil after them: the townsfolk, the bikers, the gangsters, their own drug-induced mind-CENSORED, and the serial killer? Yeah, even Emily the cancer survivor. This is a film where (because of great writing and acting) you end up identifying with the villain-antagonists (but the "good" city kids are their own worst antagonists). You wouldn't expect a film that markets itself as a horror film-with a protagonist that's a cancer survivor-to run the gauntlet from slasher to comedy, fork off into a crime drama, and veer into the new-giallo supernatural. But, thick Down Under accents aside: it all works in a Tarantino-pulpy meets a (lighter touch) Shawn of the Dead-kind of way where the detailed set design reminds of Kubrick's The Shining meets the color palate of a Dario Argento giallo. And keep your eyes open for the Tarantino "diner scene" and "interrogation scene" from Reservoir Dogs, along with the "basement bondage scene" from Pulp Fiction, and your ears open for the Carpenteresque scoring. In the acting department (the entire cast is good) the two standout performances (among the affable, oddball-arced characters) (for me) come from actor Daniel Reader as the local redneck thug Barry (he's so cool-feared, he has his own logo-coffee mug) and Roger Ward (yes, Fifi from Mad Max) as the gangster King Dougie. (Reader is relatively new the screen; he's amassed twenty-plus credits in ten year across shorts and support roles in Aussie features; but I'd like to see him cross the pond and find work in larger, better-distributed American films.) All in all, The Faceless Man is an effectively-directed and expertly-shot feature film writing and directing debut by James Di Martino. We look forward to seeing more of his work in the streaming verse. And you'll read those reviews first, on B&S About Movies.