‘The Faceless Man’ MOVIE REVIEW: Homage-Filled Aussie Horror with Not Enough of That Monster – Screen Realm

Freedom Cinema

Having picked up several awards when it premiered at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, including Best Picture, Aussie horror The Faceless Man is making its way to home distribution.

The film sees cancer survivor Emily (Sophie Thurling) going on a long weekend in rural Australia with a handful of her friends. Well, we can assume theyre friends, but they dont appear to actually like hanging out with each other. Unbeknownst to Emily and co, theyre being pursued by a mob boss, Viktor (Albert Goikhman), who wants to retrieve the suitcase of cocaine that was stolen from him by one of Ems chums.

But wait, theres more!

Emily and crew have also caught the attention of King Dougie (Roger Ward, Turkey Shoot) who doesnt care for city folk coming into his town. Theres also the issue of locals Silverbeard (Andy McPhee) and Barry the C*** (Daniel Reader) hanging around the gangs holiday rental in the hopes of having sex with the twenty-something friends. Oh, and theres also a bit of a problem with masked figures roaming the corridors at night and a scarred Faceless Man jumping out at Emily whenever she looks in the mirror. Is he merely a manifestation of Emilys trauma or does in he a play a larger part in the narrative? Yes. Well, no. Well, maybe. Its all a bit unclear.

If you havent ascertained from the above, The Faceless Man is overstuffed with plot. Its not so much a case of Plot A and Plot B, but also Plot C, D and maybe even E. In fact, its so saturated with numerous narratives that youre unlikely to be surprised to read how little the titular monster appears on screen. Which is a shame, because the films monster is perhaps one of the strongest parts of the film, alongside the rest of the films aesthetic.

Its clear that writer-director James Di Martino, making his feature-length debut, is having a whale of time playing around with genres and giving shout-outs to his favourite filmmakers. Indeed, The Faceless Man is a patchwork quilt of subtle and not-so-subtle nods to numerous cinematic classics. In fact, the biggest problem, aside from the film bursting at the seams with characters and a lack of focus, is the constant references to other films better films that you could be watching instead of The Faceless Man. When a character is stabbed several times, a home-brand version of Psychos shower theme plays. Wes Cravens Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream franchise get a look in. Theres a passing glance to Evil Dead. Heck, even everyones 2017 Salt Bae meme is thrown into the mix.

The biggest influence to Di Martino is the Tarantino, which culminates in the director combining the rape scene from Pulp Fiction with the torture scene from Reservoir Dogs. Make of that what you will. Di Martinos egregious borrowing is probably more barefaced than Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs being merely influenced by City on Fire. Theres so much referencing of other pieces of work, the film ends up feeling like an overtly serious entry in the Scary Movie franchise.

And its a shame, because at times Di Martino has a tight control of the camera and his solid use of practical effects mean you really will wince when a mobster starts cutting heads off left, right and centre. Gore hounds, youre not going to have your thirst quenched, but itll certainly tick a number of boxes. The rest of the time, youll be asking yourself what the film would look like if it were shorter and if Di Martino relied a little less on homages. The filmmaker has made it clear that Faceless Man was a way to process his own diagnosis with cancer; I want to be able to say that shines through the film. Unfortunately, its all just a bit of a scare-free mess.

The Faceless Man is released On Demand on August 28th.

Author:

John Noonan is tucked away in a suburb of Melbourne. Aside from dissecting movies for numerous publications and guesting on commentaries, he is also the author of the Ms Holmes novellas. You can follow him at @noonanjohnc and noonanjohnc.com.

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'The Faceless Man' MOVIE REVIEW: Homage-Filled Aussie Horror with Not Enough of That Monster - Screen Realm

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero