The Face of Horror is a rollercoaster of technicolour wonder and horror in what is both a revision of and a loving tribute to movies from the middle of the 20th century. In Medieval England, disgraced knight Edward Carnifex (Jonah Hauer-King) murders the father of the virtuous Lady Eleanor (Kristine Froseth), then cheats his way into marriage with her. When he grows tired of the marriage and desires someone new, he and his new lover come up with a fiendish plot to destroy her with gruesome results.
The Face of Horror is a different kind of movie from director Anna Biller’s previous work, The Love Witch. It takes old-fashioned movie styles and techniques and mimics them flawlessly, all the while wittily subverting the conservative elements of the old texts. The result is ambitiously camp. The colours pop with a boldness in every shot but also have an artificial sheen to them. Every piece of metal glistens like sunlight; the green of the forest is like deep emerald and blood becomes candy red. It’s both wonderfully rich and joyously tacky at the same time.
In a similar vein, the performances are not trying to be naturalistic. Every line is overcooked and exaggerated to give it a grand feel. Fight choreography is sprinkled with extra groans and cries as every move is clunkily telegraphed. The sets also have a wonderfully retro feel to them. When something needs to be faked, they make good use of old-school painted backgrounds, rather than opting for computer effects. You can feel the world they’ve built. Similarly, blood and gore and mutated faces have a plastic, VFX jankiness that’ll have you cheering.
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Billier has lovingly recreated the feel of something like Hammer horror or an Errol Flynn blockbuster. Though there is the odd out-of-sync sound effect or bad overdub to give it some charm, it’s not trying to parody the period it was made in a la Garth Mirenghi’s Darkplace. There’s also a feminist message infused within the film. It’s not particularly subtle: women are exploited and objectified by men who are trash. Righteous revenge ensues. It’s good fun, and even though it’s set in a time with morals distant from our own, the idea of an establishment protecting vile men who abuse women is something that’ll unfortunately resonate.
The Face Of Horror is based loosely on a kabuki play, and the Japanese influence shows, mainly in the way the guilty are haunted by long-haired, gown-wearing women who float ethereally across the room to enact cruel vengeance. There are parts that could have moved faster, and you’re left a bit too long between the shocks and the splatter but, again, it does make it feel like Billier is being authentic to the pacing of the period she’s emulating.
It’s not for everyone. Some will find the whole feel of the film laborious and off-putting, but this is a director with a real vision. Anna Billier has once again captured the look and the feel of a forgotten movie style in glorious, crowd-pleasing fashion and injected her own modern feminist perspective to create an entertaining and utterly unique slice of movie magic. She might only seem to be able to make a film every 10 years, but it’s going to become an event every time she releases one.
★★★★
In cinemas soon / Jonah Hauer-King, Kristine Froseth, Ellie Bamber / Dir: Anna Biller / MUBI / TBC
