FACES
Synopsis
Following the disappearance of a local girl on a dark October evening, Judy, a college student visiting for the weekend, is invited to a fraternity party. For Judy, what could have been a night of fun and drinking spirals out of control when she encounters a mysterious, deadly entity. As the night unfolds, the entity’s uncanny quest brings violent consequences to those who cross its path.
Filmmaker Blake Simon delivers a truly startling short to Fantasia 2024 audiences. On a college campus, young people are disappearing. An evil entity is collecting trophies, and no one is paying attention.
Cailyn Rice delivers a female Buffalo Bill quality to her performance as Judy. It is everything. Ethan Daniel Corbett plays Judy’s unwitting co-star, Brad. He, too, embodies a similarly sinister aura. The two breathe life into this skin-crawling short, no pun intended.
Bravo to the sound editor. FACES has visual and storytelling echoes of Jill Sixx‘s The Stylist but moves solidly into the creature features realm. The creepy body-snatching genre has all the markings of feature-length greatness.
Starring
Cailyn Rice (1923, Paramount)
Natalie de Vincentis (Daisy Jones & the Six, Prime)
Ethan Daniel Corbett
Emily Gateley
Hanna Eisenbath
Olivia Lee
Produced by Liz Holland, Jared Selcer
Director’s Statement
Creating FACES, I wanted to explore something that I had been witnessing around me that nobody was openly talking about. It was that search for identity that lies under the surface of all of us. The co-opting of things that we think will make us into a more complete version of ourselves. The desire to fill the holes we feel by any means necessary. Sometimes the scariest things are what we find in ourselves. To me, that was worth exploring.
About Blake Simon
Blake Simon is a writer and director known for creating genre films such as FACES (2024), Red Velvet (2023), and Goldilocks (2016). He has also worked on a variety of studio films including most recently as an Associate Producer on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). His award-winning sci-fi short Goldilocks has amassed over half a million views online. In 2023, his horror short Red Velvet earned Audience Choice at Screamfest, Director’s Prize at FilmQuest, and Best Cinematography at Nightmares Film Festival. His newest film, FACES, explores the search for identity and also serves as a proof of concept for the feature-length version of the film.
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