Faces

Director - Juan Ignacio Galvan (El Embarazado)

Starring - Carmen Sevilla (The Devil's Cross, The Glass Ceiling), Juan Pardo (Escala en Hi-Fi, Dias de Viejo Color), and Barbara Rey (The Night of the Sorcerers, The Ghost Galleon)

Release Date - 1978

Genre - Horror

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

      I've been reviewing these movies in this Exorcismo set for what feels like weeks now and it's been a wild ride to say the least.  Some of these films were a lot of fun while others were a bit difficult to finish.  I didn't mind the negative ones because these films were pioneering for Spanish cinema after the death of Franco.  As I work through the last leg of the set I find myself about to watch the 1978 horror film Rostros, or Faces, from filmmaker Juan Ignacio Galvan.  I was unaware that Faces was the film Rostros but I had seen the original poster for this one in the Upcoming Horror Movies message boards many years ago.  I never had a chance to see it or knew the alternate title was Faces but once I realized it was the same film I was excited to check it out.

     The film follows a struggle artist who has mad a career out of sculptures.  However, he has worked so many faceless sculptures that he now struggles seeing the faces of the people around him.  This changes while on a flight when he encounters a woman of unimaginable beauty.  He becomes infatuated with her and tries to pursue her but the closer he gets to her the weirder things are as their lives are turned upside by a strange woman in white.

     Faces is nothing like I expected.  Honestly, I liked the basis for the story but the unlikable characters and poor pacing made this one extremely mediocre.  I can see why it would be included in the set and why it was mentioned on the UHM message boards back then but this one was not for me.  The acting in this one isn't bad.  In fact, it's pretty well done by most of the cast.  The cast really gets into their roles and the characters are written very well for the story.  Sadly, the characters are not that likable and the decent performances are lost to the scene.  The story for this one is very interesting when you look at the film as a whole but it's execution, similar to other films in the set, doesn't reach it's full potential.  The sculptor lost to his own creations only to find obsession with a random woman is poetic.  You then have the voodoo aspect tossed in that adds some layer to the story but is not fully explored like I had hoped.  With that being said, the story doesn't really want to commit to any aspect of the story.  We bounce around from theme to theme without dedication to any of it.  Personally, I wish it would have fully embraced the voodoo aspect and gave us a chilling folk horror tale about the artist and his love interest.  Finally, this one doesn't really have a body count or a gore.  It's a character driven piece with a story that is meant to hold the viewer's attention.  Fans of the red stuff will be very disappointed with this one.  Overall, Faces has a story that was pretty fucking clever and surprised me with the little voodoo angle but it couldn't put it all together into something enjoyable.  I seriously wanted to like it but couldn't.