Director: Raymond Wood
Starring: Jenna Kanell, Danny Kang, Danielle Lyn, Max Calder, Michael Aaron Milligan, Kathrine Barnes, Jason MacDonald, and Israel Vaughn
Movie Length: 1 hour 23 minutes
What it’s about: A life in the spotlight as an actress turns one girl’s life into an anxiety filled nightmare where the line between her roles and reality begin to blur. Especially as she’s haunted by creeper fans and social media pressures around every corner.
What Corey thought: I loved this movie. It’s dark social commentary on the fandom and celebrity of movie stars and all the challenges of being in that profession. From rowdy and creepy fans to the bad reviews and the emotional baggage of playing a role that might seep into your real life. The 24/7 connection to social media and it’s ability to ramp up all of these things to infinite and inescapable measure. It’s got it all! Wood takes all of these factors and feeds them all into an unhinged Jenna Kanell who literally steals the show with her paranoia, psychosis, and frail mental state. Her performance is extraordinary and it might almost be too good. The crazy part is you can’t help but feel bad for her! She still comes off as the victim here. Here she is acting out and recording all these violent scenes but you can’t help but put the blame on the business itself. The glorification of the job. The loss of privacy, having to be nice to all of these obsessive creeps just to sell a role. On top of that, she’s not just singling out any old victim. These people have been handpicked by her because of some horrid comment that struck a chord with her or because they have been stalking other young women online, etc. You might even say she’s doing the world a favor. Nonetheless it’s a very dark and at times quite gory film but it’s the plunging depths of Kanells character’s mental state and her apparent trauma that really sells it. P.S. Don’t ever tell Kanell she’s “Not that big of a star!” haha!
Corey’s Rating – A. If you’re a gore hound or just like watching movies with unstable and unpredictable characters this will be right down your alley! Definitely check it out ASAP!
Faceless After Dark is now available on VOD services and will be released on Blu-ray on June 25th.
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