u/JoeMorgue

Peeps this is a really weird thing to post but... the remake of Faces of Death might be one of the better horror movies of the year.

Okay I'm sure most people are at least vaguely aware of Faces of Death, the notorious schlock 1978 exploitation film that purported to be a collection of real footage of deaths "caught on camera." A legendary piece of the home media horror boom of the 1980s, it's cover loudly bragging about how it was banned in 48 countries (near as I can tell this was total bullshit, it wasn't even RELEASED in that many countries, but it was banned in the UK as part of their infamous "Video Nasty" list, New Zealand, Germany, and probably others, and was never carried by large video rental places like Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, but readily available in indie shops and bootlegs)

And as was well known by even the mid 80s... was totally fake. There's not one second of actual death footage in the original Faces of Death. It's 100% fiction.

But it was oddly effective. Something about its low quality, it's fake documentary "Here's what happened, no story, just here it is" style, and the then still novelty of VHS videos DID give it this weird, grimy "I shouldn't be watching this" feeling that anything more polished would have lacked.

I'm not gonna try to sell anyone on it, it's a piece of exploitative shock "I'm 13 and think this is edgy" crap, but as a sort of time capsule of that moment in horror and home video it's... a thing.

And the remake leans into all of that.

It follows a woman (Barbie Ferreira who absolutely OWNS this movie and after this and her run in Euphoria I won't be shocked if she's a big star a few years from now) who works for a social media platform approving and disapproving uploaded videos and starts seeing shocking, graphic apparently real death videos, all copies of the fake scenes from the old Faces of Death film.

And it's... good. It's tense, well paced, VERY well acted, and disturbing.

It's not perfect, the first half is definitely where you get your money's worth, it falls apart a little in second half, the part of the film where the girl is trying to track down the sources of the videos is gangbusters but it kind of loses steam when she actually finds and confronts the killer. And the killer is... a let down just second rate "Saw" knockoff. But it never turns outright bad and is still fully worth a watch.

Yes it's... very gory. You don't slap the "Faces of Death" name on something, even a meta-rebootamake like this one and phone in the blood and guts.

But... I really liked it. Take that for what you will.

https://preview.redd.it/4oxz69i8rf9h1.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=533613f1c5c33fbb935360a19ba025205e5e54d7

It almost certainly (like seriously 99.9999% chance) did NOT happen, everyone involved denies it, it's not the kind of thing you could really cover up given how non-classified NASA missions work, and honestly NASA would really have no reason to lie about it if it did happen but…

... astronauts Mark C. Lee and Jan Davis had sex in space for research purposes onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor during mission STS-47 in 1992.

- Only married couple (as of this post) to ever go into space on the same flight. And the whole official story about "We didn't know they were married, then found out too late to change the mission" is super-weird.

- The actual stated mission of their shuttle flight was “the effect of weightlessness on biological systems.”

- That shuttle flight flew with an add-on laboratory (Spacelab-J) that was big enough to give a couple some space and privacy, as this happening on a normal shuttle flight with the space and privacy that affords would be laughable.

- Long term colonization and general “long term life in space” plans will have to acknowledge the existence of human sex as a part of normal life at some point and how that would work in low or no gravity is therefore a question that has to be asked and that means research into it will have to happen sooner or later. A "sex in space" study/experiment of some kind IS going to happen sooner or later and you almost have to ask WHY didn't NASA just do one on this mission since if they were going to do a sex in space experiment this is exactly how they would do it.