Dacre Montgomery Drew Inspiration from an Obscure 2015 Indie Thriller for Faces of Death
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Actor Dacre Montgomery reveals how an obscure 2015 found footage film and his own personal experiences with OCD helped shape his villainous role in the upcoming Faces of Death adaptation.
Actors often pull from unexpected places to build memorable villains, but Dacre Montgomery went deep into the indie horror archives to prep for his role in the upcoming Faces of Death adaptation. In a recent interview with Polygon, Montgomery revealed that he studied the 2015 found-footage thriller Be My Cat, a Film for Anne to capture the unsettling, parasocial energy of his character Arthur. The film follows a Romanian filmmaker obsessed with casting Anne Hathaway, blurring the lines between fiction and unsettling reality in a way that resonated with the actor. To round out the performance, Montgomery and director Daniel Goldhaber also infused the villain with personal details, including the actor's own experiences with severe OCD and sensory texture obsessions.
For modern horror fans and the streaming crowd tracking every new genre release, the setup of Faces of Death feels especially timely. The film updates the infamous 1978 shockumentary concept for the digital era, featuring a killer who reenacts violent scenes and streams them on a TikTok style app for social media clout and algorithmic fame. By grounding a killer driven by digital validation in very real psychological nuances like obsessive compulsions and disturbing online parasocial dynamics, the creative team is tapping straight into modern anxieties about internet culture and the pursuit of viral notoriety.
As horror continues to evolve alongside our digital habits, the ways actors build these contemporary monsters reflect how much time we all spend in online spaces. Faces of Death lands in theaters this week, offering a fresh take on a classic piece of exploitation history filtered through the lens of modern creator culture. You can check out the original reporting over at Polygon to get the full story on how the film came together.
Tags: Horror, Film, Streaming, Culture, Polygon
Original article: Polygon