Jenna Kanell burst onto the horror scene playing Tara in Damien Leone’s Terrifier. Now she leads a new genre film, Faceless After Dark. Kanell co-wrote the script for Faceless After Dark with Todd Jacobs. Kanell’s involvement in the writing side is very interesting as there are clear aspects of her own career that feed the narrative.
In Faceless After Dark, Kanell plays Bowie, an actor made famous for starring in a film about a maniacal clown. Since the initial buzz about the movie, Bowie’s career has not progressed the way that she had hoped. Rather than be inundated with exciting new scripts, she is trapped on the convention circuit. Worse still, even in those circuits she is being undervalued and underpaid. An early appearance reveals that, unlike herself, her male co-star is being paid for his appearance. The cherry on top of her convention time is that she is repeatedly asked to say her catchphrase from her film, which was a line that she never wanted to say and was promised wouldn’t be used. None of this is the glitz and glam life that Bowie had envisioned, and that causes frustration.
Life at her luxury Los Angeles apartment is also causing Bowie woes. She lives with her girlfriend Jessica (Danielle Lyn), a fellow actor whose career is on the precipice of going stratospheric. It is not just career envy causing problems between them as, in order to maintain her loyal fans, Jessica remains in the closet. After Jessica is whisked away on a super secret high profile project, Bowie is left alone. Then her own next project hits the skids when she finds out that the studio wants to go with a star. With nothing to distract her, Bowie decides to browse her DM’s. Filled with vile comments from men, Bowie begins to despair. A chance home invasion from an overly keen fan then presents Bowie with an opportunity for change. Inspired, she begins making her own film, filled with revenge.
During the opening section of Faceless After Dark, the viewer can’t help but wonder how much of Kanell’s own experience on Terrifier has made it in. The film divided audiences and has a very rabid fan-base. As Bowie reads and recounts the sexually explicit or aggressive messages, one can’t help but wonder if any of them come from Kanell’s inbox. This fosters a bitter realism to the film, and helps the viewer get into her mindset. Faceless After Dark is taking aim at the internet trolls, bullies, and those that like to intimidate from afar, and presents them with a cautionary tale of what could happen if they don’t mend their ways.
Spurred on by her light-bulb moment, Bowie begins to take back her own autonomy and fight back against both toxic masculinity and fandom. But by starting to play the game herself, Bowie’s sense of reality begins to distort. Faceless After Dark is a great example of how we are all the monsters in our stories. Kanell does a great job at conveying the warring factions with Bowie. There are several moments when the actor’s eyes look directly to the camera and as Bowie Kanell has to hysterically laugh and cry. There are echoes of Heath Ledger’s Joker in these moments and they generate an eerie chill.
Director Raymond Wood handles the material and subject matter well. In places there are touches of a heavy hand. There are moments when it becomes hard to align with Bowie’s plight. Whilst some elements of her life are clear causes of strife and stimulate sympathy, others – her fancy house for example, make Bowie appear like a bit of a brat. Visually the film is shrouded in beautiful neon bisexual lighting, and there are some brilliantly intense strobe light conditions. Wood also wields some inventive practical effects during torture and kill scenarios. Ultimately though, the viewer’s enjoyment will stem from how much they believe in Bowie’s cause.
Faceless After Dark
Summary
The involvement of Jenna Kanell enriches the intrigue for Faceless After Dark, leaving the viewer questioning whether it is art imitating life, or vice versa.
Faceless After Dark was reviewed at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2023.
