AFI Fest 2026 | Movie Review: "The Face Of Horror" Cuts a Knight Down To Size
Image courtesy of Good Chaos
8/12 ForReel Score | 3.5/5 Stars
Anna Biller’s The Love Witch was the product of promising filmmaker aching with growing pains. The opulent technicolor style, bolstered by colorful costumes she designed herself, was beyond impressive for an indie feature. It simply lacked a compelling narrative hook, flying off the rails from pulpy genre fare into stiff diatribe after the titular sorcerer claimed her first victim. That was a decade ago. Time has been kind. The Face of Horror, which adapts the Japanese kabuki play Yotsuya Kaidan to a medieval setting, never gets stuck in the muck of lecture. Biller doesn’t water herself down. Horror contains even more venom for chauvinist pigs than Witch. She just allows herself to follow the fun as her poison pen version of Jacques Demy’s Donkey Skin unfolds.
We find ourselves in 14th century England. Sociopathic knight Sir Edward (Jonah Hauer-King) and his buddy Richard (Leo Sutter) have just gleefully plundered a village. On the way back, they happen upon Edward’s in-laws and after a tense interaction, slaughter them. They return home to Edward’s wife Eleanor (Kristine Froseth) and her sister Beatrice (Ellie Bamber) feigning ignorance while falsely promising to avenge these murders. 2 years pass and Edward has grown tired of Eleanor, who he only fancies for her looks. He ventures out looking for a new conquest and happens upon noblewoman Lady Isabel (Bella Heathcote), who would significantly increase his status were they to marry. The two devise a plan to be rid of Eleanor that ultimately backfires in supernatural fashion.
The bulk of The Face of Horror’s absurdist humor is placed on the shoulders of Jonah Hauer-King, who proves to be inspired casting. Despite his strong charisma and dashing good looks, Hauer-King’s career didn’t quite take off following his turn as Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid. He comes to this role with a clear eagerness to prove himself and that slight insecurity vividly colors Edward. He is a delightfully over-the-top heel - essentially a live action version of Prince Charming from Shrek 2. Edward never masks his utter dismissal of women, sneering through every interaction with Eleanor with complete contempt. He kisses up to Isabel a bit more but in the most shallow ways imaginable. He becomes more vile from scene to scene and once his comeuppance approaches, Hauer-King gives us a downright cathartic shrinking of his ego.
Our three leading ladies are sadly not as colorful. To Biller’s credit, this is in-part by design. Eleanor and Isabel look alike and share a gentle demeanor. Edward clearly has a type but he’s a social climber at heart. Kristine Froseth and Bella Heathcote do well with what they’re given but Edward often sucks the oxygen out of their scenes. Froseth does get to have a bit more fun once Eleanor takes on a new form but that change comes quite late. Meanwhile, Beatrice is essentially a less timid version of Eleanor. She doesn’t quite have enough screentime to truly build out the character and her relationship with Richard also feels like a carbon copy of our central dynamic. It’s an odd outcome. Biller effectively drives home the story’s feminist intentions but in turn delivers a film where our male villain is the only truly memorable character.
Biller’s direction takes a gigantic leap forward. Love Witch was somewhat hamstrung by its more contemporary setting. It had moments of complete beauty offset by generic police stations and dive bars. In Face Of Horror, Biller designs a picturesque ancient world that completely wears artifice on its sleeve. We’ve dropped into an immersive, campy Ren Faire re-enactment with far more twisted topics than a live show for families would allow. That sense of theatricality makes itself even more apparent during an amusing bit of dinner theatre at Isabel’s palace guided by a skeletal emcee. It briefly made me wonder if this should’ve been a full musical but it is already a bit bulky. Despite its farcical tone, Face of Horror still manages to reach two hours in length. While never outright boring, it does retread several of the same beats ad nauseum. The film transitions into creepier territory with nearly an hour to go. While this segment is quite entertaining, it also feels like an inevitability that we could’ve arrived at sooner without losing anything of substance. Had Biller managed to make the pace snappier, this would’ve been endlessly rewatchable. As is - it's hindered by a bit of self importance.
The Face of Horror cements Biller as a true original. It’s a delectable balm in a landscape where most stories with this aesthetic are laborious Game of Thrones spin-offs or rip-offs. It still tackles the bleak themes of sexist oppression those stories often lean on but with a lighter, less exploitive touch. Although I’d be quite curious to see what Biller would do with a studio picture, she proves that extravagance isn’t a product of money alone. Taste is the key ingredient - and boy has her pallet improved.