Faces in the Crowd (2011)

A horror-thriller centered on a woman living with "face-blindness" after surviving a serial killer's attack. As she lives with her condition, one in which facial features change each time she loses sight of them, the killer closes in.

Director:

Julien Magnat

Writers:

Julien Magnat (original screenplay by), Agnès Caffin (with the participation of),

Stars:

Milla Jovovich, Julian McMahon, David Atrakchi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Milla Jovovich	...	Anna Marchant
Julian McMahon	...	Sam Kerrest
David Atrakchi	...	Lanyon / Tearjerk Jack
Michael Shanks	...	Bryce
Marianne Faithfull	...	Dr. Langenkamp
Sarah Wayne Callies	...	Francine
Valentina Vargas	...	Nina
Kate Yacula	...	Anna #2 - in hospital mirror
Apollonia Vanova	...	Anna #4 - in make-up mirror
Nels Lennarson	...	Kerrest # 2
Chris Kalhoon	...	Kerrest # 3
Aaron Hughes	...	Man #1 / Man # 2
Aaron Grain	...	Lanyon # 2
Michael James	...	Lanyon #3
Jason Wishnowski	...	Lanyon # 4

Storyline

The elementary school teacher Anna Marchant lives with her boyfriend Bryce in a nice apartment and every now and then she meets her best friends Francine and Nina to drink and talk. When Anna is crossing a bridge to meet Bryce, she sees an infamous serial-killer killing a woman. Anna runs but she is attacked by the killer and she falls off the bridge and hits her head. Anna stays in coma for a week and when she awakes, she learns that she has brain damage followed by Prosopagnosia, a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize other objects may be relatively intact. The police detective Sam Kerrest unsuccessfully tries to force Anna to remember the face of the serial-killer. Now the serial-killer knows that Anna has seen his face, but she is incapable of even recognizing Bryce and her close friends.

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Plot Keywords:

face | friend | recognize | bridge | disorder | 

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Taglines:

She saw the killer's face, but it keeps changing...

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing violent content and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [jp]

Country:

USA France Canada UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 2011 (Turkey)

Also Known As:

Faces

Filming Locations:

Esplanade Riel pedestrian bridge, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Minds Eye Entertainment, Frantic Films Live Action Productions, Radar Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The specialist Anna sees to help her cope with her disease is H. Langenkamp - a reference to Heather Langenkamp, the actress who played the would-be victim of fellow razor-blade killer Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

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Goofs

When Sam Kerrest speeds up to save Anna, it sounds like he is speeding up but outside the window the environment goes with the same speed as before.

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Connections

References Columbo (1971)

User Reviews

through the eyes or the face-blind

The brilliance of this movie is they keep you confused about the identity of each character by using dozens different actors for each character, morphing, makeup etc. Just like the heroine, you can't remember what each character really looks like. The changes start out subtle, so it feels like your memory is faulty. You experience the world partially through the eyes of the heroine who cannot distinguish faces. Voices, builds etc. are not distinctive either.

This ambiguity of identity greatly enhances the problem of the heroine knowing whom she can trust. It is a traditional horror movie where the heroine refuses to take sensible precautions, and keeps putting herself at mortal risk. This movie works because the heroine is so vulnerable and because the villain takes such sadistic pleasure in teasing her with her strange vulnerability. It kept me on the edge of my seat. I normally find the genre boring.