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:

hypnotism | rape | face | recognize | bridge | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing violent content and some sexuality

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 (1984).

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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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Quotes

Dr. Langenkamp: Everyone always goes on about sight, hearing, smelling. But there's another sense. A hidden one. The Japanese call it mooka. It's the sense that allows you to walk without having to thinking about putting one foot in front of the other. You loose this sense and you will become like some of my other patients. Socially paralyzed, withdrawing from the world into the safety of isolation. That's a tempting option.
Anna Marchant: I don't want that. I want to live normally.
Dr. Langenkamp: Every day people are going to resent you for...
[...]

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Connections

References A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

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Soundtracks

Shala La La, La
Written by George Acogny, Traci Amos, Nils Jiptner and Grant Nicholas
Performed by Traci Amos and Terra Naomi

User Reviews

Interesting idea, mostly disappointing results

The idea behind this serial killer movie - a female witness to a serial killer who is injured and can't recognize faces, even that of the killer - is a novel one. And the woman's disability does lead to some interesting scenes of her struggling with the disability. But the movie as a whole doesn't quite work. One reason is the budget - while the movie never looks extremely cheap, it's obvious throughout that the entire enterprise was done in a cost-saving manner. The main reasons the movie fails, however, is that the movie both feels very drawn out and the serial killer parts fail to be very interesting or suspenseful compared to what we've seen in other serial killer movies before. Ironically, the movie is the most interesting when it shows the female lead struggling with her disability in day to day life. I honestly feel that if the movie had ditched the whole tired serial killer plot and made a serious movie about the woman's disability that the movie would have been a lot better.

P.S. - Does a movie really need FOURTEEN executive producers?

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA France Canada UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 2011 (Turkey)

Also Known As:

Faces in the Crowd

Filming Locations:

Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$93,759

Company Credits

Production Co:

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

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1