The Faceless Man (film)

Did You Know?

• The film won six awards at the 2019 Melbourne Underground Film Festival, including Best Director and Best Film.
• After recovering from cancer for three years, the protagonist Emily plans a weekend away with friends to cope with the fear of getting sick again.
• The friends are attacked by both rednecks and a supernatural creature: a man without a face that haunts the holiday house.

Production

After his short film "Five O'Clock," Di Martino set out to make a feature-length movie, which became The Faceless Man. He first weighed making either a monster or a gangster film, then decided to merge both concepts. Citing Get Out as an influence, he called it an elevated horror film. Di Martino wanted The Faceless Man to be "a unique experience" that moves through genres, deconstructing slasher and creature features while weaving in black comedy for an offbeat adventure with a constant evil presence. The character Eddie was crafted specifically for actor Andy McPhee; Di Martino admitted he had no backup plan if McPhee had refused. An origin story for the Faceless Man was originally included but cut after Di Martino saw Hereditary. He felt that film's cult explanation was so poorly handled that he chose not to attempt a similar origin in his own movie.