Fantasia International Film Festival 2024 – Writer/director Blake Simon’s Faces is an unnerving short about an entity that inhabits the bodies of college friends. While the film may call to mind John Carpenter’s The Thing, or other body horror staples, such as David Cronenberg’s work, it’s unique in terms of what it has to say about identity, building to quite an impactful ending.

We talked with Simon about the inspiration for the film, some of the more harrowing sequences, and the very theme of identity. The interview was edited slightly for clarity.

In your director’s statement, you state that you wanted to explore the “co-opting of things that we think will make us into a more complete version of ourselves.” Can you expand upon that more?

Blake Simon: Ultimately, the film, for me, is about the search for identity. That’s a big umbrella. When people think of the search for identity, often, it’s solely about anything from gender expression to identity, etc., which is all wonderful and correct. The umbrella I wanted to play with is much bigger than that. That is to say those things do fall under that umbrella, but I think really what the film is about is feeling a sense of dissatisfaction and a hole inside of us, which may be very large, like those other topics, or it could be very small. It could be someone getting a piercing or tattoo.

The co-opting part was really about when we feel these holes inside of us, I think people often look around, whether at friends, colleagues, or people you don’t even know. From a distance, you don’t know what’s going on in their world. You don’t know their struggles, but they have something you wish you had. Often, we try those things on, and I think more often than not, you don’t get the fulfillment or satisfaction you think you might. For me, this search that’s part of human nature fascinated and frightened me. Why do we feel the need, even in small ways, to constantly reinvent and figure out who we are? It’s beautiful and also scary.

What were some of the films that were key influences on Faces? I kept thinking of The Thing, namely because of the shape-shifting entity. 

Blake Simon: Obviously, The Thing is a paramount horror film for the reasons you stated. I’m also a huge Cronenberg fan.  Dead Ringers is one of my favorites. The idea of two people that are not the same, but they look the same and blurring the lines, is fascinating to me. Less in terms of story, but more in terms of style, I’m a huge fan of It Follows. It’s an incredible example of something we were trying to achieve. The film is modern day, but the aesthetic is very old. The other films we drew on were lots of Brian De Palma. Dressed to Kill is one of my favorites. The hazy, high saturation, high key, really in-your-face, compelling imagery of those movies and that era, De Palma especially, was a huge inspiration for the look.

There’s a scene near the halfway point where the entity is in the bathroom and contorts its body in all kinds of ways. Can you talk about filming that sequence?

Blake Simon: The bathroom scene was a ton of fun. I don’t know what we expected, but it seems to be, for many people, a standout scene. What I can say is so much credit goes to the actor, Cailyn Rice. During the audition, she told us she used to be a dancer. We asked her what kind of dance. Her direct quote was, “witchy sh*t.” I immediately thought I could work with that. So much of that scene and the contortion aspect is almost entirely her. I think a lot of people think we had heavy visual effects in post. There was a little of that, but very minor. I didn’t direct her so specifically in that scene beyond the nature of what’s happening. She just would take it upon herself. When she’s sprawled out from one end of the counter to the other, or upside down, she just went nuts with it. We just leaned into it. She gave us gold.

Editing that scene is obviously extremely difficult. I have to thank my co-editor, Alexander Sharp, who just knew not to stay on something for too long. I think the scariest things are what’s in the shadows, what you don’t see. We wanted to make people feel uncomfortable and unsettled. With this thing, you can’t grasp it. It’s constantly moving and doing something it shouldn’t be doing. I think it’s the scariest scene in the film. I wouldn’t describe the film as traditional horror, but it was nice to have a scene in which the audience could be scared.

Cailyn Rice had to play two roles, essentially, both as Judy and the entity. What advice did you give her regarding the part?

Blake Simon: I talked in depth with Cailyn and our other star, Ethan Daniel Corbett, who plays Brad. There’s so much overlap in the two of their performances. We didn’t do a ton of rehearsal. I got the three of us together in a room to talk. It was for me to talk about my understanding of the entity and for me to hear and absorb their thoughts. A lot of what we talked about was the idea that this thing is not some super intelligent being that’s maniacal and diabolical. It’s more animalistic and more child-like in its wonder and exploration. It was essential that, even in Cailyn’s vanity scene, so much of what she’s doing is not quite right. It’s like as if it doesn’t fully understand its body or the make-up products. She’ll use them, but on her neck or the wrong spot.

I also wanted to make sure there was a continuity between their performances. I had both of them on set for those scenes, watching the other. If there was something one did that the other was inspired by, they could lean into that, so we really did feel like it was a singular character.

Without spoiling anything, can we talk about the ending? Do you want the audience to feel any sympathy for the entity? The conclusion causes mixed emotions.

Blake Simon: I’ll do my best. You’re absolutely correct. It is not wrong for you to feel some kind of sympathy. Basically, the movie is very subversive. At the start of the film, it feels like we’re about to watch something like Halloween. By the end, it’s a very different film. A lot of people who have seen it said they feel mixed emotions in that final scene. That alone has made them uncomfortable. They’ve just seen the bathroom scene, which you should feel very one way about. Moments later, you’re forced to question all of that. Should you be questioning all of that? That’s exactly how I want the audience to feel.

Sure, on paper, this character is doing bad things, but they’re the embodiment of something we all feel and should relate to. We’re forced to see ourselves in the character at the end. I do want complex emotions and conversations. 

Are there any plans to turn this into a feature-length film? If so, how would you like to expand this?

Blake Simon: I’ve made many shorts and I’ve written features. They’ve always been discreetly independent of each other. One thing I’ve struggled with is the nature of proof of concept.  I am so drawn to a complete narrative arc, beginning, middle, and end. Usually, if I make a short, it’s its own thing.

Faces is no different. It was beginning, middle, and end, full story. However, Faces is the first short I’ve ever made, where, upon finishing it, it was immediately clear there was more story to be told here and more world worth exploring. That’s exactly it. I’m currently developing a Faces feature. I’m very excited to keep playing in this space and hopefully, to shoot it soon.