Anna Biller's first feature in ten years arrived at TIFF's Midnight Madness on September 11. The Face of Horror is still without a U.S. distributor, with sales handled by WME.
Adapted from Yotsuya Kaidan, the 1825 Japanese ghost story, the film moves the action to 14th-century feudal England. Edward (Jonah Hauer-King), an English knight, murders Eleanor's (Kristine Froseth) father to claim his estate, takes her as his wife, then abandons her for the glamorous Countess Isabel (Bella Heathcote). Eleanor dies. She does not stay gone. The cast also includes Ellie Bamber, Leo Suter, and Ben Radcliffe.
Biller wrote, directed, edited, and designed the costumes. She held the same set of roles on The Love Witch (2016), which has built one of the most devoted cult followings of any American independent film from the past decade. Cinematographer M. David Mullen returned for this project. Principal photography ran through summer 2025 in Prague, with music recorded at Czech Television Studio in April 2026. Good Chaos and Sirena Films produced.
Early reviews describe a film that commits fully to a Technicolor register drawn from Hammer horror and mid-century Hollywood medieval productions. The Wrap called it "gory, colorful, arch, immaculately designed." The emotional underpinning, reviewers note, arrives with more force than the arch exterior suggests.
Ten years between features. A Midnight Madness slot. No deal. Biller made the film the way she makes everything. The market will decide what to do with that.
