A group of women who have been sexually assaulted in the past, get together to talk about the devastation the attacks have had on their lives in Joshua Nelson’s short film Faces of Dead Women.
For those avid visitors and readers of Screen Critix, you may recognise the name of writer/director Joshua Nelson, as he has graced these pages before when we reviewed the likes of Meow Mixer and A Broken Arrow. Now he has returned with an interesting and quite powerful short film entitled Faces of Dead Women.
Opening up with a woman seemingly being interviewed about how rape has affected her life, the 40-minute short jumps from more interviews with women, to all the women in a group therapy session, with some flashbacks to the attacks thrown in as well. The interviews, which are more akin to monologues, are very powerful, and the actors involved go through a range of emotions in such a short space of time.
As the film progresses, we get to meet Joseph (Bryan Murray) – an obviously disturbed man who fantasizes about the many women he comes across. During his meeting with a counselor called Angela (Debra Holtzman), a rape victim herself, Joseph goes into detail about how each woman turns him on and what he would like to do with them all, stating that they are the most beautiful creatures on the planet.
During one of the group meetings, Angela confesses to her fellow rape victims that she doesn’t want her assailant caught and sent to prison, she wants revenge. She then asks the rest of the group in helping her to rid the world of Joseph. This is where the film took a sharp turn. It became less of a case study for rape and the after-effects of such assaults, but more like a revenge thriller for the final ten minutes. It took me by surprise and I actually enjoyed this twist in the proceedings.
I was impressed by the performances in Faces of Dead Women. As stated above, many of the actresses managed to show a range of emotions, from nervous laughter to crying on screen. You’d be forgiven for mistaking the short for a documentary. It all just looked and felt real for the most part.
Faces of Dead Women was created by just a few people in key crew roles. The aforementioned Joshua Nelson was the writer and director, Michael Zayac was the cinematographer, the editing was done by James Adam Tucker, and the score was provided by Emi Nishida. You’d expect a forty-minute film to have ten times that amount in crew members, but surprisingly, with little help, they have come together to create a really interesting and thought-provoking drama/thriller.
Leave a Reply