Most horror fanatics from the ages of 60 to 20 have likely come across, or heard, of the notorious 1978 mondo exploitation film Faces of Death. What was once sold as a genuine snuff film that was apparently so shocking it was “banned in 46 countries”, Faces of Death was the kind of film that became something akin to an urban legend amongst a generation of horror hounds. With a tagline that read “experience the graphic reality of death, close-up”, the potential of seeing real-life death in a movie you had to ask your local video store clerk for was almost intoxicating for a generation of sick horror lovers such as myself. Of course, the reality is that Faces of Death was directed by John Alan Schwartz and was a collection of real-life stock footage mixed with staged footage meant to resemble actual snuff footage. This theater of the macabre was a phenomenon in its heyday and those shockwaves reverberated throughout the following decades. Whether you managed to get your hands on the original Gorgon Video VHS tape or later watched large chunks of the film on a stray YouTube link, Faces of Death has remained one of the more notorious pieces of exploitation to emerge during the “video nasty” era. While the “remake” was announced a few years ago with director Daniel Goldhaber and co-writer Isa Mazzei, who have taken audiences through the dark underbelly of the Internet with their ingenious and trippy cyber thriller Cam, the project has been sitting on the shelf for nearly two years, only now getting its long overdue release. The duo’s latest work serves as both a pointed commentary on the monetization of violence in the social media age and as a gnarly meta slasher.
Courtesy Independent Film Company
Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at Kino, a TikTok-adjacent social media platform, where her daily routine consists of sifting through flagged online videos and deciphering whether or not these videos are acceptable for everyday consumption. Margot is told through her boss/friend Josh (Jermaine Fowler) to “support the trend” and “give people what they want”, which generally means approving violent content and flagging sex ed videos for pornography and even a video demonstrating the use of NARCAN in the case of an overdose as drug use. Still struggling to cope with the death of her sister in a viral video-gone-wrong, Margot feels a sense of entitlement in regards to cleaning up the internet. When she begins seeing videos that appear all too real, including a video of someone getting decapitated set to old-sounding narration, Margot attempts to show her boss the footage, but is instead coerced into approving the video in hopes of spreading a new viral trend; “DIY horror is trafficking right now!”, Josh gloates. After more videos start coming her way from the same account, showing a man electrocuted and another with his head bashed in with a mallet, Margot suspects a connection between the videos. It’s through her roommate Josh (Aaron Holliday), a queer horror buff, where Margot stumbles across an old VHS tape of the original Faces of Death and realizes the deaths she’s been seeing online are copycat versions of the many deaths in the 1978 film. Margot’s search for answers puts her in the sights of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), the very serial killer posting these videos just a few states away.
Directed by Daniel Goldhaber, Faces of Death is a mightily effective mix of both clever social critique and an unnerving postmodern slasher. While Goldhaber and co-writer Isa Mazzei have covered the dark side of the internet with their 2018 debut Cam and the tense, revolutionary-focused 2022 docudrama How to Blow Up a Pipeline, the duo slightly recalibrate for a more specific look at the desensitization of the doom-scrolling TikTok era. In a time where the most horrific acts of humanity are dulled through the prism of a phone screen, Goldhaber and Massei use this idea as a larger jumping off point to adapt Faces of Death in the modern digital age. Similar to the 2023 thriller Red Rooms, Goldhaber skillfully examines the obsession modern pop culture has with the grim and macabre. Margot’s cynical coworker Gabby (Charli XCX) seems particularly enthralled when viewing one of the many murder videos spreading into the digital ether.
What sets Goldhaber’s reboot apart from other films of the genre is its ability to weave in its greater thesis with the trappings of a gnarly, satisfying slasher. The film’s second half puts a greater emphasis on Dacre Montgomery’s serial killer and his quest of kidnapping online influencers and personalities to use for his “art”. Montgomery’s Arthur is a deeply disturbed and insecure man who sees his viral snuff films as art and himself as an auteur. He stages his videos with several mannequins to better recapture the staging of the original Faces of Death footage. Yet, for all the bloodshed caused by own doing, Arthur is seemingly frightened at the sight of blood and is highly OCD when it comes to cleaning himself off afterwards.
Courtesy Independent Film Company
Dacre Montgomery is absolutely chilling here, giving the film an oppressive sense of dread whenever he’s on-screen. Arthur works for a phone company which allows him to get Intel on his latest victims. He is very awkward and homely during the day, before coming into his own sense of confidence and self-assurance when at home prepping for his next video or targeting his next victim. Montgomery nails the specific dueling physicality of the character, often changing physique and cadence within the very same scene, or even shot. It’s a real live-wire performance that feels all the more disturbing in the singular choices made by the Stranger Things alum.
The filmmakers are forced to walk a very tricky line given the film’s thesis and succeed almost overwhelmingly. Goldhaber and Massei don’t shy away from sadistic violence and gore, but they make sure the audience feels the weight of each act of violence. Both subgenres in the film are able to coalesce into a “have your cake and eat it too” style ending that works far better than it otherwise should on paper. The duo’s previous two films both felt stylish without drawing attention to itself, which is also the case here.
The impressively stylized camera work, courtesy of cinematographer Isaac Bauman (They Will Kill You), enhances the tension on-screen, resulting in a final act that will keep audiences on the very edge of their seat. A splendid use of split-screen heightens the anxiety as we see both Margot and Arthur doing investigative research on one another. A De Palma-esque long tracking shot through a house during a home invasion is as nail-biting a sequence as you’ll likely see all year. When the film branches out towards useless cops disregarding evidence and Margot’s work life is when some of the cracks in the narrative begin to show. Logic gaps in critical character decisions can frustrate in the moment, but these flaws are largely forgivable given the recent lazy writing in films like Scream 7 and The Strangers: Chapter 3.
Courtesy Independent Film Company
Faces of Death is both an indictment on modern culture’s infatuation with death and a thoroughly unsettling meta slasher with a sensational performance from Dacre Montgomery. Director Daniel Goldhaber and co-writer Isa Mazzei manage to craft a clever, brutally satisfying horror film that also succeeds in tackling very modern ideas on the inundation of neverending images of death and suffering on social media. This is the kind of genre filmmaking that deserves to be celebrated, not just for its ambitions and willingness to not shy away from thorny subject matter, but in how it takes these ambitions and weaves them into a singular piece of storytelling.
Faces of Death opens in theaters on April 10th.
Oooooo…this sounds like it could be very good.