The original 1978 Faces of Death was a cult phenomenon—a low-budget exploitation film that masqueraded as a documentary featuring “snuff” footage. While much of it was fake, its underground success was driven by a primal human curiosity: the desire to witness the forbidden.
Fast forward nearly 50 years, and filmmakers Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei have returned to this concept. However, their new iteration of Faces of Death isn’t just a horror movie about killers; it is a chilling critique of how modern social media algorithms have turned real-world violence into a consumable, profitable, and inescapable commodity.
From Underground VHS to the Infinite Scroll
The film follows Margot (played by Barbie Ferreira), a content moderator for a social video app. Her life is upended when she discovers a serial killer, Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is uploading videos of real murders modeled after the scenes in the original 1978 film.
But the true horror isn’t just the fictional killer—it is the medium through which he operates. Goldhaber and Mazzei use the film to explore a terrifying shift in how we consume violence:
- The Death of Curation: In the past, war photography and graphic news were curated by human editors who acted as gatekeepers. Today, automated bots scrape violent content, attach provocative captions, and push it directly into user feeds.
- The Algorithm of Trauma: Co-writer Isa Mazzei notes that social media algorithms are designed to exploit human biology. Violent content triggers a physiological response; because a user might linger on a gruesome image for even a fraction of a second longer than “happy” content, the algorithm learns to feed them more of it.
- The Normalization of Anxiety: Through their research, the filmmakers found that constant exposure to graphic imagery—from war zones to political violence—doesn’t necessarily desensitize people to the point of numbness. Instead, it creates a new baseline of constant anxiety and alienation that society has simply begun to accept as “normal.”
The Business of Tragedy
The film highlights a cynical reality of the digital age: violence is profitable.
Goldhaber points out that during major tragic events, such as mass shootings, social media platforms see massive spikes in engagement. This engagement translates directly into ad revenue. When users “gobble up” every detail of a tragedy, Silicon Valley executives see a surge in data and dollars. The film suggests that the very systems designed to connect us are actually incentivized to keep us hooked on the most disturbing content possible.
The “Black-Pilled” Antagonist
The antagonist, Arthur, serves as a personification of this digital decay. Described by Goldhaber as a “black-pilled troll,” Arthur is a character who recognizes that the digital system is fundamentally broken and chooses to exploit that brokenness for attention. His mantra—“Give the people what they want” —is a biting indictment of a culture that demands constant, even if horrific, stimulation.
As Margot attempts to hunt him down, she realizes her role as a content moderator was never about “cleaning up” the internet; it was merely a smokescreen that masked a much larger, more systemic problem.
Conclusion: Faces of Death transcends the horror genre by shifting the focus from the killer to the platform. It suggests that the most disturbing element of modern life isn’t just the existence of violence, but an automated system that harvests human trauma for profit and delivers it directly to our pockets.
