The original 1978 film Faces of Death spent decades as a cornerstone of horror mythology, fueled by the persistent rumor that its footage captured genuine mortality. Though eventually revealed as a scripted exercise in artifice, the film’s legacy persisted, leaving a blueprint for how audiences consume shock. However, for filmmakers Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei, the challenge was not simply updating a cult classic, but asking how such a concept translates to an era where the most extreme imagery is available via a social media scroll.
Their answer is a 21st-century reimagining released via Independent Film Company and Shudder. The new iteration shifts the focus from the footage itself to the pathology of the person creating it. The story centers on Arthur, a killer portrayed by Dacre Montgomery, who is obsessed with the 1978 original. Arthur doesn’t just watch the analog classic. he recreates its violent segments in real life, broadcasting the results to the internet to hijack the modern attention economy.
This digital obsession creates a deadly cat-and-mouse game with Margot, a content moderator played by Barbie Ferreira. As Margot sifts through the depravity of the web to protect users, she discovers Arthur’s work, bridging the gap between the invisible labor of online moderation and the visceral reality of a killer seeking viral notoriety. To understand how Dacre Montgomery’s killer was created, one must look at the intersection of psychological triggers and the banal accessibility of modern commerce.
Designing a Modern Psychosis
The creation of Arthur was not based on a study of historical serial killers, but rather an observation of current digital ecosystems. Goldhaber and Mazzei, who previously collaborated on the 2018 film Cam, wanted to explore how the internet encourages individuals to reach their most extreme impulses in pursuit of views.
Isa Mazzei noted that the character grew out of conversations regarding how the internet traffics in attention. According to Mazzei, it felt realistic that someone attempting to hijack that attention would resort to mass violence, reflecting an ecosystem that rewards extremity. This psychological grounding provided the motivation for Arthur’s psychotic obsessions, framing him as a product of the very platforms Margot is tasked with cleaning.
To heighten the authenticity of this digital world, the production avoided purely fictional placeholders for the content Margot moderates. Instead, the filmmakers utilized licensed, real-life videos sourced from across the internet. Mazzei employed a research assistant to find a spectrum of clips—ranging from the banal and funny to the horrifying—to ensure the internet felt authentic to the viewer’s actual experience.
The Logistics of the Mask and Suit
The physical manifestation of Arthur was a collaborative effort between Goldhaber, Montgomery and costume designer Lauren Bott. The design process was governed by a strict narrative constraint: everything Arthur wears must be something he could plausibly purchase online without leaving his home.
Goldhaber explained that the constraint was simple: “Arthur is getting everything off Amazon, right? So every single thing he has in the movie, you can buy yourself.” This decision served two purposes. First, it grounded the horror in a practical, everyday reality. Second, it reinforced Arthur’s characterization as someone too anxious to interact with people in a physical store, relying instead on the anonymity of global shipping.
The specific aesthetic of the killer was further refined by Dacre Montgomery’s own personal experiences with sensory processing. Montgomery, who deals with severe OCD, used his sensitivity to textures to inform Arthur’s behavior. This manifested in the character’s obsession with the texture of his “skin suit” and the way he rubs his body while wearing it. This trait mirrors Arthur’s broader control issues and his paradoxical fear of blood.
The final look was a patchwork of digital acquisitions:
- A base layer of stockings to provide the desired texture.
- A cheap 3D-printed mask sourced from China, which Arthur sews onto the stocking.
- Red contact lenses, chosen specifically to evoke the skeletal imagery from the original 1978 Faces of Death cover art.
The Spirit of Analog Horror in a Digital Age
By mirroring the process of the character—buying cheap, disparate items and assembling them into a terrifying whole—the filmmakers sought to create a villain that felt like a natural extension of modern evil. The goal was not just to tell a story about a killer, but to make the film itself feel as though it had been possessed by the spirit of the original 1978 work.
Goldhaber stated that the ultimate objective was for the movie to “feel evil,” as if the camera itself were an instrument of the original film’s legacy. By combining real-world internet footage with a killer built from the remnants of e-commerce, the film explores the thin line between the curated horror of the screen and the actual violence of the physical world.
As the film continues its theatrical run and moves toward streaming availability on Shudder, it serves as a commentary on the psychological toll of content moderation and the dangerous allure of digital infamy. For those affected by the themes of violence or mental health struggles depicted in the film, resources such as the Crisis Text Line provide immediate support.
With the film now in theaters, audiences can witness the culmination of this research into digital attention and sensory horror. We invite you to share your thoughts on the evolution of the “Faces of Death” legacy in the comments below.
