Emerging during the 1970s home-rental boom, John Alan Schwartz’s 1978 film Faces of Death was a notoriously grim example of the "mondo" genre, known for showcasing extreme and often fake footage of violence and death. The film became infamous for its shocking content and later gained additional notoriety when it was added to the UK’s "video nasty" list—a collection of films deemed too disturbing for public consumption. Now, nearly 50 years later, director Daniel Goldhaber has revisited Faces of Death with a modern twist. Known for his 2022 film How to Blow Up a Pipeline, which explored social activism and political unrest, Goldhaber has woven original footage from Faces of Death into a new horror narrative that initially appears to be an American counterpart to Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, a film that critiques the media’s obsession with extreme content. The new film follows Margot, played by Barbie Ferreira, a content moderator working for a tech company. Her job involves reviewing user-generated videos and adding appropriate warnings. Off the clock, she struggles with traumatic memories of a train accident she witnessed, which were later shared online. Her work becomes more complex when repurposed footage from Faces of Death appears on her watchlist in high definition. Her supervisor, played by Jermaine Fowler, encourages her to let the content pass, citing its popularity, but the situation escalates when a masked figure, played by Dacre Montgomery, begins creating a real-life version of the film, using actual victims. The film offers some sharp commentary on the way modern audiences consume violent content, often encouraging each other to watch more extreme material, while corporate leaders profit without concern for the consequences. However, these deeper themes are wrapped in a standard horror format—complete with fast-paced kill scenes and clichéd dialogue like “the internet… is fast.” While Goldhaber had the opportunity to create something more daring, possibly updating the original Faces of Death alongside the 1986 film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, which unflinchingly explored the voyeurism of the video age, he instead opts for a more palatable, commercially safe approach. In doing so, he allows the audience to feel at ease, ultimately reducing everything—whether real or fake, serious or absurd—into just another piece of content.