ArcaMax

Back in 1978, long before it was possible to call up internet footage of jihadis beheading bound prisoners and burning people alive, "Faces of Death" was a gruesome sensation. Prior to this notorious documentary (well, "documentary"), seekers after cinematic carnage generally had to content themselves with European mondo movies and the early slasher films of pioneering hacks like Herschell Gordon Lewis.

"Faces of Death" was different. The movie went right for the jugular, so to speak, spotlighting actual human corpses along with slaughtered chickens, sheep, and cattle. Some of this stuff was for real, but much of it was fake. (Was anyone ever really gagged out by the scene in which a group of party-loving ghouls feasts on some barely post-mortem innards and then launches into a blood-gurgling topless orgy?)

The picture was allegedly banned in numerous countries, but in the home-video age it found commercial shelter on VHS. Today it's easily obtained, along with its several sequels, on Amazon.

The movie has also inspired a rather clever new film likewise called "Faces of Death" (although it's not a remake). Here, updated into our modern age, a couple of video nerds employed by a Jacksonville website called Kino learn about the existence of the original "Faces of Death" (a very belated discovery that would seem unlikely to burnish their nerd credentials). Then, one of these characters, a woman named Margot (Barbie Ferreira of "Euphoria"), notices that a series of murders taking place in the area bears an unsettling resemblance to the killings in the first "Faces of Death." Although she doesn't know it, Margot has just marked herself for termination.

"Faces 2," as I think we can call it, isn't a great movie, but it's sleekly made and it's not stupid (at least not beyond the beloved genre stupidity endemic to this sort of picture). The video scene in which the story is set is knowingly depicted. Barbie's job at Kino is to sit at a monitor all day evaluating footage that has been flagged for possible violations of company posting policy ("Nudity," "Self Harm," "Child Abuse"). She can either kill the really gross stuff or give it a pass as "Likely Fake." Her boss (Jermaine Fowler) tells her not to be too judgmental. ("DIY horror's trafficking right now," he says. "Give the people what they want.")

It's a soul-sucking job, especially for Margot, who's haunted by a terrible, video-related death in her past. Things will soon be getting much worse for her, however: Not all that far away, a homicidal loner named Arthur (Dacre Montgomery of "Stranger Things"), is zeroing in on the Kino kids by way of some advanced tracking technology (he's employed at a Verizon-like wireless store). First he bags a hot staffer named Sam (Josie Totah of "Saved by the Bell"), and before long his basement full of carefully prepared cages is getting crowded. Then, after some intervening uproar, it's Barbie's turn.

Director Daniel Goldhaber and his cowriting partner, Isa Mazzei, have done themselves (and us) a favor by keeping the movie to a viewer-friendly 98-minute runtime. And while they haven't shied away from bloody violence (without which what would any of us be doing here?), they have left room for a couple of small chuckles. When Barbie asks one of her coworkers (played by a cameoing Charli XCX) why she's working at the gritty website, she says, "'Cause it's a thrill. Plus, I get dental."

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.To find out more about Kurt Loder and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.

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