PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Charlie Brooker’s twisted anthology series Black Mirror is back with its fourth season hitting Netflix last Friday. Packed with six new haunting tales of hi-tech ingenuity and questionable morality, this captivating series takes a slightly darker tone than previous seasons. Filled with more blunt trauma than ever, Black Mirror expands its horizon raising the bar of frustration through relatable, high-tech victims to villains storytelling.
Opening up with an episode of the forgotten brains behind a tech company, sympathy is built around CTO Robert Daily (Jesse Plemons, Black Mass, The Master) who feels intellectually robbed and under appreciated. The unraveling reveals a world that he has created to enact his passive aggressions that he doesn’t dare to live. This episode, entitled USS Callister, will guide you through an interstellar journey of vengeance.
With the controversial advancements of technology pairing up with parental nature to shield their children, Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs) directs a brilliant story entitled Arkangel. Packed into this short installment is the classic debate of nature versus nurture as well as how technological ability to monitor everything your child sees and hears may impact development. The horrific outcome of a mother’s inability to let go is more devastatingly close to reality than many features of today.
Other episodes explore ideas of mind reading tech that captures unrelated murders and an advanced dating app expanding on the “swipe left or right” idea. Another even offers a wasteland Terminator survivor throwback thriller involving robotic guard dogs. However, the finale stands out more than any other all the while maintaining creativity and originality.
As a personal favorite episode for this season, which is in close comparison with The National Anthem, the 4th season finale, entitled Black Museum, is sure to be incredible fan reminiscence. When a British woman visits an obscure museum in a remote location, the proprietor takes her on a tour, telling small tales of tech-advanced horror. However, this historian has secrets that are revealed throughout his tour. The twist will leave horror fans of Creepshow pleasantly surprised and enthralled.
The first season of Black Mirror that originally aired in the UK was my personal favorite. It had social criticism mixed with the brave new world of tech. Despite some episodes lacking the same amount of substance in the second and third seasons, the series maintained a sense of creativity, originality and thought provoking storylines that keeps the show alive. Packed with Easter eggs from previous seasons and substance that transcends the previous two installments, Black Mirror has stepped up their game for season 4 in a big way. This is an absolute must see for any fans of this creative and artistic horror high-tech series.
