It Wasn't About The Music

Spoiler warning: This post has the biggest spoiler for the entire episode. I would suggest watching “Metalhead” before reading this.


Black Mirror, in season 4 with the episode “Metalhead,” explores the potential of a world after an apocalypse. In this episode, we meet a group of three people on their way to a warehouse to find a mystery item to make their presumably dying companion, Jack, comfortable in his final moments. In the warehouse, they find a machine that they call a dog. It attacks them and kills two out of the three. The lone survivor, Bella, runs and afterward faces many trials of survival in the post-apocalyptic world.

“Metalhead,” while it’s not a bad episode in terms of cinematics, did not completely live up to the expectations that the show has created so far. The finishing touches were great, but the characters and the plot were disappointing.

Episode five’s most obvious feature is the lack of color throughout. The entirety of “Metalhead” is in black and white. The director’s choice to do so contributes to the grim nature of the land as well as the “uneasy sense of imminent dread,” (Venable). The feel of this episode could also be compared to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Both the film and “Metalhead” create an eerie mood from the color choice alone.

Another important feature “Metalhead” is the use of slow motion. At pivotal moments in this mini-film, time slows and a moment is drawn for longer than the it would take in real time. Usually, this cinematic crawl ends in death. It draws us into the perspective of the protagonist, Bella. We see how time nearly stands still as she watches a gory scene open in front of her eyes.

While Black Mirror’s “Metalhead” has great visuals, the characters and plot push the episode into the “cheesy” territory. For example, the slow-motion and color do not make up for the fact that the whole episode feels like watching the “dumb blonde” in a typical horror movie as she walks into the basement, disregarding every sign of her imminent death. The protagonist walks into her metaphorical basement by making many unconvincing errors. For example, she knows the blinded dog chasing her is sound-seeking. Bella predictably left the radio on after the car did not start. She drew the sound-reliant murder machine straight to her. Previous episodes that created high standards led us to expect more here.

Adding to the aggravation of “Metalhead,” are the final moments of the last scene. The last scene in this episode takes a trip down the path Bella took from the warehouse all the way to her hideout. Dogs tread everywhere across the landscape to hunt and kill her. The very end shows the box of the items for Jack. Teddy Bears. Three survivors of the apocalypse ultimately lost their lives over stuffed bears. This short moment in the show frustrated me the most out of every plot point. Bella may have said they needed to make him comfortable but surely they would have thought of a better solution.

“Metalhead” may have been frustrating due to choices in the plot, but the visual aspects of the episode make for an interesting watch. I was hoping for some references to the metal music genre: it might have made of for the cheesy plot.

Works Cited

Venable, Nick. “Why Black Mirror Went Black And White For That Crazy Season 4 Episode.”

             CINEMABLEND, CINEMABLEND, 1 Jan. 2018.

Psycho. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Paramount, 1960.

“Black Mirror.” written by Charlie Brooker, season 4, episode 5, Netflix, 29 Dec. 2017.