Black Mirror's Metalhead: A Critical Analysis of Technological Horror

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Metalhead: Critical analysis
Charlie Brooker

After watching the “Metalhead” which is the fifth episode of the 4th series of the Black
Mirror that describe the learning that this episode is based on the artificial intelligence which is
launched on Netflix in the year 2017. The writer of Metalhead episode is Charlie Brooker and
the original date of the publication of this episode is 29 December 2017 which is a 41-minute
film. The idea of the film is suggested by the director of the episode is David Slade who wants to
create the horror movie and provides the effective impact of the metal products which make the
influence on the human body. The episode provides the study that Metalhead is the kind of film
which shoots in the black and white way that based on the woman called Bella who ran away
from the robotic dog (Martin, 2018). This robotic dog is influenced by the big dog which is
based on the Boston Dynamics. The Bella, Anthony, and Clarke oblige the warehouse to get the
relive from the pain of dying of Jack. This episode inspires me to get the knowledge of the
technological disruption which would happen in future times.
The episode is based on the struggle and surviving of the Bella who get affected by the
robotic dog because according to the study of the episode, the humans need to get hide from the
dog due to those robotic dogs get the instruction to kill the humans (Lief, 2017). So, the Clarke
hijacks the van to travel in the van to get protected from the dogs. After watching the series, get
the knowledge that Bella is the main character who survived at the end of the episode and faces
huge issues in the duration of the episode. The theme is based on technological superiority which
makes more power in the future world which is described in the form of Boston Dynamics
robotic dogs (Schinagl, 2018).
The episode film starts with the Bella, Clarke, and Anthony who is driving the van to go to
the warehouse to gather the goods and food. The film is based on the post-apocalyptic world
which explained the horror that provides the learning that technological civilisation of the earth
is getting collapse which displayed through science fiction. The main aim of the film is to
provide the learning of technological advancement which makes an influence on the human
individual. The main points of the film are to get knowledge of the surviving of Bella from the
Robotic influence (Hillyer, et. al., 2018). Bella gives the best example of the human strength
which describes in the film even when hi-tech machines tracks her through the robotic dogs.

Bella proves that humans are stronger and have huge strength because robots invent through the
human being.
Bella is facing the issue throughout the episode and get injured due to attack by the robotic
dogs which is targeted in the whole drama. The drama is dark and absolute explained through the
effectiveness of the black and white display which increases the effect of horror. Bella faces the
issues such as dogs entered in the car which driving by the Bella and luckily the arm of the dog
get damaged which good for the Bella. Because when the Bella runs into the forest and climb on
the tree to protect herself, the dog does not climb the tree due to the injured arm. This makes
Bella relaxed and opens the option to climb down from the tree to run away from that place. The
ending of the film is not happy due to despite her efforts of surviving and even call other dogs
through tracking to kill her. Bella holds a knife, so that finish her own life before catching by the
dogs which are the brave decision.
The director of the episode David Slade decides to display the episode through the black
and white aesthetics, so that describes the story as the old horror film which effectively attracts
the viewers. Other than this, the director of the film decides to display the robotic influence
because the Metalhead is encouraged by the robotic videos which are provided by the Boston
Dynamics. The episode is based on the kind of story which launches for the intention, so that
gives the knowledge of the human efforts with the technological influence. The research on this
episode analyses the impact of the collapse of the technology on the earth which give impact on
the human as well as the individual efforts to survive in the earth (SAGE & BROOKER, 2018).
The setting of the film is directed by the Boston Dynamics which is robotics based industry that
generally design the robots and in the past time the company design the BigDog for the United
States military. The Metalhead is the fifth episode of the Black Mirror which is the shortest
episode but loved by the views in the various form. The sound effects and soundtracks handled
by the Krzysztof Penderecki who worked in the various horrors films in the past time such as
The Shining
The Metalhead is got famous, and this is the well known short episode of the Black Mirror
which is a good outcome of the episode. Other than this, the Bella who played by the Maxine
Peake got praised because of her efficient acting in the episode (Bishop, 2017). The Directory of

the Slade also got congratulate by the viewers because the film provides the exact outcome
which is planned by the team. The music editor of the episode is AI Green which creates more
effect on the episode and scares the viewers more so that accomplish the main aim of the horror
film (Rogers, 2015). There is a various scene in the episode, but most of the scene make the real
emotions in the shot such as when the dog climbs on the car which drives by the Bella and her
faces the struggle because of a dog ready for the attack. The Bells frequently harm the dog which
damaged the arm of the dog and even during this struggle the car stuck on the cliff which is the
most exciting scene for the viewers as well. In that situation, the Bella harm the dog and
suddenly jumped out of the car and ran away in the forest.
The Metalhead is the shortest popular episode of the Black Mirror which winning the
award of British Academy Television Craft Award in the year 2018 because of special, graphics
and visual effect that is loved by the viewers. On the other hand, the episode nominated in the
Visual Effects Society Awards which is based on the real-time project and effective animated
characters (WIlson, et. al., 2018). The fifth episode of the Metalhead is ranked in the good cine-
metric photography film which is the effective outcome from the episode. Alternatively, the
Metalhead also got awarded by the BAFTA Craft and nominated twice because of its Visual
Effects. The episode is listed in the most distributing episode of the Black Mirror, and the
compliment which gives by the viewers are “Enigmatic” which is best for the horror films
(Newman, 2018). Netflix is the best choice to promote the episode, and the director displayed the
trailer of the episode on the Netflix which maintain the craze in the viewers.
It concluded from the critical analysis of the Metalhead that there are various aspects
which make the inspiration of the launching of the episode but most importantly is robotic videos
which encourage the director to create the short episode and entertain the viewers. On the other
hand, there are various lessons to drawn the script but most importantly, the efforts of the
humans and the power of strength which encourage the others to build in their real life (Chen,
2009). The human needs to understand their worth and give their full effort at the end to survive
in life and not get sad about the failure because it is the part of life. The viewer who loves to
watch the horror movies should watch this episode because they feel the accurate visual effects
of horror. But this episode is not accurate for those who believe in a happy ending because the
episode ended with the sad ending.

References
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