#SCARIEST BLACK MIRROR EPISODES SERIES#

As her face inverts to a red skull, Cooper impales her on the knife lodged through his shoulder, and she, the knife, and Cooper's injury disappear.Īs earpiece communication resumes, Katie leads Cooper to an upstairs room to terminate the test. Sonja arrives and urges Cooper to leave, but Cooper finds inconsistencies in her story. In the kitchen, an enormous spider with Peters' face appears. He hears footsteps and sees a simulation of Josh Peters (Jamie Paul), his childhood bully. After a while, he sees a spider and then a figure appearing in a painting. He meets with Shou ( Ken Yamamura), the company's owner, and is told that he will experience a horror game where an artificial neural network personalises the experience to his fears.Īt Harlech House, the mansion he recognises from a SaitoGemu game, Cooper has an earpiece to communicate with Katie there are also cameras throughout. Cooper is impressed and agrees to a further test.

He tests an augmented reality version of the game Whac-A-Mole. Katie implants a small device called a 'mushroom' in the back of his neck. Though she turns his phone off, he turns it back on to surreptitiously take pictures of the test kit for Sonja. He is forced to stay with her after his bank account is drained when he becomes victim to identity theft, but finds a paid offer to playtest a game for SaitoGemu.Īt the company's building, he is met by Katie ( Wunmi Mosaku) in an experiment room. In London, he spends a night with the technology journalist Sonja ( Hannah John-Kamen). The episode was nominated for a British Academy Television Craft Award, an RTS Craft & Design Award and a Visual Effects Society Award.Īfter his father dies from Alzheimer's disease, Cooper ( Wyatt Russell) travels the world, ignoring phone calls from his mother. The episode received mixed critical reception, with criticisms of the storyline and ending but praise given to Trachtenberg's directing and Russell's acting.

After considering Tokyo, the crew decided to shoot in London.Ī work of psychological horror, the episode features numerous video game references and many instances of foreshadowing. The episode was inspired by an idea Brooker had for an augmented reality Whac-A-Mole game which increased in speed until the subject went crazy. Hannah John-Kamen co-stars as a video game journalist Cooper meets. It is a horror game which accesses his brain and targets his fears. The episode follows Cooper ( Wyatt Russell), an American who playtests an upcoming augmented reality game in London while travelling.

#SCARIEST BLACK MIRROR EPISODES SERIES#

Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by Dan Trachtenberg, it premiered on Netflix on 21 October 2016, with the rest of series three. ' Playtest' is the second episode in the third series of the British science fiction anthology television series Black Mirror.

An augmented Whac-A-Mole game was the initial inspiration for the episode. Cooper ( Wyatt Russell) experiences SaitoGemu's augmented reality technology.

Scariest black mirror episodes