One of the best sci-fi series to emerge from Netflix’s original content plethora is Black Mirror. The British anthology series is known for its shock-factor episodes centered around ethics and technology of the present and future. From the writer’s room to the familiar and unfamiliar actors onscreen, Black Mirror has earned much-deserving critical acclaim.
We all love the well-executed sci-fi movie from Annihilationto Ex Machina and everything in between, but there are some stories that sound so good that turn out so bad. These films lead with an intriguing premise or futuristic vision and fall short in the execution. With a little help from the magic-makers behind the Netflix hit, we believe these films would have succeeded as a singular episode in the Black Mirror universe.
Table of Contents
‘Countdown’ (2019)
More so horror than traditional science-fiction, Countdown revolves around a protagonist who downloads a seemingly harmless app that “predicts” when the user will die. A divisive film where audiences saw more pleasure in the story than critics, this tech-horror is a match made in Black Mirror heaven.
The basic premise of the entire series explores the fragility of human life and how technology hinders humanity. Where the horror element was too supernatural in Countdown, Black Mirror would turn the “villain” into a government or corporate conspiracy about population control or data privacy.
‘In Time’ (2011)
A movie that once again proves a star-studded cast isn’t always enough to save a poor script, In Time provided movie-goers with a unique premise that ultimately bogged down in execution. Set in a dystopian future where people stop aging at 25, time has become an exchangeable currency that like all things money causes a bit of trouble for the film’s protagonist Will (Justin Timberlake). Co-starring Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, and Matt Bomer, In Time failed to prove its worth with critics and viewers despite premiering the same year as Black Mirror.
Using time as a physically exchangeable good would be an interesting ethical dilemma about the power of technology and greed. These themes were present in In Time, but didn’t yield an original take on or visceral reaction to the concept like many Black Mirror premises do. As technology continues to advance, revisiting this movie as inspiration for a structured episode would be intriguing for sci-fi fans alike.
‘The Happening’ (2008)
Not M. Night Shyamalan’s worst work, but certainly not his best, The Happening is a mind-bender that fell just short of its potential. Following a series of unexplainable deaths and more spreading fast across the country, a school teacher and his wife try to evade the unseen killer. Despite big-name leads like Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, and John Leguizamo, Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences weren’t impressed.
Where we love Black Mirror’s ferocity is in its ability to throw a good twist and wait until the very last few minutes of screen time to do so. With a guest-directing cue from Shyamalan and a concise runtime, ecological warfare sounds like a dystopian episode right up the Black Mirror alley.
‘Lockout’ (2012)
A movie about humanitarian efforts gone wrong in a futuristic space prison, Lockout was no sci-fi treasure. Rated 37% from Rotten Tomatoes critics and 46% by audiences, the Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace-led thriller left viewers feeling their own sort of imprisonment in films of sci-fi past as Lockout incorporated elements from the films that came before it.
Where Black Mirror surpasses other science fiction series is in its ability to mess with our minds over the course of a singular episode. Imagine this Netflix-driven machine outputting an episode about the psychological effects of a space prison. The writer’s room is more than capable of posing an ethical dilemma to viewers about banishing (perhaps wrongly accused) criminals to space.
‘Demonic’ (2021)
Oscar-nominated District 9 director Neill Blomkamp failed to produce another sci-fi masterpiece. Demonic follows a young woman who seeks out her deceased mother’s consciousness in an artificial reality program called The Simulation only to lose her hold on reality as hallucinations begin, slowly becoming real. A supernatural horror and science-fiction piece, Demonic’s muddy storytelling turned away viewers.
Many Black Mirror episodes toy with the concept of consciousness and artificial intelligence, demonstrating what goes terribly wrong when the two merge. Following the rollercoaster of success with District 9, middle-of-the-road with Elysium, and downward spiral with Chappie, Blomkamp’s sci-fi mind would better have served as a guest on Black Mirror with a hair-raising episode centered around the premise of Demonic.
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