“Playtest,” ‘Black Mirror’s Attempt At Pure Horror, Is The Most Mind-Blowing Episode Of Season Three

***MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BLACK MIRROR, “PLAYTEST” AHEAD**

Part of the reason we keep praising Charlie Brooker’s highly intelligent sci-fi series is for its ability to blend genres. As we mentioned before, “San Junipero” and “Be Right Back” aren’t merely explorations about the cost of technology; they’re also about romance. Likewise, “The Waldo Moment” and “The National Anthem” combine tech criticism with stories and observations about political corruption. It’s this genre-blending that makes the second episode of the show’s third season so interesting. “Playtest” is Black Mirror’s unyielding dive into pure horror, and it’s arguably more disturbing than any scary movie currently playing.

The Season Three episode centers around Cooper (Wyatt Russell), an American thrill seeker who is avoiding the uncomfortable realities of his home life by traveling the world. When you meet Cooper, he’s a little dull and privileged, but he’s ultimately a relatable protagonist. Russell does a great job of hiding Cooper’s inner turmoil about his recently deceased father under a layer of bro-y goofiness. In short, Cooper is the perfect vaguely silly yet deep everyman to be a horror movie protagonist, and he wears his role well.

Because this is Black Mirror, you know that things are going to go south when Cooper agrees to test out a new form of technology for a video game company. “Playtest” is surprisingly clear with its intentions from the beginning. From the second Katie (Wunmi Mosaku) leads Cooper into that eerily white room, it’s clear that the goal is fear. The company’s CEO Shou Saito (Ken Yamamura) intends to test the horrific limits of a new piece of technology no matter the cost. It’s due to that clear premise that “Playtest” excels.

The episode assumes it’s being watched by an audience familiar with the beats of horror movies and horror gaming, and it makes good use of that assumption. From the moment Cooper starts his “second” test, you, like Cooper, start to look for the episode’s scares. In this way, the episode almost trains you what to expect. If a spider appears, there’s going to be another. If a light turns off in a painting, the person who turned it off is going to emerge. If a cabinet door blocks a doorway, you can bet something is going to pop out any second. However, “Playtest” does something even more manipulative. Just as it does with your expectations of horror movies, the episode uses your expectations of Black Mirror itself against you.

As noted in Vulture’s “Case Against Black Mirror,” there is a formula to the show. Black Mirror typically relies on plot twists in its criticisms of technology. Around the midpoint, it becomes clear that the technology that was first introduced isn’t completely good, and by each episode’s final moments, the show cements that technology and humanity is bad with a capital B. “Playtest” plants the seeds of a typical Black Mirror episode before turning the entire premise on its side.

Sonja’s (Hannah John-Kamen) suggestion that Cooper illegally take pictures plants a well-known narrative into our heads. We think Cooper is going to risk the paid trial to make a quick buck, and the company is going to retaliate in a massive way. Later, when the first twist happens, it’s still effective, but not completely unexpected. A corporation cruelly destroying someone’s very existence is believable by Black Mirror standards, but Cooper’s greatest fear — losing his memory like his father before him — is uncomfortably close to home both for the character and for viewers. Finally, Cooper seems to escape that nightmare, intact. That’s when “Playtest” really strikes.

The episode’s final twist, which results in Cooper’s actual death via cell phone, is jarring. The one aspect of his life that he’s been running from, his grieving mother, is the force that kills him. It’s somber, powerful, and oddly devoid of the typical smug “told you so” tone Black Mirror episodes tend to take. In short, “Playtest” is a horror story that ends in needless tragedy.

The most disturbing part of “Playtest” is that there is no antagonist. There’s no corrupt corporation or government force, no branch of technology that we learn is implicitly evil. Cooper’s death and the horrors that he faced are a mistake, and that is where this episode goes from creepy to alarming. At its core, “Playtest” is a story about our inability to reign in technology. There are no answers to find in its many twists or really any criticisms. After all, Charlie Brooker was once a video game journalist, and the episode is lovingly packed with video game references. It’s not technology or innovation or even human error that’s on trial in “Playtest.” It’s just the story of a trial test that went horribly wrong for one nice, normal person. If there’s anything more horrifying than life completely destroying you for absolutely no reason, I can’t think of it.

[Watch Black Mirror’s Season Three episode “Playtest” on Netflix]

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