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[Review] Black Mirror’s ‘Bandersnatch’ Could Use Some Tweaking

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If any show on Netflix was going to tackle a choose your own adventure type of viewing experience, the logical choice would be Black Mirror. And when this turned out to be the case, the logical expectation would be for the episode to be absolutely amazing.

But Bandersnatch is really only interesting on a surface level and doesn’t get much deeper than a novelty – not quite the standard for Charlie Brooker’s mind-bending science fiction series.

The story follows a young man named Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead) as he attempts to create a videogame based on a choose your own adventure novel titled Bandersnatch. The viewer is able to make choices for Stefan as he works towards creating his game in 1984. The first acts a tutorial – you choose which cereal he will eat, and later on you’ll see a commercial on Stefan’s TV for the chosen cereal. It’s kind of neat and will serve as a hint of what you will be able to do.

It starts out pretty interesting, and retains that interest for the most part. If you fail early on at making the right choices for Stefan (there are a couple of choices that will break the narrative completely and force you to “go back” and correct it), Stefan will comment that he’s been there before. He’ll simply “know” certain things and predict what others will say, setting the episode up for some very meta situations.

At one point, you can even inform Stefan that you are from Netflix, influencing what he does in every situation. It is at the same time both funny and bizarre to watch his reaction as he tries to understand the concept of a streaming service as the episode takes place in 1984. From there, you can really branch out and make some crazy decisions – but the episode will end with a wacky predicament and have you go back to do another one, leaving you feel like there are actual “right” and “wrong” outcomes for Stefan.

The conclusions to this episode are really where Bandersnatch falls apart, simply for that fact that many of the endings don’t really feel like an ending. Many of the endings just left us with the option to “go back”, leaving us to wonder whether or not Stefan was to be stuck in a loop or the viewer just isn’t able to finish the episode.

But when the credits finally did roll and all of the endings had been exhausted, the whole experience just feels somewhat fatiguing. None of the endings gave the feeling of definitive dread or absolute conclusion – and though part of me thinks that it may just due to the fact that you can essentially cycle through all the endings by going back, a bigger part of me is decided on the endings simply not being satisfying enough.

In fact, the cohesive story as a whole seems to be a tad one-dimensional despite the choices and meta experience of Bandersnatch. It’s not awful; it’s just that if you take out the element of choice from this Netflix event, none of the story lines are strong enough or fleshed out enough to stand on its own.

On this one, I would choose “Go back.” I don’t doubt Black Mirror is more than capable of pulling this off in a better way; they just need to make some better choices next time.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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