Netflix's Trending New Horror Movie Is Secretly One Of Its Best Black Mirror Episodes In 8 Years

Netflix’s acclaimed horror comedy It’s What’s Inside is a better Black Mirror episode than most of the actual Black Mirror episodes from the show’s Netflix era. Set at a pre-wedding party, It’s What’s Inside takes a mind-bending turn when an estranged guest shows up with a mysterious briefcase and an idea for a party game. The briefcase turns out to be a cutting-edge device that swaps everyone’s bodies around, and the game entails players having to guess who’s been swapped into their body.

Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology series Black Mirror aired its first two seasons and its Christmas special on Channel 4, where its inherent darkness was allowed to flourish. From season 3 onwards, Black Mirror has moved to a new home on Netflix. The Netflix era has delivered a lot more Black Mirror episodes than the Channel 4 era, but the show has also been a lot more hit-and-miss since the transition. It’s What’s Inside works better as a Black Mirror episode than most of the recent official Black Mirror episodes.

Netflix's Horror Movie It's What's Inside Is Exactly Like A Twisted Black Mirror Episode

The Tech-Based Horror Of It's What's Inside Would Make It A Great Black Mirror Episode

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The tech-based horror, body-switching storyline, and dark tone of It’s What’s Inside operate very similarly to a well-done Black Mirror episode. The very best Black Mirror episodes use a speculative, futuristic technology to explore human morality and social commentary. Season 1, episode 3, “The Entire History of You,” uses a device that captures every moment of a person’s life to explore jealousy in relationships. Season 4, episode 3, “Crocodile,” uses a machine that can see people’s memories to explore a killer’s remorse.

In It’s What’s Inside, a body-swapping machine is used to explore the interpersonal conflicts amongst a group of lifelong friends. Once they start embodying each other, all the home truths and deep, dark secrets start spilling out. Like all the best Black Mirror episodes, It’s What’s Inside builds to a shocking twist ending that masterfully recontextualizes the entire story and yanks the rug out from under the audience. It’s What’s Inside is one of the best Black Mirror episodes that isn’t really a Black Mirror episode.

It's What's Inside Is What Black Mirror Season 7 Should Look Like

Black Mirror Has Started To Lose Its Horrific Elements

It’s What’s Inside provides a handy template for what Black Mirror season 7 should be. Black Mirror season 6 had a few good episodes — like episode 2, the murder mystery “Loch Henry,” and episode 3, the tense, spacebound two-hander “Beyond the Sea” — but the show has begun to lose some of the more horrific elements of its early seasons since Netflix took over in 2016. The creepy atmosphere and technological terror of It’s What’s Inside would be a good formula to look at for future episodes in season 7 and beyond.