Netflix Bandersnatch review

Lindsey Van Hekken, Staff Writer

I was very confused and intrigued when I saw that Netflix was releasing an interactive film; I didn’t exactly know what to expect with the “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” movie.

Would you be able to choose the entire story? Would there just be a few choices to make? Are the choices you are able to make really that important to the entire story?

I didn’t have a clue what it would be like, but I was excited to start.

The overall idea of the movie is simple: as the story progresses, there are multiple choices the viewer has to make for the main character, Stefan Butler. As entertaining and easy as that sounds, there’s a lot more depth to every choice you have to make.

Essentially, the issue with the choices is that there are wrong ones, and if those wrong choices are selected, the movie will end much sooner than it is supposed to.

Naturally, I made the wrong choice within the first 20 minutes of the movie, causing me to be sent back to the beginning of the scene.

While it was nice that I had the chance to redeem myself, I would have liked to see the scene play out a little more before I was sent back.

After being sent back and then making the right choice the second time around, the movie starts to get a bit more intense, and the choices become harder.

Eventually, Stefan realizes that the things that he is doing are out of his control and the viewer has to try and communicate with him.

That aspect of the story was very cool to me, the fact that I was basically communicating with the main character of the movie. It made the whole story feel very real and made the decisions much harder because it felt like I was choosing for a real person rather than just a character in a movie.

In respect to the cinematic and theatrical elements, the acting was incredible. Fionn Whitehead, who plays Stefan, contributed to the authenticness of the character; he genuinely looks like a paranoid and terrified teenager throughout the entire movie.

The way the movie is filmed is dizzying. Every scene is dark, adding to the creepiness of the whole viewing experience. However, at times, the spinning and flashing lights are a bit too much.

Overall, I think the whole interactive experience was fun and definitely something I would try again, but possibly in a different type of story. While the haunting “Bandersnatch” movie was interesting and fun, I would like to see the interactive type of story come into play in other genres.