Netflix has dropped Bandersnatch, an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure film from the devilish mind of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. Netflix has previously released other interactive programmes, in which the audience chooses the direction of the narrative, however, is Bandersnatch just the latest gimmick or does it take the relationship between programme and audience to another level?
Bandersnatch takes place in 1984, following troubled teenage programmer Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead) who is accepted into his dream job at gaming company Tuckersoft with the goal of developing the game version of Bandersnatch, a multi-faceted, choose-your-own-adventure novel written by notoriously obsessive author Jerome F. Davis. However, Stefan quickly becomes unstable, his father (Craig Parkinson) and therapist (Alice Lowe) fail to help, even the more hallucinogenic approach of Stefan’s ‘rock star’ programmer colleague Colin (Will Poulter) seems to have no effect on Stefan’s blurring between what’s real and what isn’t; is Stefan becoming as dangerously obsessive as the author of his cherished Bandersnatch?
One word: WOW! Brooker has spent a considerable amount of time layering every audience choice, whether it is over what breakfast cereal the characters eat or what to say to another character; essentially, all audience choices have repercussions, with the film ultimately goading the viewer into making certain choices for the characters (even if you know you wouldn’t make that choice normally!). Also, Brooker’s use of the meta feeds the narrative wonderfully, Stefan constantly complains that someone is controlling him, as if he isn’t in charge of the decisions he makes (wink, wink!) which makes for some amusing choices within the story and some dark choices for the audience (This is Black Mirror after all).
Overall, if you are going to create interactive films, they must be done properly, the narrative has to be appropriate for the media (Black Mirror was always going to be a spot-on choice for such a move), the narrative has to be tight whichever direction the audience takes it in (also spot-on) and it have an impact on the audience because of the choices they make; Bandersnatch has set the standard for interactive films.
BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH / DIRECTOR: DAVID SLADE / SCREENPLAY: CHARLIE BROOKER / STARRING: FIONN WHITEHEAD, CRAIG PARKINSON, ALICE LOWE, WILL POULTER, ASIM CHAUDHRY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (NETFLIX)
