Ash
Black Mirror’s “Be Right Back” holds several elements of postmodern horror. The most notable is the creation of Ash, the monster. Similar to the classical monster found in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the postmodern monster is one who, “violates the social norm and blurs the lines between ‘me/not me, human/nonhuman, life/death,'” (Pinedo 21). Some obvious questions include:
- How human is the new Ash? What is the line between man and machine?
- In a world where it is almost second-nature to document each passing moment electronically, do we ever truly die? If robot Ash could repossess ALL of Ash’s memories – and not just the digital ones – could he escape death?
The existence of such an uncanny character, as evidenced by many previous posts, is difficult to outright commend or vilify. Ash’s existence “blurs the boundaries between good and evil, normal and abnormal,” and leaves us feeling unsettled (21). Nevertheless, Ash’s existence is not immediately condemned in other posts on this thread. For example, Aaron uses his post to claim that, “temporary rebirth would allow the grieving person to better their emotional state,” as in the case of the pregnant Martha. Although Ash’s replacement is essentially a “monster,” he made Martha feel better. Therefore, having a temporary ‘partner’ could potentially benefit society. There is, however, an emphasis on temporary since this situation seems unnatural.
Martha
Similar to Nancy in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Martha “survives because she rejects the rational belief that dreams are not real and instead puts her faith in the irrational premise that collapses dream and reality,” (22). Martha decides that she cannot live without Ash even if he is in a synthetic form. She couldn’t push robot Ash over the edge of the cliff, because his very existence blurred the lines between reality and fiction. Martha survives by choosing to live in this fiction and putting aside rational thought (that being: turn the poor robot off, follow the five stages of grief, and get back to normal life – maybe even meet someone new?). The irrationality of her actions in the end are exactly what save her. Imagine if she had pushed the sobbing, begging image of her husband to its death? Wouldn’t the consequences have been much worse? How could she live with herself?
“Nothing is what it seems to be in a postmodern horror,” (22). Truly, nothing is what it seems. I wonder if Martha dates or has other people come over to her home. I wonder if she still has contact with her family, or if she completely abandoned them. In the end, all we are left with are the images of Martha, Ash, and their daughter alone in their home.
Death
“Horror exposes the terror implicit in everyday life: the pain of loss, the enigma of death, the unpredictability of events… terror is a routinely repressed aspect of everyday life,” (26).
Why is death such a foreign concept for us? Death is a natural part of life, but we rarely see it in a modernized world. The only times we encounter death on a daily (if daily) basis is through the news where it’s linked to violence, disease, or accidents. Even Ash died in an accident and in the end Martha couldn’t let him go… Any thoughts?
Works Cited
“Be Right Back.” Black Mirror, season 2, episode 1, Channel 4, 1 Feb. 2013. Netflix.
Pinedo, Isabel. “Recreational Terror: Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror Film.” Journal of Film and Video48.1/2 (1996): 17-31.
Universal Studios. An image of Frankenstein’s monster (Boris Karloff), Wikipedia, 1935.