Shut Up And Dance Analysis

Figure 1 – Shut Up and Dance, 2016 (screenshot taken by author)
When it comes to colors, the opening scenes are dominated by grays – parking lot, kitchen appliances, the staff’s uniforms – which then transition to warmer tones and dim lighting once Kenny gets home. These grays at Kenny’s workplace are quite typical when it comes to colors associated with a place of work – a place that is dull and somber. Also, the tasks that the characters have to perform all take place over the course of one day. Towards the very end of the episode, Kenny is shown walking along the road, all bloody and barely holding on, and it’s finally nighttime. This transition from day to night, or from light to darkness, metaphorically represents the transition from hopefulness to complete lack of hope as we see other characters receiving a troll face via SMS and realizing that they have been played.

Once Kenny receives the first threat via email, the atmosphere suddenly transforms from calm into panic. This can be seen both on the surface level – as Kenny starts
This is the first and only actual song featured in the entire episode (except for the quiet and barely noticeable music playing in the background at the fast food restaurant and the gas station), and, as one Reddit user commented, “It felt like Exit Music was created just for that episode“. What made it so impactful, aside from Thom Yorke’s chilling voice, is the fact that after almost one hour of silence and sound effects, we suddenly hear a sad song playing quite loudly, and the sense of panic and anxiety we had watching the episode is transformed into that of sheer emptiness and doom – something Black Mirror is notorious for. It is one of those episodes that, as Chitwood puts it, “make you want to curl up and die at the end” (2016), a feeling that this song captures