I’m a big fan of British TV show Utopia (2013).
I’ve seen it 3-4 times by now.
I can’t say why. I think it’s the color, the music, the earnestness.
It’s probably the opening scene of the first episode that really hooked me.
The two killers (Arby and Lee) let themselves into a closed comic book shop. One (Arby) asks the clerk questions, the other (Lee) calmly walks from person to person, killing them.
Here’s a still of Lee walking into the closed store, as shot from the back of the store next to the Clerk:
There are three people in the store, two customers and the clerk. All know something is very wrong. But none act.
Lee’s first kill is brutal. He takes a lead pipe, walks to one of the customers, turns them to face the other direction, then caves their head in from behind.
This is unambiguously murder to the two remaining people in the store.
This is the time to scream and run away.
They don’t. They stay. Why?
Lee walks to the other (the blond man) and takes out a cylinder of gas with a mask.
The man says:
“Oh no… oh no…”
“Uh, could I go? Can I just go, please?”
Lee says:
“Not yet. It’s okay. This’ll just make you sleep, is all.”
We want to believe him.
The blond man wants to believe him:
“What? Really?”
NO! NO! NO! Run! There is no way in the world we should believe him.
He just, one moment ago, caved in someones head with a lead pipe.
The blond man allows Lee to put the mask over his face, he breathes in the gas deeply.
Arby and Lee finish their talk and Lee walks over to the clerk.
We look over to the blond man on the ground, eyes wide open. Not asleep. Clearly dead.
The Clerk should scream and run away.
He does not.
Lee says:
“It’s just gas. You’ve gotta sleep.”
The clerk KNOWS he is not going to sleep. He will be killed.
Yet, Lee puts the mask over the face of the Clerk and dispatches him too.
End it there, it’s shocking. But no. We’re not done.
Before the scene ends, we see a kid under one of the tables. We all had missed him.
Arby says:
Don’t put the gas away yet.
End scene.
What? No! Oh man. Holy crap!
It’s so intense. It’s an overload.
How does Dennis Kelly, the writer, think of this stuff?
The first time I watched this it was such a pattern interrupt I had to sit and think for a while. It was too much, but in a good way. I needed to see what the hell this TV show was all about.
The victims are paralyzed. Why don’t they run? Why don’t they act? Is it fear? (freeze rather than fight/flee?) Frozen like rabbits (a major theme of the show)
Are they “trying to be nice”? It makes me think of the book “The Gift of Fear”, the lesson being, trust your gut. If you feel like something is wrong, override all social niceties and act immediately. Get out of there!!!
I mean: “It’s just gas. You’ve gotta sleep.” What the hell? Like the explanation is enough, but it is in this case. Calm them down before putting them down.
Clinical chaos. Polite killing. Emotionless. Psychopathic.
We, as viewers, feel complicit. “Run” we yell, but we’re unable to help.
Clearly, I’m having a hard time nailing down what it is about this scene that grabbed me.
It’s a complete masterclass. Straight alien horror.