Unlike Netflix’s more dark and depressing anthology Black Mirror, the animated shorts of the streaming titan’s Love, Death + Robots are a bit more balanced and contain episodes that are often unnerving, sometimes painfully funny, and occasionally exhilarating in their execution.
We know viewers of this Emmy Award-winning series come to one of the best Netflix shows with all levels of tolerance for frightening imagery and shocking sequences, from scaredy cats to fearlessness.
For this fourth volume of Love, Death + Robots that just debuted on May 15, presented once more by executive producers Tim Miller (Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate) and David Fincher (Seven, Zodiac, Mindhunter), we’re treated with a tempting lineup of edgy animated fare.
Since they’re each outstanding in their own right and impossible to rank according to quality (although that hasn’t previously stopped us ranking every episode Love, Death + Robots), we thought we’d do something different and sort them all according to their relative fear factor.
Steel your nerves as we count down all ten episodes to learn which ones you’ll dare to watch!
10. Smart appliances, stupid owners
Synopsis: From an angry toothbrush to an overworked smart shower head and an intelligent toilet, various household appliances divulge tales of bemusement, scorn, and wonder about their human owners. Directed by Patrick Osborne, of Vol. 3 favorite ‘Three Robots: Exit Strategies’.
Director: Patrick Osborne
Writer: John Scalzi
Animation Studio: Aaron Sims Creative
Fear factor: If you harbor a secret desire to know what your anthropomorphized home accessories might be thinking of your daily bodily functions, then this entry is low on the scale. It could be enlightening. Remember, what happens in the bathroom, stays in the bathroom!
9. Can’t stop
Synopsis: A unique take on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ legendary 2003 performance at Slane Castle, Ireland, with band members Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, and John Frusciante recreated as string-puppets. Directed by David Fincher, who originally made his name with music videos in the 1980s and early ’90s, before segueing into unforgettable feature films.
Director: David Fincher
Music, Lyrics, & Performance: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Animation Studio: Blur Studio
Fear factor: This is a safe episode UNLESS you have a morbid fear of puppets, as many people do and we’re certainly sympathetic to that phobia. The more obvious danger after watching this segment is the chance that you’ll have the earworm tune, ‘Don’t Stop’, originally released by the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their 2002 album ‘By The Way’ stuck in your head.
8. The other large thing
Synopsis: From the mind of prolific writer John Scalzi comes the story of a cat who plans world domination. Sanchez, as his puny human ‘pets’ know him, is helped by a new robotic butler (voiced by Last Week Tonight host John Oliver) who can hack into the World Wide Web and is eager to help his new master.
Director: Patrick Osborne
Writer: John Scalzi
Animation Studio: AGBO
Fear factor: Cat fanciers will feel right at home with this amusing tale of a calculating kitty that dreams of controlling the world with the aid of a mechanical newcomer. We’re not sure how clean the litter box is kept in this household of human morons so just breathe through your mouth.
7. Close encounters of the mini kind
Synopsis: Tiny terror is unleashed in this mini alien apocalypse as directors Robert Bisi and Andy Lyon pay loving tribute to classic sci-fi stories of alien invasion and human stupidity using tilt-shift techniques that make the end of the world look almost cute.
Director: Robert Bisi & Andy Lyon
Writer: Robert Bisi & Andy Lyon
Animation Studio: BUCK
Fear factor: Here’s a perfectly safe bet for even the most skittish of emotional constitutions since the clever methods of animation and sped-up timeline emphasize the humorous facets of an extraterrestrial visit and invasion, right down to the laugh-out-loud gaseous sputtering finale.
6. Golgotha
Synopsis: In a rare live-action entry in Love, Death + Robots, a conscientious vicar – played by Rhys Darby, (What We Do In The Shadows) – plays host to an emissary of an alien race who believes their messiah has been reborn on earth… as a dolphin. So, uh… yeah, Dolphin-Jesus.
Director: Tim Miller
Writer: Joe Abercrombie, based on the short story by Dave Hutchinson
Animation Studio: Luma Pictures (VFX)
Fear factor: For those harboring an extreme paranoia regarding the end of the world might want to relax somewhat before viewing. Any aversion to the seashore, those suffering from the fear of deep water or any tentacled creatures from another galaxy might also take minor caution.
5. The screaming of the tyrannosaur
Synopsis: On a space station orbiting Jupiter, decadent aristocrats gather to witness a brutal contest of genetically modified gladiators — fierce combatants riding deadly, engineered dinosaurs. A tale of visceral violence and unlikely emotion, directed by Tim Miller, based on a short story by Stant Litore.
Director: Tim Miller
Writer: Tim Miller, based on the short story by Stant Litore
Animation Studio: Blur Studio
Fear factor: Folks who avoid sporting events of any kind could feel a tinge of discomfort in this tale of stampeding prehistoric creatures with cyborg slaves steering them to victory or death. Or if your idea of severe physical modification is a nose ring or anime tattoo, think twice.
4. 400 boys
Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic city where warring gangs follow a bushido-like code of honor, a new gang, the 400 Boys, forces them to unite. A blend of beauty and brutality from Canadian director Robert Valley, whose LDR episode “Ice” won the Emmy for Outstanding Short Form Animation.
Director: Robert Valley
Writer: Tim Miller, based on the short story by Marc Laidlaw
Animation Studio: Passion Animation, a Division of Passion Pictures
Fear factor: Anyone with a clinical apprehension of being around babbling babies, especially roaring 40-foot infants from another planet, might want to brace themselves. This dynamic episode of post-apocalyptic street gangs agreeing on a truce to brutally slaughter these tubby extraterrestrial toddlers could induce a severe case of anxiety or need for a nice nap.
3. Spider Rose
Synopsis: A return to the fantastic cyberpunk universe of “Swarm” (Vol. 3), created by visionary sci-fi author Bruce Sterling and directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson. On a remote asteroid mining operation, a grieving Mechanist gets a new companion and has a chance to avenge herself against the Shaper assassin who killed her husband.
Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Writer: Joe Abercrombie, based on the short story by Bruce Sterling
Animation Studio: Blur Studio
Fear factor: This one gets our highest grade just for the simple fact that it contains a shocker ending that will make you look at your furry friend in an entirely different way. Also, the ferocity and vengeance depicted offer an unsettling entry into Bruce Sterling’s cyber punk realm.
2. For he can creep
Synopsis: London, 1757. A poet confined to an insane asylum believes Satan wants him to write a verse that will end the world. And the only thing standing between him and the Prince of Darkness (voiced by Dan Stevens) is his cat, Jeoffry. Emily Dean directs this wildly inventive period adaptation of Siobhan Carroll’s short story.
Director: Emily Dean
Writer: Tamsyn Muir, based on the short story by Siobhan Carroll
Animation Studio: Polygon Pictures Inc.
Fear factor: Anytime you combine a furious force of angelic felines with Satan who’s trying to make a deal with a genius writer in a looney bin you’re treading on thin ice. Toss in a spooky 18th century London setting, a flame-breathing horned Lucifer, Mozart’s Requiem Mass, and the fate of the world at stake, and you’ve got a disturbing proposition indeed.
1. How Zeke got religion
Synopsis: B-17 Flying Fortress Liberty Belle has the oddest mission of World War Two: a journey into occupied France to bomb a church before the Nazis can raise an ancient evil. John McNichol’s short story of blood, fallen archangels, occult magic, and ultraviolence is directed by Diego Porral (lead animator on previous LDR classic “Kill Team Kill”).
Director: Diego Porral
Writer: J.T. Petty, based on the short story by John McNichol
Animation Studio: Titmouse
Fear factor: Definitely one of the most chilling installments, with all sorts of religious iconography, denizens of Hades, fire and brimstone, aerial bombs, an intense buildup to a supernatural ritual, and a demonic battle in the clouds is nightmare fuel of an extreme nature.
All 10 episodes of Love, Death and Robots volume 4 are now streaming on Netflix.