History Recap / BlackMirrorLochHenry

* AccidentNotMurder: Pia flees from Janet once she realizes that Janet is a murderer, and Janet rather futilely chases her. Pia successfully eludes her...only to slip on a rock in a creek, hit her head and die.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Pia dies not because she ends up cornered by the recently-revealed-to-be-a-murderer Janet who barely makes an effort to run after her, but because she tripped and hit her head against the rocks in the river she was crossing -- turns out moving across a risky body of water while in the dead of the night with no lights to speak of while distracted by a pursuer can be just as much of a dangerous affair as the aforementioned pursuer.

* AccidentNotMurder: Kinda, though it's more of a technical distinction. Janet doesn't catch up with Pia. She hits her head and dies while running away.

* HiddenInPlainSight: Janet has apparently been keeping her snuff films in plain sight, disguised as old ''Bergerac'' tapes, for the past 20-odd years.

A young couple, Davis (Creator/SamuelBlenkin) and Pia ([[Creator/MyahalaHerrold Myha’la Herrold]]) journey up to a sleepy Scottish town on the way to film a nature documentary, only to be drawn to the grisly tale of Iain Adair, a local serial killer. They decide to retell the incident in a TrueCrime documentary instead, only to discover that the truth is worse.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Granted, Janet's suicide appears chiefly motivated by the threat of imminent exposure, but she kills herself partly to propel her son's film career.

* ItsPersonal: Invoked. Their producer, Kate, isn't too excited by Davis and Pia's Loch Henry demo reel, saying it needs a hook. Pia tells Kate that Davis has a personal connection to the story as his father indirectly died because of the events. Kate is slightly more interested after this. After the truth is found out in the end, the personal angle is amped up. The in-universe ''Loch Henry'' trailer salaciously promises that the documentarian is exposing his parents' crimes.

* BitingTheHandHumor: The aftermath shows the Loch Henry tourists wearing replicas of the killers' masks. In 2022, Netflix caught some heat after their [[Series/DahmerMonsterTheJeffreyDahmerStory Jeffrey Dahmer series]] inspired viewers to dress up as said killer for Halloween.

** On their first night at Loch Henry, Pia fiddles around with Davis's old videotape camera. Later, they use said camera for their true crime documentary, which then results in Pia discovering Janet and Kenneth's murder tapes. It turns out Davis's parents recorded their victims with the same camera.

* DrivenToSuicide: Janet, after realizing she has been found out by Pia.

* HardWorkMontage: Davis and Pia get a montage of filming their demo reel of the Iain Adair doc, comprised of shots of interviews, drone shots, editing, and behind-the-scenes fluff.

* RetiredMonster: Janet. Her VillainousBreakdown suggests she might have been willing to come out of retirement and do for Pia.

* TrashyTrueCrime: The show's theme is about the contemporary fascination with TrueCrime. Pia takes a detour to the farm where they found the bodies and pitches a documentary about it instead, because their original idea didn't have mass appeal. In her unethical efforts to do so, she finds that the truth is ''even worse'', and dies for it. And then it all becomes a sensationalized TrueCrime doc anyway, with a dramatization on the way. The whole experience destroys Davis emotionally.

* BitingTheHandHumor: The aftermath shows true crime fans wearing replicas of the killers' masks. In 2022, Netflix caught some heat after their Jeffrey Dahmer series inspired viewers to dress up as said killer for Halloween.

** The protagonists decide to use a videotape camcorder to give their documentary a more AnalogHorror feel, and Stuart namedrops found-footage movie ''[[Film/TheBlairWitchProject Blair Witch]]'' as an example. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor They end up finding some found footage while things take a turn for the worse.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When explaining to Pia how Iain Adair's murders went unnoticed for so long, Davis explains about the numerous ways one can die in the countryside: "There's deep water and all that, you know... Walker takes a wrong turn, you know?" Pia herself ultimately dies exactly this way while fleeing from Janet.

* BaitAndSwitch: Stuart screams at Davis when he walks into the pub claiming he told Davis to never show his face there again. Davis shrugs this off and recognizes it as a joke between old friends.

* AccidentNotMurder: Kinda, though it's more of a technical distinction. [[spoiler:Janet doesn't catch up with Pia. She hits her head and dies while running away.]]

* SnuffFilm: Kenneth and Janet recorded their torture sessions after the end of their ''Bergerac'' (an old cop show) VHS tapes.

* OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding: Inverted, in a surprising yet twisted way - Pia is dead, not even because of her pursuer but because she mis-stepped and fell down unconscious in a river, while Davis is left devastated and broken by both his girlfriend's death AND the reveal his now late mother and father were serial killers. Still, the truth ends up revealed to the world as all the killers are finally dead and Loch Henry gets a boom of tourists that helps revive the dying town...too bad for Davis that he can't enjoy ''any'' of these facts.

* KinksAreBad: It's all but stated that Kenneth and Janet's torture (and possibly rape) of innocent people was all part of an extreme sadistic fetish. Sex toys can be seen in the footage showing the dungeon, Janet is shown wearing a latex nurse uniform and a carnival mask (both pretty common fetish apparel) in their snuff film, and in the documentary trailer, Richard admits that he started suspecting of the couple's involvement in the crimes after participating in sexual games with them.

* KinkIsBad: It's all but stated that Kenneth and Janet's torture (and possibly rape) of innocent people was all part of an extreme sadistic fetish. Sex toys can be seen in the footage showing the dungeon, Janet is shown wearing a latex nurse uniform and a carnival mask (both pretty common fetish apparel) in their snuff film, and in the documentary trailer, Richard admits that he started suspecting of the couple's involvement in the crimes after participating in sexual games with them.

* NightmareFetishist: It's all but stated that Kenneth and Janet's torture (and possibly rape) of innocent people was all part of an extreme sadistic fetish. Sex toys can be seen in the footage showing the dungeon, Janet is shown wearing a latex nurse uniform and a carnival mask (both pretty common fetish apparel) in their snuff film, and in the documentary trailer, Richard admits that he started suspecting of the couple's involvement in the crimes after participating in sexual games with them.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Downplayed. While Iain took part of killings and tortures, how willing of a participant he was is left ambiguous. In his only appearance in the episode, during a snuff film, he looks disturbed and a little unresponsive, suggesting some kind of mental disability. It's not clear if he was been manipulated by Kenneth and Janet or he was just as much of a sadist as the couple.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Kenneth nonlethally shot himself to make it look like Iain Adair did it, disguising his own involvement in the serial killings... only to end up dying of MRSA while in the hospital.

* ClusterFBomb: The normally mild mannered and soft spoken Janet lets loose an ''extremely'' foul mouthed tirade when it seems like Pia has escaped into the fields right after discovering Janet's past as a serial killer.

* NightmareFetishist: It's all but stated that Kenneth and Janet's torture (and possibly rape) of innocent people was all part of an extreme sadistic fetish. Sex toys can be seen in the footage showing the dungeon, Janet is shown wearing a latex nurse uniform and a carnival mask (both pretty common fetish apparel) in their snuff film and Richard tells in the documentary that he started suspecting of the couple involvement in the crimes after participating in sexual games with them.

* SnuffFilm: Kenneth and Janet recorded their torture sessions after the end of their Bergerac (an old cop show) VHS tapes.

-->'''Stuart:''' Pulling it all up for what, eh? You want an award? A pat on the back?

Costarring Creator/DanielPortman as Stuart, Creator/MonicaDolan as Jent and Creator/EllieWhite as Kate Cezar.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Downplayed. While Iain took part of killings and tortures, how willing of a participant he was is left ambiguous. In his only appearance in the episode, during a snuff film, he looks disturbed and a little unresponsive, suggesting some kind of mental disability. It's not clear if he was been manipulated by Kenneth and Janet or he was just as much of a sadistic as the couple.

* NightmareFetishist: It's all but stated that Kenneth and Nancy's torture (and possibly rape) of innocent people was all part of an extreme sadistic fetish. Sex toys can be seen in the footage showing the dungeon, Janet is shown wearing a latex nurse uniform and a carnival mask (both pretty common fetish apparel) in their snuff film and Richard tells in the documentary that he started suspecting of the couple involvement in the crimes after participating in sexual games with them.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Downplayed. While Iain took part of killings and tortures, how willing of a participant he was is left ambiguous. In his only appearance in the episode, during a snuff film, he looks disturbed and a little unresponsive, suggesting some kind of mental disability. It's not clear if he was been manipulated by Kenneth and Nancy or he was just as much of a sadistic as the couple.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Downplayed. While Iain took part of killings and tortures, how willing of a participant he was is left ambiguous. In his only appearance in the episode, during a snuff film, he looks disturbed and a little unresponsive, suggesting some kind of mental disability. It's not clear if he was been manipulated by Kenneth and Nancy or he was just a much of a sadistic as the couple.

* NightmareFetishist: It's all but stated that Kenneth and Nancy's, torture (and possibly rape) of innocent people was all part of an extreme sadistic fetish. Sex toys can be seen in the footage showing the dungeon, Janet is shown wearing a latex nurse uniform and a carnival mask (both pretty common fetish apparel) in their snuff film and Richard tells in the documentary that he started suspecting of the couple involvement in the crimes after participating in sexual games with them.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Downplayed. While Iain took part of killings and tortures, how willing of a participant he was is left ambiguous. In his only appearance in the episode, during a snuff film, he looks disturbed and a little responsive, suggesting some kind of mental disability. It's not clear if he was been manipulated by Kenneth and Nancy or he was just a much of a sadistic as the couple.