Black Mirror 7 episode 3 review: What if AI could resurrect not just old films, but dead actors too?

Black Mirror Season 7’s third episode, Hotel Reverie is about how in a world where nostalgia is coded and dead actors take centre stage, storytelling becomes a simulation—and emotion gets lost in the edit.

What if artificial intelligence could do more than write scripts or de-age actors? What if it could bring old stars back to life—resurrecting not just their faces, but their voices, movements, even their thoughts? It's not just the future but a reality that’s already creeping into our world. Just recently, a video surfaced showing Marilyn Monroe revived as a hyper-realistic AI avatar, created by Soul Machines. The digital version of the iconic star—who died over 60 years ago—can interact with fans, responding in her signature voice and tone. The lines between memory, simulation, and entertainment are disappearing. And in a time when studios are desperate for nostalgia, reboots, and IP recognition, the idea of bringing classic films and their original stars back to life suddenly seems less like science fiction and more like a business plan.

That’s the unsettling question Black Mirror season 7, episode 3 tackles head-on. In this story, a company called Redream isn’t just reviving old movies—it’s reviving the people in them. Their goal? Save struggling studios and preserve the golden age of storytelling by re-creating vintage cinema with uncanny authenticity. Their latest project is to “re-realize” Hotel Reverie, a fictional British romantic drama from the 1940s. But instead of remaking it, they want to reconstruct it exactly as it was—cast, setting, script—all powered by AI.

Enter Brandy, a Black American actress exhausted by the tokenism and second-fiddle roles offered to her in the name of diversity. Tired of playing supporting characters in “Sundance porn,” she volunteers to take on the lead male role in this reimagined version of Hotel Reverie. With the help of immersive simulation tech, Brandy doesn’t have to “act” in the traditional sense—she simply lies on a table and mentally inhabits the body of her in-film persona, Dr. Alex Parmer. Imagine if Avatar-level tech collided with Bridgerton-style narrative reclamation!

Everyone else inside the simulation, including a recreated Dorothy Chambers—the long-dead British screen icon—is unaware that it’s all a film. For them, this world is real. As the simulation deepens, glitches emerge. Dorothy's Clara, begins to remember who she really is: an actress trapped inside a technological ghost of her former life. And what started as Brandy’s chance at reinvention becomes Dorothy’s journey toward self-realization. The AI may have written Brandy as the lead, but it’s Dorothy who reclaims the narrative.

Also Read: Black Mirror 7 episode 2 review: What if tech ain’t the real threat but we are?

This isn’t just a clever twist. It’s a meditation on agency—on who gets to tell stories, and who gets erased from them. In a simulated 1940s film world, it’s a Black woman and a closeted lesbian who take center stage, flipping the power dynamics of both, the real era and its cinematic representation. Visually, the episode is stunning. Its black-and-white aesthetic is a lush homage to classics like Casablanca, right down to its sweeping music and artfully staged close-ups.

Clever touches - like characters freezing mid-scene or iconic last lines, this is intercut with today's era of filmmaking where the studio techs monitoring the “romance meter” and scrambing to resolve plot holes - highlight the absurdity of algorithm-led storytelling. New age's dark humor finds a balance with Vinatge's emotional brevity to highlight the contrast of why today's films are lost more than ever! 

Emma Corrin delivers a mesmerizing performance, channeling old-Hollywood glamour with eerie precision alongside many known faces like Awkwafina, Issa Rae, Harriet Walter, and others. But beneath its glamour, the episode raises urgent, real-world questions. Today, AI is already being used in Hollywood to de-age actors, draft scripts, and even digitally resurrect performers. It’s being deployed across pre-production, post-production, and marketing pipelines. The technology isn’t coming—it’s here. The question is: how far are we willing to go?

There’s a difference between using AI to enhance storytelling and using it to replace storytellers. This tension highlights something terrifying: What if the simulations become so real that people forget reality? What if you bring someone back, and they remember who they were? And more provocatively: Should we even be doing this? Is reviving a star—one who never consented to return—just another form of exploitation? If the dead can be brought back at the push of a button, do they ever truly get to rest?

In a world where nostalgia is monetized and algorithms dictate art, this episode serves as a poetic warning. We’re not just losing control of the tools—we’re forgetting the why behind the stories. Art is meant to be messy, human, full of soul. And no machine, no matter how advanced, can replicate that without consequence. So as we enter an era where the past is endlessly up for grabs and the dead can be rebooted, Hotel Reveire asks us to consider the true cost. What are we resurrecting—and what are we burying to do it?

Black Mirror season 7 is currently streaming on Netflix! 

For more reviews, follow us on @socialketchupbinge.