Summary
The kind of movie you’d expect to find in a video store in the 1980s or 1990s in a big bubble case and a sticker proudly declaring “BANNED IN QUEENSLAND!”
Leigh Whannell may have started his career on the legendary Saturday morning music show Recovery, but he’s best known for his writing duties on the Saw and Insidious franchises. Following up his directorial debut of Insidious: Chapter 3, Whannell writes and directs a slick, uncomplicated, bloody slice of body horror.
In the not too distant future (next Sunday A.D.?), old school mechanic Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) is left paralysed in a brutal mugging that also killed his wife. Approached by billionaire inventor Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson) with a experimental surgery that implants an A.I. named STEM into his spine, he is able to walk again – and so much more. Intent on revenge for his wife’s death, Grey soon finds that he may not necessarily be in the driver’s seat within his own body.
UPGRADE sits somewhere in the nexus between Philip K. Dick and Paul Verhoeven, a Venn diagram that’s been filled by the likes of Total Recall. Self-driving cars, the occasional piece of unfamiliar tech, and the odd cityscape hint at the evolution of humankind. That said, everything is bathed in a red neon glow, so you know it’s the future. Yet this could really sit anywhere, with Whannell ultimately crafting a simple revenge actioner with all the sci-fi trappings.
Through liberal use of a “SnorriCam” effect, Whannell and cinematographer Stefan Duscio engineers some innovative fight sequences. STEM takes over control of Grey’s body during a series of sweaty-fisted takedowns, ones that typically end in heads exploding right off their bodies. The first time an enemy’s noggin splits in half, or is blown clean off, you’ll find yourself gleefully back in the splatter-gore heyday of the video nasties.
Despite never quite reaching superstardom following a love interest role in Prometheus, Marshall-Green may have found his niche in the Blumhouse stable. The unfortunately named Grey Trace is an uncomplicated man in his moral outlook, making Gilbertson’s mad scientist all the slimier by comparison.
Having satiated its audience’s bloodlust, UPGRADE sputters out into a somewhat muddled denouement. Yet by this stage it doesn’t really matter. Whannell has put his trademark down on future-horror as readily as he did with his previous franchises. It may not lend itself as readily to a sequel, but it certainly offers a rollercoaster of fun for the duration.
2018 | Australia, US | DIR: Leigh Whannell | WRITER: Leigh Whannell | CAST: Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, Harrison Gilbertson | DISTRIBUTOR: Madman Films | RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8 June 2018 (SFF), 14 June (AUS)
