Upgrade to perfect late-night thrills
Upgrade (R16, 100mins) Directed by Leigh Whannell ★★★★
Grey Trace (Logan MarshallGreen) is an analogue man in a digital world.
The self-confessed ‘‘dumb-ass mechanic’’ has no time for his wife Asha’s (Melanie Vallejo) self-drive car or printed pizza. He’d rather be tinkering on his Trans Am or chugging back a beer.
But his life is changed seemingly irrevocably after a nightmarish trip to drop off one of his automotive restorations to a client – baby-faced tech mogul Eron King (Harrison Gilbertson).
Asha’s autodrive malfunctions, causing a car crash in his old, seedy neighbourhood and then, rather than help them seek medical attention, local toughs murder Asha and leave Trace paralysed.
Waking up to his new wheelchair-using existence, an unimpressed Trace quickly loses the will to live.
However, a surprise visitor to his bedside, King, offers him a chance to walk again.
‘‘I’m not looking to restore my life, I’m looking for the off switch,’’ Trace retorts, before the frustration with the police’s lack of progress in solving who killed Asha begins to weigh on his mind.
Eventually, he agrees to the groundbreaking operation, which would place an implant in his spinal column. But even Grey isn’t prepared for just how advanced the Stem system is.
Best known as the co-creator of the Saw and Insidious horror franchises, Aussie screenwriter Leigh Whannell has crafted another crowdpleaser filled with gruesome deaths and ghoulish comedy.
Only his second turn behind the camera (after 2015’s Insidious: Chapter 3), Upgrade possesses the same swagger, visual flourishes and twisty-turny narrative that made 2004’s original Saw such a breakout hit.
However, while the relentless action and revenge tale will appeal to fans of the recent John Wick
movies (a comparison hard to miss given Marshall-Green’s resemblance to Wick star Keanu Reeves), Upgrade’s clear inspirations are much older.
This update is for anyone who loved dark 1980s action-horror comedies like Robocop, Dark Man
and yes, Brain Damage.
Gleefully anarchic, winceinducing and laugh-out-loud in equal measure, Upgrade is perfect late evening entertainment.