Cyberpunk films often leave their protagonists in a worse place at the end than they were at the beginning. To rub salt in the wound, cyberpunk typically features graphic body horror, anxiety-inducing technophobia, governmental distrust, and a staggering loss of autonomy. These themes are conflated to create a nightmarish dystopian future, as seen in beloved classics Akira (1988) and RoboCop (1987).
Cyberpunk blurs the lines between science fiction and horror. When we see these films—or, perhaps, when we think too deeply about them—we see ourselves. In this age of urban decay, rapid technological advancement, and the rise of greedy corporations and their magnates, this gritty, neon-drenched science fiction subgenre is frighteningly rooted in reality.
As an avid horror fan, there are few things that I find more terrifying than a cyberpunk world. Despite their near-constant representation of overwhelming overpopulation, there is little humanity left, if any at all. Loss of control is woven through every narrative; rain, smog, and darkness encompass towering cities, human bodies are seen as machines to be tuned up, the poor get poorer and left to die in the grime-slick streets, and medical megacorporations warp and distort the human body without consent.
Maybe that’s what makes them so frightening.
Australian screenwriter and Saw co-creator Leigh Whannell taps into these fears in his action-packed gorefest Upgrade, a thrill ride oozing with invasive biomedical technology, gnarly kills, dizzying neon, and a gut-wrenching tale of revenge.
Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) is a technophobic, old-school auto mechanic living in the near future with his wife, Asha. He’s crazy about her—save for her job at Cobalt, a human-computer augmentation corporation. One night while driving home, the couple is in a vicious accident, leaving Asha dead and Grey with a severed spinal cord. Bound to a wheelchair and suicidal, the mechanic is given an opportunity to test out STEM, an experimental implant designed to restore and manage a disabled human’s motor functions. Hesitantly, he accepts, but not long after the operation, STEM begins to internally speak to Grey, encouraging him to take bloody revenge on those responsible for Asha’s murder—and even offers to take full control to accomplish it.
Grey’s transition from a tech-featuring human purist to a forcibly cybernetically-enhanced man is both disturbing and poignant. Whannell seamlessly concocts a merciless, raw science fiction terror tale here, implementing the effective violence fans of Saw love him for. The narrative pays respectful homage to classic futurism, featuring hints of Hardware (1990), The Terminator (1984), and Blade Runner (1982).
Though, the physical violence in this indie gem isn’t the only impactful factor. The emotion Marshall-Green brings to Grey and his grief-charged rage make the cyberpunk element all the more impactful to the audience, punctuated by a harrowing score.
Though Upgrade mostly flew under the radar, Whannell’s dystopian vision is a poignant, brilliantly made, and haunting cautionary tale about the advancement of technology—and its ever-growing relationship with our minds, bodies, and souls.
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Upgrade
2018
dir. Leigh Whannell
95 min.
Screens Thursday, August 31, at 4:45 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. at The Brattle!
Double feature with M3GAN.
Part of the month-long series Thrill Ride Horror.
