Editorials
‘Upgrade’: Finding the Horror in Leigh Whannell’s Violent Action Movie
I always find it fascinating when horror artists tackle other genres. From John Carpenter adding demonic monsters to his kung-fu comedy to Sam Raimi inserting jump-scares in super-hero flicks, you can almost always find a hint of the filmmakers’ previous work even in these non-scary projects. 2018’s sci-fi/action flick Upgrade is no exception, offering up quite a bit of horrific undertones alongside its futuristic action.
Written and directed by Leigh Whannell (the co-creator of Saw), Upgrade is meant to be a no-holds-barred throwback to the schlocky sci-fi offerings of the 70s and 80s, stumbling onto some serious issues along the way. Originally titled STEM, Whannell had completed the first version of the script back in 2012, but the project only really took off once Blumhouse got involved after being convinced that the story didn’t require a blockbuster budget to be produced.
Shot in Whannell’s hometown of Melbourne, Australia for a measly $3 million, the film takes place in a grounded vision of the near future where self-driving cars and advanced artificial intelligence can’t quite make up for economic disparity and urban decay. It’s here that we meet Grey Trace (played by Logan Marshall-Green), a mechanic who’s left quadriplegic after an encounter with ruthless criminals. Losing both his wife and his freedom, Grey readily accepts the offer to be implanted with a cutting-edge artificial intelligence that will help him regain control of his body as a cybernetically enhanced super-human. This leads to a unique revenge thriller that touches on the dangers of short-sighted scientific advancement and elements of body horror.
While the film didn’t benefit from a wide international release, it was still moderately successful at the box office, raking in over five times its modest budget and impressing most critical outlets. Many filmgoers went so far as to compare the flick favorably to Sony’s Venom (another sci-fi action flick about a man sharing his body with an inhuman intelligence), and Upgrade ultimately became something of a cult hit among fans of low-budget sci-fi.
Not bad for Whannell’s second feature-length directing gig.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Revenge yarns are a dime a dozen and we’ve seen the evil A.I. trope a thousand times before (though the idea seems to hit a little harder now that A.I. functionality is being normalized), but the real draw of Upgrade comes in the form of Whannell’s unique creative vision. The director finds clever ways to work around the obvious constraints of the project’s budget, justifying this decidedly lo-fi future by grounding it in a believably grim reality.
Sure, the flick could have benefited from a larger effects budget (especially when it comes to bringing some of these not-so-futuristic locations to life), but the action scenes are satisfying precisely because Whannell finds ways to highlight the absurdity of these situations through Grey’s point of view instead of relying on cartoony choreography and hundreds of extras. The unconventional camera movements and framing are just extra icing on the cake, with the production team reportedly using a smartphone’s gyroscope to synchronize Logan Marshall-Green’s acting with their camera in order to produce mind-bending images.
And speaking of Green, the film also benefits from his memorable lead performance. The actor’s usual aloof demeanor greatly contrasts with the coldly-calculated movements of his killing machine persona, and I really appreciate how his face continue to display shock and awe in response to the carnage in front of him while the rest of his body goes through the smooth motions of dispatching henchmen like he’s simply taking out the trash.
This ties into how the unseen STEM is also a compelling character in and of itself, fulfilling a dual role of savior and villain without ever coming across as Green simply talking to himself. In fact, I would have liked to see this uneasy rapport expanded on in more movies (or even a TV show, like Blumhouse has already proposed).
All in all, the film is way more entertaining than its simple premise and budget would have you believe, and it’s a shame that we don’t get these low-budget studio experiments as often as we used to.
WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
When Whannell is involved with a film, you know you’re in for a grisly ride. Upgrade may not be as overtly sadistic as the Saw movies, but it certainly features more than its fair share of violence and gore. In fact, there are several memorable deaths in the film (like that especially gnarly knife fight towards the beginning of the movie), with many of these kills feeling more like something you’d see in a sci-fi themed slasher than a futuristic action flick.
This mean streak extends to the film’s dark and dingy atmosphere, with nearly every corner of this believable future feeling dirty and dangerous despite technological advancements. From run-down apartments to rainy back alleys, it’s pretty clear that Whannell was going for a somber and oppressive mood here, and I think horror hounds are likely to appreciate the ensuing ambience.
There’s also the inherent body-horror behind the concept of having your arms and legs act on their own while you’re forced to tag along for the ride. While this loss of bodily autonomy is used to great comedic effect in the aforementioned Venom, Upgrade really makes you question the existential aspect of this situation once the novelty of being able to beat up bad guys wears off and our main character is left to deal with the gruesome aftermath.
Upgrade doesn’t exactly reinvent the sci-fi wheel, but it would have been right at home among the schlocky genre classics of the grindhouse age. While I would enjoy a return to the dark future established by the movie, I appreciate that we had this brief glimpse at an uncomfortably possible tomorrow and would recommend it to any horror hound willing to dive into a virtual nightmare.
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
Due to a complex series of anthropological mishaps, the Wayans Brothers are a huge deal in Brazil. Around these parts, White Chicks is considered a national treasure by a lot of people, so it stands to reason that Brazilian audiences would continue to accompany the Wayans’ comedic output long after North America had stopped taking them seriously as comedic titans.
This is the only reason why I originally watched Michael Tiddes and Marlon Wayans’ 2013 horror spoof A Haunted House – appropriately known as “Paranormal Inactivity” in South America – despite having abandoned this kind of movie shortly after the excellent Scary Movie 3. However, to my complete and utter amazement, I found myself mostly enjoying this unhinged parody of Found Footage films almost as much as the iconic spoofs that spear-headed the genre during the 2000s. And with Paramount having recently announced a reboot of the Scary Movie franchise, I think this is the perfect time to revisit the divisive humor of A Haunted House and maybe figure out why this kind of film hasn’t been popular in a long time.
Before we had memes and internet personalities to make fun of movie tropes for free on the internet, parody movies had been entertaining audiences with meta-humor since the very dawn of cinema. And since the genre attracted large audiences without the need for a serious budget, it made sense for studios to encourage parodies of their own productions – which is precisely what happened with Miramax when they commissioned a parody of the Scream franchise, the original Scary Movie.
The unprecedented success of the spoof (especially overseas) led to a series of sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs that came along throughout the 2000s. While some of these were still quite funny (I have a soft spot for 2008’s Superhero Movie), they ended up flooding the market much like the Guitar Hero games that plagued video game stores during that same timeframe.
You could really confuse someone by editing this scene into Paranormal Activity.
Of course, that didn’t stop Tiddes and Marlon Wayans from wanting to make another spoof meant to lampoon a sub-genre that had been mostly overlooked by the Scary Movie series – namely the second wave of Found Footage films inspired by Paranormal Activity. Wayans actually had an easier time than usual funding the picture due to the project’s Found Footage presentation, with the format allowing for a lower budget without compromising box office appeal.
In the finished film, we’re presented with supposedly real footage recovered from the home of Malcom Johnson (Wayans). The recordings themselves depict a series of unexplainable events that begin to plague his home when Kisha Davis (Essence Atkins) decides to move in, with the couple slowly realizing that the difficulties of a shared life are no match for demonic shenanigans.
In practice, this means that viewers are subjected to a series of familiar scares subverted by wacky hijinks, with the flick featuring everything from a humorous recreation of the iconic fan-camera from Paranormal Activity 3 to bizarre dance numbers replacing Katy’s late-night trances from Oren Peli’s original movie.
Your enjoyment of these antics will obviously depend on how accepting you are of Wayans’ patented brand of crass comedy. From advanced potty humor to some exaggerated racial commentary – including a clever moment where Malcom actually attempts to move out of the titular haunted house because he’s not white enough to deal with the haunting – it’s not all that surprising that the flick wound up with a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite making a killing at the box office.
However, while this isn’t my preferred kind of humor, I think the inherent limitations of Found Footage ended up curtailing the usual excesses present in this kind of parody, with the filmmakers being forced to focus on character-based comedy and a smaller scale story. This is why I mostly appreciate the love-hate rapport between Kisha and Malcom even if it wouldn’t translate to a healthy relationship in real life.
Of course, the jokes themselves can also be pretty entertaining on their own, with cartoony gags like the ghost getting high with the protagonists (complete with smoke-filled invisible lungs) and a series of silly The Exorcist homages towards the end of the movie. The major issue here is that these legitimately funny and genre-specific jokes are often accompanied by repetitive attempts at low-brow humor that you could find in any other cheap comedy.
Not a good idea.
Not only are some of these painfully drawn out “jokes” incredibly unfunny, but they can also be remarkably offensive in some cases. There are some pretty insensitive allusions to sexual assault here, as well as a collection of secondary characters defined by negative racial stereotypes (even though I chuckled heartily when the Latina maid was revealed to have been faking her poor English the entire time).
Cinephiles often claim that increasingly sloppy writing led to audiences giving up on spoof movies, but the fact is that many of the more beloved examples of the genre contain some of the same issues as later films like A Haunted House – it’s just that we as an audience have (mostly) grown up and are now demanding more from our comedy. However, this isn’t the case everywhere, as – much like the Elves from Lord of the Rings – spoof movies never really died, they simply diminished.
A Haunted House made so much money that they immediately started working on a second one that released the following year (to even worse reviews), and the same team would later collaborate once again on yet another spoof, 50 Shades of Black. This kind of film clearly still exists and still makes a lot of money (especially here in Brazil), they just don’t have the same cultural impact that they used to in a pre-social-media-humor world.
At the end of the day, A Haunted House is no comedic masterpiece, failing to live up to the laugh-out-loud thrills of films like Scary Movie 3, but it’s also not the trainwreck that most critics made it out to be back in 2013. Comedy is extremely subjective, and while the raunchy humor behind this flick definitely isn’t for everyone, I still think that this satirical romp is mostly harmless fun that might entertain Found Footage fans that don’t take themselves too seriously.
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