In the near future technology has taken over nearly all aspects of our lives. Automated houses and cars make our life comfortable whilst drones provide the police with information on every aspect of crime.

Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) is old school though. A technophobe who likes to get his hands dirty restoring classic cars he holds technology at a distance whilst his wife embraces it. But when technology fails them and they are attacked by artificially enhanced humans Grey is left a quadriplegic as he watches his wife die. His only recourse for revenge is an experimental computer chip called STEM.

Upgrade is a film that shows how a utopian future can quickly turn into a horror story out of Black Mirror. In terms of genre it mixes science fiction, action and horror and is probably easily described as the film Venom wishes that it was (minus the blood and gore). When STEM is inserted into Grey’s spine it gives him the ability to walk again and can take over control of his body to defend and protect him. Just like in Venom our protagonist talks to the invisible being inside him that has control over his body and is able to turn him into some kind of super hero. Unlike Venom though, writer/director Leigh Whannell, who more recently brought us the brilliant The Invisible Man is not hindered by the need to make this marketable to a wider audience making for some gruesome fights.

There are a lot of inventive touches around STEM and the world’s AI. The film opens with a robotic sounding voice reading the credits to us instead of them being displayed on screen and the camera movements when STEM is in control of Grey are superb. The camera feels as though it is mounted to our protagonist as he moves unnaturally to dodge and counter attacks. Special mention should go to Logan Marshall-Green who is somehow able to have facial expressions that suggest the movements are completely involuntary introducing humour into the violence. And whilst the discussions around the danger of allowing technology completely into our lives may not be as inventive, they are certainly effective enough to frame the story.

The story does slightly run out of steam in the final third as Grey tracks down each of the men responsible for the attack, but it does have one final trick up its sleeve that redeems the lull. Well worth seeking out and currently available on Netflix.