Leigh Whannell’s upcoming film, Upgrade, takes him away from the usual horror style of Saw‘s torture porn and Insidious‘s fame in supernaturals, having him delve into the sci-fi horror genre. The film stars Logan Marshall-Green as Grey Trace, his character crippled after murder of his wife by the same men. Undergoing treatment at that reward of walking again, let’s just say he got more than he bargained for upon his technological communion with an AI implanted to his brain. Just recently, a red band trailer has been released to showcase the tremendous violence and expressive vocabulary of Whennell’s world and exactly what kind of consequences Trace is to look for.
The synopsis is as follows:
Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when Grey, a self-identified technophobe, has his world turned upside down, his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant called Stem.
Blumhouse Productions is also involved in producing the film, alongside their line-up of other impressive hits like M. Night Shyamalan’s Split and even Jordan Peele’s Get Out, recently coming out of winning an Oscar last month.
You can check out the trailer below:
Though considered to be the rare summer movie not based off a comic property, this does seem to have some strong similarities to the 2000 AD comic series M.A.C.H. 1, the story of a British Secret Service agent who undergoes the same treatment, with Stem even exhibiting many of the abilities that M.A.C.H. has. Ironically enough, it should be noted M.A.C.H. 1 creator Pat Mills even states that that story is a ripoff of The Six Million Dollar Man with elements lifted from the Marvel’s Dethlok. Guess as back then and now, it’s hard to have any completely original idea.
Upgrade premieres in theaters on June 1st, 2018.