This Underrated Thriller is Now Streaming on Netflix and it’s “Truly next level”
Leigh Whannell is one of the most exciting horror filmmakers of our time. Early in his career, he was a regular scribe for several James Wan classics (Insidious, Saw, and Dead Silence if you fancy it). It was in one of those shared franchises that Whannell made his directorial debut. Insidious: Chapter 3, the first film in the series to break away from the Lambert family (while retaining mainstay Lin Shaye), was a contained, terrifying foray into the Further, solidifying Whannell’s chops as not just a writer, but a director as well.
It wasn’t until 2020’s The Invisible Man, however, that the world writ large recognize the immense talent Whannell yielded. Seriously, everyone remembers where they were when they first caught that film. The restaurant scene? A century best scare, if you ask me. His dabbles in Universal Monsters was successful enough to secure Whannell a spot behind the camera for the forthcoming Wolf Man released in January. We all know The Invisible Man is great, and Wolf Man likely will be, too, but there’s another worthwhile gem hidden in his filmography you might have missed. Now, it’s streaming on Netflix.
Per Netflix: After a violent mugging leaves him paralyzed, a man receives a computer chip implant that allows him to control his body – and get his revenge.
2018’s Upgrade is sci-fi lite, exploring concepts of autonomy and surveillance tech on a smaller scale than most. So, while it’s story of a wronged man seeking revence in a techo-future cityscape may not be all that fresh, Whannell’s directorial style certainly was.
Upgrade’s action was violent and kinetic, ingeniously staged as Logan Marshall Green’s Grey Trace contorts his body and limbs to exact bloody revenge on the men responsible for wife’s death. In a retrospective a few years ago, our own Tyler Doupé wrote, “The fight choreography and the accompanying cinematography are truly next level. Grey looks like a human but moves like a machine. And instead of cutting away or showing the action from a distance, we see everything up close.”
Upgrade was a mild success at the box office, grossing $17 million worldwide against a $3 million budget, though it’s certainly been eclipsed by The Invisible Man in recent years. Both are fantastic, but if you want to watch where Whannell really found his stride as a filmmaker, don’t miss Upgrade streaming now on Netflix.
What do you think? Which of Whannell’s films is your favorite? Excited for Wolf Man? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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