Rating: 3.5/5
Oh My Horror 2025 | 34/52 | Horror Technology
A robotic voice reads the production credits before Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning kicks on, introducing us to auto mechanic Grey Trace’s workshop, where he’s fixing up a ‘77 Pontiac Trans Am. When the car successfully turns over, he opens the garage to see his wife, Asha, ride up in a futuristic self-driving car. Grey asks Asha to drive behind him in the car so that he can drop off the Thunderbird. They drive to a beach, and go down a stairway hidden between two rocks into a futuristic home of Eron Keen, a tech innovator. Eron shows them a chip named STEM, an uber-brain that Eron claims can do anything a brain can do, but better.
On their way home, the self-driving car malfunctions and drives them in the wrong direction. The car throws an error, speeds up, and crashes next to an unhoused encampment. A car drives up behind them. Four men get out and cover their faces. They drag Asha and Grey out. A drone watches them. A guy takes his mask off and gives a speech about being uneducated before shooting and killing Asha. They shoot Grey in the neck—he lives, but cannot move his body.
Three months later, Grey is quadriplegic, living with his mother and some voice-controlled arms that can perform basic functions like making protein shakes. Detective Cortez is working on finding their attackers, but to no avail. At home, Grey tries to overdose, but the house stops him just before the fatal dose. Back in the hospital, Eron visits him and offers him STEM, which will, among other things, allow him to move his body again. The only catch? He must sign a confidentiality agreement.
Robocop meets Death Wish — Grey is obviously a pawn in a tech war, but to what end?
The film establishes a juxtaposition between a world in which technology can cater to one’s every whim and Grey’s love of the manual and hands-on approach. Asha wants to print a pizza while Grey wants to make one. When Eron introduces STEM, Grey questions whether it can make babies or play football. Even with all the cameras and drones monitoring their movement, they cannot help the police find Asha’s killer. So, thematically, the film explores what makes humans, well, human.
This contrasts with Grey’s life with STEM. Not only does it help him move, but it also communicates with him and acts as a detective/advisor, finding clues that no human could. It also makes him a superhero, basically. When STEM takes over, the fights are so fun, and Logan Marshall-Green’s physicality is sharp. The gore is gross and realistic. Folks seem to like that — I’m totally over it.
The film engages in some tired Hollywood cliches — namely, killing a woman to motivate the hero, and making him a miserable person who cannot be happy when he is rendered paraplegic. I’m not going to downplay or claim to understand the latter, but in terms of representation, it does more harm than good, especially when Grey rubs his ability to move in another person in a wheelchair. Or, when his mother finds out and says, “Now you can start living again!”
The score has some great moments — nothing inventive, but hits when it needs to.
The film sits firmly between Whannell’s Invisible Man and Wolf Man, in terms of quality and entertainment. It’s not brilliant, and its first act is hella dull, but once it gets going, it’s a pretty fun ride.