Final Rating: 3.5/5
The Fix is writer and director Kelsey Egan’s follow up to her 2021 film Glasshouse (listen to our interview with Kelsey Egan and Glasshouse HERE), a folk horror tale. It dealt with a post-pandemic world where the air is toxic and a family survives by growing their own trees and sustenance while not trusting outsiders. Egan is mining similar themes once again in The Fix.
Grace Van Dien stars as Ella, a model who is accused of only being successful because her late mother was a famous model too. The only jobs she gets seems to be offered are based on recreated her mother’s iconic works. She is also the face of Aethera, a corporation that is leading the way in creating life saving drugs that combat the toxicity that makes the air unbreathable.
It’s not totally clear about why the world’s oxygen is now poisonous, but it’s alluded to that due to human pollution you can’t breath outside for even a short period of time. People have the ability to take medication, produced by Aethera, but it is in short supply and only the rich and powerful can afford it. Everyone else has to wear respirator masks anytime they are in a non-filtered environment, with those that receive too much exposure dying off.
On the anniversary of her mother’s death, Ella is distraught. We don’t know if her mother killed herself or died from air poisoning, but whatever was the cause it has left Ella scarred and feeling alone. At her (absent) father’s institance, she goes to a party at her boyfriend Tully’s (Tafara Nyatsanza) house. Except Tully wasn’t expecting Ella to show up and she catches him alone with her best friend Gina (Robyn Rossouw). After a big blowup where Gina admits to having been seeing Tully for some time, Ella finds a vial of drugs and drinks it all despite not knowing what it is.
This vial was stolen earlier in the day by Tully when he went to pick up other party drugs at a trap house. Instead of overdosing on this vile, Ella right away starts showing signs of change. From there we get a battle between the rogue scientist Solomon (Keenan Arrison) who made the drug and O’Connors (Daniel Sharman) the head of Aethera, who want both Ella and the drug.
The film quickly transitions into a body horror as Ella starts growing claws in her elbow, her hands have hairs that allow her to climb walls, she can spit venom and spikes grow out of her arms. She is changing rapidly and doesn’t know if she will live or die, all while everyone is trying to chase her down. We get the familiar spectacle of pulling out fingernails, skin and body parts falling off and gross secretions emanating from orifices.
We learn quickly that Aethera isn’t quite the noble corporation they portray themselves to be. Between kidnapping and torturing Solomon for his formula, planning on doing indefinite medical testing on Ella and secretly only producing enough life saving drugs for his companies shareholders, O’Connors isn’t looking out for the best of humanity.
The film goes on a typical dystopian SciFi/Horror path; you have rogue scientists that the protagonist can’t decide if they trust or not, a malevolent corporation that works with the authorities to ensure a hierarchical society and an unlikely hero that has the potential to save the world.
Kelsey Egan comes from a stunt background, having been a stunt performer in the likes of Mad Max: Fury Road and The Crown, so the fight choreography in The Fix is top notch. With the resurgence of body horror from the likes of Julia Ducournau (Raw and Titane) and Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor and Infinity Pool), Egan is in good stylistic company.
The Fix shows us a world well known to viewers, where everyone wears face masks as pharmaceutical companies battle to be first in line with a cure for a respiratory disease that would make their shareholders insanely wealthy. Grace Van Dien shines as a woman who seemingly has everything handed to her while simultaneously showing how alone in the world she is. To top it off she performs almost the entire film barefoot, running around city streets, jumping across rooftops and throwing around henchmen like they’re paper mache.
The film relies a bit too heavily on needle drops, especially during the climax, which gets a bit distracting. The neon hues saturate the screen contrasting the gritty with the high tech, giving us a District 9 meets Blade Runner 2049 atmosphere. The grittiness of District 9 isn’t the only thing The Fix has in common with the Neill Blomkamp film. With Ella slowly changing into something not human, her transformation mirrors fellow South African Wikus van de Merwe.
The Fix is a fun action romp that has just enough body horror to keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s a throwback to the type of films that were common in the 80’s and 90’s, so if you yearn for that kind of adventure, this is the film for you.
Thank you to Showmax for the screener.
