“The Fix” is an adrenaline-fueled, frenetically paced, ultra-stylish rollercoaster ride that combines body horror with sci-fi action thrills.
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If there’s one thing I love, it’s a good dystopian sci-fi thriller. However, these types of doomsday apocalyptic scenarios are starting to feel far less fantastic and far more eerily on the nose.
Take The Fix, for example, the sophomore film from South African filmmaker Kelsey Egan (Glasshouse), which imagines a world nearly crippled by catastrophic air pollution that makes the air toxic to breathe.
To combat this crisis that has already killed 130 million people worldwide, a pharmaceutical company has developed a drug called Air Remedy (Airem for short) that purports to block toxins from entering the bloodstream.
Combined with the use of industrial-grade masks in all outdoor areas and indoor filtration systems (for those lucky enough to afford them), Airem is considered essential in protecting the vast majority of the population at risk for fatal toxic exposure.
The Fix effectively illustrates the class divide that makes access to the drug and its dangerously dwindling supply harder for those with fewer means.
Air, the one free thing that everyone should have equal access to regardless of their socio-economic standing, is now being commoditized like everything else.
Amid this dying planet, we meet our protagonist, Ella (a captivating Grace Van Dien who recently made a big splash as Chrissy on Stranger Things Season Four).
Ella is a high-profile model still reeling from her mother’s suicide a year earlier. Everyone wants a piece of her, but most seem to care more about her status as the daughter of a famous supermodel.
Despite being showered with money and attention, Ella feels lonely and disconnected from the world, valued only for her beauty.
The only person she truly feels close to is her best friend, Gina (Robyn Rossouw). However, on the anniversary of her mother’s death, she catches Gina making time with her trust fund baby boyfriend Tully (Tafara Nyatsanza) at a party, shattering her trust.
In a state of despair, she takes a vial full of a drug Tully snatched from the home of his supplier.
Unbeknownst to Tully, who thought the drug was just the latest designer fix, it’s an extremely valuable experimental drug that a group of rogue scientists are developing as a potential cure.
Soon, a frantic chase ensues to capture Ella, who is now experiencing dramatic changes to her body.
These changes range from superhuman strength and agility to scaley skin and sharp claw-like talons protruding in and out of her elbows.
As the increasingly inhuman mutations accelerate, Ella finds herself at the center of a high-stakes, pulse-pounding battle between those desperate to save the world and those eager to profit off its fear and misery.
The Fix features great star power, including a loathsome and menacing performance from Daniel Sharman (Fear the Walking Dead) as a corrupt capitalist you will love to hate.
Of course, the success of the film weighs heavily on the shoulders of Van Dien, and she is magnetic, displaying ample vulnerability and strength, imbuing the film with emotional depth while kicking ass with graceful action-hero panache, reminiscent of Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil and Fifth Element.
The visuals are striking, with jaw-dropping effects and first-rate production values. Ella’s transformation is as strangely beautiful as it is grotesque.
The Fix was a film a decade in the making and deserves a wide audience.
It’s both breathtaking and horrifying— a gorgeously imagined, intensely thrilling sci-fi/body horror nightmare fantasy that’s relentlessly paced and riveting.
Overall Rating (Out of 5 Butterflies): 4
THE FIX had its world premiere as the closing night film at the Chattanooga Film Fest, where it was screened for this review.
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