Implanted is like a twisted episode of Black Mirror combined with the skin-crawling body horror and frenetic action genres. The film is a twist on the evil AI trope, except this nefarious android lives inside a woman's head. LEXX sounds like Siri or Alexa but beneath her soothing voice lies cunning maliciousness.
Three years after the pandemic, a company takes advantage of people's desperation by offering them money in exchange for implanting an experimental chip in their brains. This chip is supposed to help people improve their health by letting them know what they should eat, how long they slept, or if their heart is beating too fast.
But soon LEXX starts threatening her host Sarah, a tough woman struggling to stay afloat. Since LEXX has the ability to cause Sarah intense pain or even stop breathing, the sinister chip is able to threaten her keeper, forcing Sarah to obey her nefarious commands involving theft and eventually murder.
The audience can easily identify with Sarah's panicked fear thanks to Michelle Girolami's gritty performance. She is able to carry the extended sequences where her only scene partner is the wicked voice in her head. Girolami's portrayal of Sarah's descent into madness and eventual surrender to LEXX is utterly chilling.
Director and writer Fabien Dufils (alongside writer David Bourgie) reworks familiar science-fiction ideas to create a harrowing thriller that never loosens its grip on the audience. His invention of LEXX—with her all-powerful control and constant talking—is goosebumps-inducing; it's an unsettling concept that is completely sold by the committed Girolami.