Splice

Small budget horror movies in the middle of summer can reap wonderful rewards for the audience. If you need an example, I point to The Strangers. It was this wonderfully creepy horror movie in the middle of the superheroes, boy wizards and transforming robots. Now, Splice did not come out looking specifically like a horror movie. If you can excuse the pun, it looked like a hybrid, a splicing of the sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres, but undoubtedly it looked interesting. We had it at our theater for a few weeks and it took me a while to get to it, but everyone coming out of the film talked about how weird it got. This intrigued me because the premise was already weird, so for it to get more weird, what would have to happen? This was the biggest question on my mind when I finally watched Splice.

Elsa(Sarah Polley) and Clive(Adrien Brody) are rebellious scientists who get on the cover of magazines for their cutting edge working styles and research subjects. They have created hybrid animals that will hopefully be used to treat human illnesses and diseases. However, these two young, rock star scientists want more. They want to go outside of moral, ethic and legal boundaries and splice together human and animal genes, just to see what would happen. Thus Dren (Yes, Nerd backwards) is created. At first, they just want to see if they can bring the creature to term, but Elsa becomes attached to it and soon, they are caring for this hybrid creature. Dren grows at a rapid rate and keeping her under wraps becomes increasingly difficult. Clive and Elsa both grow to care about Dren, but Elsa harbors a secret past and her crazy tendencies start to show as she tries to be a mother to this creature, so Clive takes a more nurturing role.

That plot synopsis may not be one of my better ones, but even writing about this movie brings back the feelings of just how damn weird and uncomfortable it got. There is a scene fairly early on when Else and Clive start to have sex on a couch, with Dren sleeping near them and Dren wakes up and watches. Clive sees her watching, but he cannot stop himself from sexing his girlfriend. It was at this moment, that I thought "Oh no...this is going to get strange." But I was not even prepared for the fucked up nature of this nonsense. The movie gets so bizarre that it negated what was a pretty damn good movie. Now, I am all for movies that just go there but this just took me so far out of the movie and just when I thought the weirdness was at a peak, it would twist out again. There are no less than 4 weird twists in the final 35 minutes that I just threw my hands up in the air and gave up.

However, up until that point, I was totally engaged. Splice is not a scary movie. It does not offer cheap jumps, or real jumps save 1 or 2 moments. The opening P.O.V shot of something being born/hatched/created totally put me right in the movie and was such a great way to start and from there the movie builds a lot of interesting tension. I was never scared, but I was often on the verge of being scared. I kept waiting for the jump and I kind of liked that anticipation of being scared. The effects of Dren are slick and gross, but not overly gross, until the movie goes batshit crazy. I liked the way Dren moved, very chicken like in her younger forms and I thought Brody and Polley were believable as these sort of renegade scientists. There is cool montage scene set to cool music that really sets the film up and I was excited for where it was going.

My disappointment in the final half hour was made more grand by the fact that I was so very much enjoying the movie up until that moment, and I knew, I just knew that moment was coming, but I was hoping the film maker was going to somehow avoid it. he did not. He wasted all of this tension, all of these interesting shots, and effects and this great use of light and shadows, for some cheap gross out moments, a completely disgusting rape and this horrid end. Yet, I got the very of the movie. I actually understood that is how the character would react in that situation, but the fact that the writer/director thought of putting Elsa in that situation just got to me.

I want so desperately to recommend Splice because of the fantastic first 75 minutes or so, but I cannot do it. It just took it to a place that ruined the entire experience for me. It was like having really great sex and before you can finish, your partner rips off her skin and is a reptile and instead of remembering how great the sex was, you remember you had sex with a reptile. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Final Grade: D