I’m gonna splice you silly!

Splice – Vincenzo Natali

The advertisements and publicity for the film is really different from what i actually saw, i was expecting a really fucked up horror film involving a creature that looks disgusting just killing people over and over again. But instead its foundation is from a relationship and a couple wanting to become a family but uses an unconventional method to go about it, through science. The film is presented by Guillermo Del Toro and you can defiantly see the connection between Del Toro and the source material and even the aesthetic of the creature as well, being reminiscent of the creatures found in Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth. These creatures will stay in your mind for a little while so watch out for nightmares about them, and considering that this is a commentary on the evolution of science and how this could really happen, it’s very frightening of many levels, not just on a film level.

Starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as Clive and Elsa as the two leads, they bring a great amount of acting talent to a genre which isn’t known for it, and you can tell it makes a massive difference in the outcome. Having decent actors react to what’s happening around them you feel for the characters and you feel a connection which otherwise wouldn’t be there. There’s been many films out this year that have characters die or be hurt in horrific ways but many of those i couldn’t give two shits about, so it’s a nice change to actually care about the people you’re seeing on the screen. Clive and Elsa are genetic engineers who have become successful in splicing animal DNA to create new breeds of animals. After being funded to do the research they want to keep going to the point of splicing human DNA with animal to see the effects; but it ends horribly. They begin testing it and its successful in creating a new breed with it soon grows to look like a human but with animal features such as a tail and super human strength and speed. It soon begins a slippery slope where the creature becomes out of control and start to affect the couple. The steady decline is fascinating and you never know where it might end up next.

One aspect that really freaked me out was having a sex scene between the creature and Adrien Brody’s character which really had me shivering in a disgusted way. I’m not saying it shouldn’t have been there but it’s terrifying to have that notion in the film where a man would do that to a creature that fucking disgusting, if anything it shows some great writing to go into that direction. It’s a decent film which does scare but on a more physiological way.

6/10

Simon Childs