Movie Review: Splice

At its core, Splice is a movie about a couple of science geeks who, try as they might, can’t quite escape the fact that they’re also human beings. It’s also really, really messed up, and I have a feeling that whether you’ll like it is directly related to whether that sounds to you like a good thing or a bad thing. I’ve seen plenty of other horror films with fountains of gore that this film mostly lacks. But I saw things in Splice I’d never seen before.

The story of the film’s production is almost unique. The film is directed by Vincenzo Natali, who in 1997 debuted with the popular ultra-low-budget Sci-Fi film Cube, and since has directed a couple of  other films that are almost impossible to find. He then spent years putting together the funding for Splice, gathering together an eclectic group of producers that includes Guillermo Del Toro.  At one point it was almost dumped as a SyFy Channel premiere. The film played at Sundance last year to raves and was eventually picked up by Warner Bros., which is now debuting it on nearly 2,500 screens nationwide and spending blockbuster sums on marketing.

"But I saw things in Splice I'd never seen before."

The movie itself is pretty unique, too. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play Clive and Elsa (yes, like in Frankenstein), a married couple who are both hot-shot geneticists. They have just created the first artificial organisms, a pair of ugly slug-like creatures named Fred and Ginger, by splicing together genes from several different species. These aren’t your daddy’s scientists. When they’re in the lab, they blast metal and wear ironic t-shirts under their lab coats. When they’re out of the lab, they wear leather jackets and appear on the cover of Wired. They are starting to discuss whether to have kids. When the pharmaceutical company (represented by Stargate: Atlantis star David Hewlett) that funds their research finds out about Fred and Ginger, they order Clive and Elsa to drop everything and begin mass production of the proteins found in their bodies. Elsa, who is, let’s say, a bit of a rebel, balks at this and instead begins work on a new creature, one that combines both animal and human DNA.

What emerges is Dren (“Nerd”  spelled backwards). She starts life as a slug, then rapidly evolves into a squirmy little thing that looks like a fetus with legs, and then into a more-human like creature with a stinging tail and wide-set eyes. The film that follows is probably best described as a three-way psychodrama played out between Clive, Elsa, and Dren. Elsa starts treating Dren like her pet, maybe even like her child. Clive is wary at first, but gradually gets drawn into the fantasy, until he’s in much too far. Every time either of them tries to take a step back and start thinking of things as a scientific experiment again, they’re drawn back in. And, of course, things eventually take a dangerous turn.

The crux of the problem is that Dren is too human to be treated like an animal and too animal to be treated like a human. When things take a turn for the worse in the film’s second half, it is left unclear whether it is because Dren is naturally predatory or because she was screwed up by Clive and Elsa’s bad parenting. We find that Elsa has her own mother issues, which she may be in the process of passing on. Clive and Elsa have all the scientific tools to create life, it turns out, but none of the human ones.

Dren is played in her adult phase by French actress Delphine Chaneac, who gives a strong performance seamlessly integrated with physical effects and some CGI work. Chaneac never leaves any doubt that Dren is experiencing real human emotions, which she is forced to communicate almost entirely without actually speaking, while at the same time her movements are often extremely animal-like. The fact that the actress is really physically in the scenes gives Dren a sense of reality on screen that could not hope to be duplicated by the motion capture technique used in films like Avatar.

Brody and Polley also succeed in giving strong, human performances in roles that ask a lot from them. Natali feeds off of the performances of all three leads to deliver a movie that is filled with organic tension that stems from the psychology of the characters. He is never forced to resort to jump scares. However, the film is not perfect. Despite the fact that the film spent so long in development, the script, co-written by Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, and Doug Taylor, feels somehow incomplete and a little frayed around the edges. While the writing delivers strong dialogue that always feels like something real people would say, it sometimes leaves plot mechanics slightly murky. While the weird emotions taking place between Dren and her “parents” seem real, when the films steps outside of that circle into the sub-plot involving the pharmaceutical company it mostly falls flat.

Splice is sure to be a much-discussed film, partially because it contains themes that resonate outside of its twisted little world. Some think the scientific elements of this story might not be so far from reality, and in fact this past week the Senate of the State of Ohio passed a bill banning the creation of animal-human hybrids. In a world where we may be very close to having the ability to create artificial life, this film asks important questions about what our responsibilities would be to that life, and whether we’ll be able to honor them.

But most importantly, it is really, really messed up.

Splice is rated R for disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language.

About Dan

Dan Joslyn grew up in Ohio but now lives in Las Vegas, NV with his lovely ginger girlfriend, Tiarra, where he works as an office monkey. He enjoys reviewing movies and television for the site, and over-analyzing such things. He may be the Chosen One… but he probably isn’t.

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