Rating: ****There can be no better compliment to Splice then to call it Cronenberg-esque. Featuring believable characters, up-to-the-second genetic chicanery and a couple of compelling gross outs, Splice is everything that most modern Hollywood horrors are not: original.
This new decade has been pretty golden for horror efforts so far with The Crazies remake and Adam Green’s Frozen generating some genuine chills at the box office; even The Human Centipede is exploitation cinema par excellence. But I think Splice takes things to a whole other level. It’s a compelling What-If scenario that’s grounded in a knowing realism that the movie world isn’t that far outpacing real world science and tech. It’s a Frankenstein tale with a monster that’s not as monstrous in context of its creators. It deals with issues and themes so hot button that the film practically sizzles. The whole thing could have been ripped from the headlines of the latest issue of Popular Science.
Mostly though, Splice is about character. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play research scientists Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast. Not only are they cleverly named after Bride of Frankenstein stars Colin Clive and Elsa Lanchester, but they’re very grounded people that are played genuinely by the actors. In other words, this isn’t Nutty Professor territory or even Herbert West territory either. As a couple and as researchers, Clive and Elsa are smart, talented, down to earth, and, dare I say, hip. Which is why, according to the Joss Whedon school of screenwriting, it’s only fair that terrible things befall them.
Geneticists on the edge of using their research to create compelling new medicines, Clive and Elsa decide to take things a bit too far, just to see if they can. Adding human DNA to the new-life recipe, despite the warning against it by their corporate sponsors, Elsa and Clive end up giving birth (so to speak) to Dren, a bald-headed human-hybrid with bird-like legs and a long tail. She demonstrates incredible intelligence and reasoning skills while biologically being able to breathe underwater and having nutrient rich cells that may hold the key to curing several incurable diseases. Oh yeah, this can only get bad for our heroes here on out.
Elsa begins to develop previous unfelt maternal instincts for Dren (played as an adult by French actress Delphine Chanéac), which only unsettles Clive further being the conscientious objector to Dren’s creation in the first place. There is an almost touching – dare I say “Spielbergian” – vibe to the scenes of Elsa teaching young Dren word association or keeping her safe from curious and exploitative lab scientists, but at the base of your spine there’s a tingle that says this can all go wrong at any minute.
Director Vincenzo Natali knows how to build tension and play the creepy-crawly card well. He keeps such a firm focus on character and story that when you do get these bouts of violence and gore, you get rattled by them easily. Splice isn’t some torture porn that tests you to see how much you can take, but rather takes a less-is-more approach to make each instance on its own take you for maximum effect. Even a scene featuring CGI blob creatures stabbing each other to death with their proboscises got a bunch of film critics at the press screening gasping. Natali further shows that he learned the lessons of Cronenberg well by not losing sight of character amidst the gore and allegory. Read into it what you want, this is a drama about three people. Well… two people and the hybrid they created together.
That’s also giving praise to the work of Chanéac. A true gift from the god of thespians who has to play every emotion without words while being in the midst of make-up, effects, appliances, wires or whatever devices the filmmakers needed to bring Dren to vivid life. The final twists of the story all involve what happens to Dren and I will not spoil them. What I will say that the ending of Splice will either leave you delighted or sickened. As for the film itself, the door is left open for sequel potential, but I will point out that Cronenberg’s own The Fly spawned a sequel, which was a whole different sort of genetic mutation. After all, as the film itself points out, once is enough.
