Splice
4 min read
What is one to do with a science-fiction suspense film that is part Species, part A.I., and part Frankenstein; that has a potent little dash of Freudian Elektra complex that turns Oedipal (that will make more sense when you see the movie); that makes a hybrid creature with wide-set eyes, bizarre legs, a tail with a poison stinger, and wings, both repulsive and kind of sexy; that teeters masterfully and boldly at the edge of B-movie ridiculousness but remains surprisingly restrained at the same time? Frankly, Vincenzo Natali’s Splice is a film that, most likely, should be simply regarded and discussed, rather than enjoyed. Now, gore-hounds and some horror aficionados might be disappointed at Natali’s relative stinginess with the red corn syrup and fake viscera (though there is one great bloody scene that is a clever callback to King Kong) but that is primarily because those folks have forgotten, for instance, how little Scott and Cameron actually showed us in Alien and Aliens. Then there will be those who find elements of the film distasteful. At least one of these “elements” has already begun to pass into legend, as you may have heard. But here is the thing – these reactions are fair. I get it. Splice is an odd and expectation-confounding film, and one that intrigues me.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall when Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley read this script for the first time! With the flipping of each page they must have giggled with joy at how bat-shit crazy it was and how fantastic it would be to get away with something like this. On the other hand, Delphine Chanéac (who plays Dren, the creature) probably did not require a script reading to realize this, since all she had to do was read her character description; I would say “crazy-ass human animal hybrid cooked up in a laboratory” probably told her all she needed to know. The truth is, for respected actors like these, Splice is a ballsy choice. You have to respect them for trusting the material and particularly Natali this much. That takes instinct. Guillermo Del Toro executive produced this movie, which is interesting because the casting and subject matter reminded me a bit of his equally fascinating Mimic. I can imagine the star of that film, Mira Sorvino, hearing a pitch that goes something like this: “So it’s a sort of noir-ish flick about a giant, intelligent cockroach that kinda takes the form of a human being.” That was a big risk that paid off. Splice is a similar risk for everyone involved. Though it lacks the audacious fun of Mimic, it succeeds in walking the same fine line between a Sci-Fi channel original premise (no, I will not in good conscience spell it “SyFy”) and a genuinely intriguing, intelligent work. As a viewer, I was constantly aware of this flirtation with ridiculousness, and I admired the hell out of it.
I generally try to avoid plot synopsis in my reviews, because it’s boring to write and boring to read. Besides, if you are reading this review then you have seen the trailer, and these days if you have seen the trailer you know the whole damn plot. Here is the deal: A couple of scientists screw around with genetic material without the consent of their bosses and create a hybrid creature that grows rather quickly into a French model-actress with lots of prosthetic makeup and digital alteration, and crazy shit ensues with many moral and ethical implications. There’s your movie, folks! What the trailer doesn’t show (and what I alluded to in the first paragraph) are the dark and complex psychological places this movie goes. I really don’t want to spoil any of it, so I will just broadly say that the movie explores various notions of emotional and familial perversion in ways that I found surprisingly bold and transgressive for a major release. Thankfully, Natali allows enough room for these deeper ethical issues to breathe. He doesn’t hurry from beat to beat, auto-piloting through the basic suspense film movements, which is something that, given the material, he could have gotten away with.
Unfortunately, the final 15 minutes devolve into something of a standard issue monster film. It felt like a producer screened the film and complained that there wasn’t enough good ol’ fashioned chasin’ and killin’, leaving Natali to write the ending currently in theaters. Make no mistake, there are still some very interesting things signified by the ending as is, but it felt tonally inconsistent considering the whole. As I mentioned previously, Splice is not the kind of film for curling up by the fireplace with a bowl of popcorn. It is fascinating and thought provoking. However, it is also difficult and aggressively disquieting. That is not a complaint – after all, what else do you want from a Freudian science fiction suspense film about the ethics of genetic experimentation run amok?
