Splice

I saw the trailer and read about Splice some time ago and was looking forward to seeing it at the cinema but, as is increasingly the case with the homogenised world of multiplex cinema chains, it wasn't shown. This is a real pity but, let's face it, Cineworld, Odeon or Vue would rather show a family friendly film about an animated dog than a potentially interesting horror film directed by the guy who brought us Cube and with Guillermo del Toro acting as the executive producer. Therefore I had to wait until it was available to rent or buy or, which was fortunate, sent to me for review.

Splice follows two geneticists, Clive and Elsa, who are a couple with extreme ambitions. They have already managed to splice parts of various animals' DNA to build a new unique organism which itself is helping provide a cure for an animal disease. They, especially Elsa, want to go a step further and merge this creature (there are two of them which they have named Fred and Ginger) with human DNA in order to potentially create the Holy Grail for scientists with something that would be able to cure Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and various forms of cancer.

Of course, the funding body wants nothing to do with this leap into the dark and is quite happy with the progress they have made up to now but the two geneticists decide to carry on their research in private and begin introducing DNA from a human donor into their creation, all of which fail. This changes when Elsa tries a new method which is successful, but rather than terminate the experiment as Clive wants, she starts to artificially grow the new species. The embryo's growth is rapid and, months ahead of schedule, there are complications and they are forced to 'deliver' the new baby. Believing it dead they leave it but, on closer examination the next day, it is found to have been just be a shell with evidence that the foetus actually came to term and was born. Discovering a strange creature in the laboratory with two legs, no arms and a disproportionately large head, Clive wants to kill the strange (and illegal due to it's human component) new organism but Elsa is drawn to the creature and, by removing her gas mask, prevents Clive from gassing the room.

As the creature grows and ages at an incredible rate from a baby into a child, it grows arms, a long and powerful tail with a stinger on the end and seems to be extremely intelligent. Although it can't talk, Elsa tries to communicate with it using Scrabble letters and is amazed to find that it actually responds and, when she points to her T-shirt and says "Elsa", the creature moves the letters to spell NERD, the acronym for the company for which she works which is written on her T-shirt. When Clive demands information about the creature and what is going on between her and Elsa, she points out what it can do and even gives it a name, Dren (which she makes up on the spot by looking at the upside down spelling of NERD).


Because keeping Dren a secret in the laboratory becomes increasingly difficult, Elsa divulges that she has access to a farmhouse in the country and they transport Dren to a barn which they turn into a home for her with Elsa phoning in sick so she can stay with Dren whilst Clive goes to the laboratory and pretends that it is business as usual. However, his brother (who also works at the laboratory) found out about Dren so Clive must try and keep him quiet whilst he gets things under control and can see out the inspections going on which threaten to shut down the labratory in which they work.

As she grows older, increasingly powerful and more self-aware, Dren becomes a fully sexualised female who begins to look at Clive in a very different way from when she was a child and, with Elsa almost treating her as a surrogate daughter, what happens next is extremely unpredictable and disturbing.

It is somewhat appropriate that this is a Canadian film as it draws heavily on David Cronenberg's body horror films of the 1980s, in particular Shivers and Rabid with Frankenstein, a film that Vincenzo Natali says influenced him a great deal, along with news footage of a mouse with a human ear growing on its back. There is a sense of Clive and Elsa becoming Mr and Mrs Frankenstein but this film is really something that will always be judged against Cronenberg's finest work and, in that respect, it falls short of greatness whilst being an extremely interesting, thought provoking and entertaining film.

The Disc

Extra Features
Interview with director Vincenzo Natali (24:57) is your typical one-on-one interview with the co-writer-director where the questions appear as text on the screen and he answers them fully and with enthusiasm. Natali is a man who isn't afraid to talk and give away his inspirations and the themes of the film so it is 25 minutes worth spending.

Featurettes: A Director's Playground (22:09) focuses on the various things that Natali did on the set in order to elicit the correct responses from the cast who are reacting to nothing at all as the object in front of them will only be created later on computer so it is quite funny to see him yelling out what the entirely invisible and fictional creature(s) are doing at that moment in time.

Behind the Scenes (33:14) is an interesting and revealing look at the CGI and how the director and the computer wizards created the various incarnations of Dren by getting a couple of actors (Abigail Chu the Dren as a child and Delphine Chanéac to play her as an adult) to act with dots on their faces so that they can be manipulated digitally later on. It was quite a surprise to see that Chanéac didn't just don a bald wig in order to play her part but cut her fairly long hair off before taking a pair of clippers to her head.

You can choose to watch these and the trailer individually or as part of a (and I wish this was available on more discs) 'play all' function so you can watch them altogether in one, 80 minute chunk.


The Picture
It is increasingly the case that films this new cease to impress you on DVD as you know that they should look extremely good and it is only a case of being disappointed by poor transfers than impressed by excellent ones. With bright colours, excellent contrast levels and superb CGI, Splice looks as good as it should do, even for a film with a limited budget.

After watching the film and then going through the extra features, I was amazed at how many scenes involved CGI and just how well it appears on screen as many of the things I thought were prosthetics were actually entirely done on computer and they all look photorealistic with shadows that match the movement and absolutely no sign that it was anything other than a real thing on set.


The Sound
Given the sound of Dolby Digital 5.1 surround or 2.0 stereo, I went for the former and was very impressed by the way it dealt with the dialogue, score and more action oriented sequences. Although there isn't anything wrong with the stereo, you do miss out when it comes to the scenes when objects crash behind you and the rear surrounds come to life, fully immersing you in the film.

There is a very good score by Cyrille Aufort which perfectly underscores the more emotional and horrific scenes, helping to drive the narrative.

Should you require them, there are very good English HoH subtitles available.


Final Thoughts
Whilst Splice isn't up there with the best that David Cronenberg had to offer, it is a fascinating take on the Frankenstein story with excellent performances by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as the two geneticists and a fine script by Vincenzo Natali, Doug Taylor and Antoinette Terry Bryant which Vincenzo Natali directs very well. Although there was apparently a very small cinema audience for the film thanks to it only getting a limited release, I imagine it's the sort of thing that will develop a large following on DVD and BD and, in time, possibly become something of a cult film.

Splice is an extremely watchable and intelligent film with over 80 minutes of extra features and an impressive AV package so horror and science fiction fans should really check this one out if they haven't seen it already as it is worth (at the very least) a rental.