Splice
Canada (2009)
North American Premiere
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Starring: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley
Review by: Charlie Prince

After Splice finished its North American premiere at the famous Egyptian Theater in Park City tonight, director Vincenzo Natali (best known for his sci-fi hit Cube) was on hand for a Q&A along with stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. The first question went something like “That’s the most f—–d up movie I’ve ever seen, and I mean that in a good way”. The 2nd and 3rd questions were pretty much the same, leading to theater-wide cheers.

So, clearly Splice had won over the audience, but then again, it was the first “midnight movie” slot of the festival, and at that time of night audiences tend not to be too picky. As I walked home I debated how less festive audiences might respond. On the one hand I shared the audience’s general enthusiasm, but as I was watching the film I also found myself resisting certain parts as overly ridiculous.

Without giving anything away, Splice is a monster movie (or a “creature” film as the director called it). Brody and Polley play genetic scientists who have created a new creature from the combined DNA of numerous non-human animals, essentially a giant gross worm/blob. By the way, the special effects for these creatures and other gooey effects throughout the film are effective, possibly reflecting Guillermo Del Toro’s presence as an executive producer.

In any case, in order for things to start spiraling out of control, Brody and Polley (mostly Polley) make a series of poorly-thought out decisions that made me roll my eyes at times. Polley’s character is uncompromisingly motivated to reach a scientific breakthrough, and isn’t about to allow any pesky ethical considerations play into the game. But she doesn’t go full Frankenstein, and her and Brody continually attempt to rationalize their actions on preposterous moral grounds, which seem to flick on and off like a switch.

It would be hard to get much deeper into it than that without giving away key plot points, but I will say that in the spectrum of midnight movies for last year’s Sundance film festival, this is more akin to Grace than one of my favorites like Dead Snow. This is partly because shock value is a major draw of the film. As Polley explained in the post-Q&A, as she read the script as it dabbled in some outrageous taboo subject, she’d think “they can’t possibly go THERE” and then inevitably a scene or two later they would (and how). And of course, there are other similarities to Grace (indulging an implausible motherly instinct, etc.). Take out the shocking elements, though, and the plot is easy to anticipate, with the director dropping sizable clues as it goes along what will happen next.

Even though it is clearly not a “serious” treatment of the dangers of tampering with genes and cloning, those elements do give Splice some topical value. As an interesting side-note, Natali explained that he had been working on the film for over ten years, and thus over the course of that time many of the ideas that started out as squarely science fiction became far more believable. You may remember the famous mouse that scientists had somehow grown an ear on its back – Natali explained that the ear mouse was the original inspiration to make the film. Natali went on to jokingly bemoan the fact that since the film had taken nearly 10 years to produce, scientists had literally mapped the human genome in less time.

In any case, the quality talent and outrageous concepts, together with a fast-moving plot and a sufficiently unique monster will almost certainly be enough to get a solid “B” rating from most horror hounds looking for some brainless fun. I’m skeptical it will get much past that. When asked what the director/cast would hope people would get out of the film, Brody joked “Don’t do this at home”. The director said that as a kid who grew up watching monster movies, his father once told him something along the lines of “the real monsters are humans”, a concept which has always stuck with Natali. He said he hoped that people would take that message away from the film, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Although the main characters are not entirely unsympathetic, it is also hard to internalize much of any of what they do. My guess is people take away from the film exactly the same feeling that the audience tonight was overwhelmed with – i.e. “that’s one seriously messed up movie”. And for a midnight movie, that’s probably good enough.