Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
According to Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Science fiction and horror have overlapped since the first science fiction story, Frankensteinamazed readers with the amoral scientist and his attempts to create life. More than two hundred years later, scientists taking their experiments too far has remained a consistent trope in science fiction, including the 2009 bombshell, which most critics say pushed the envelope a little too far. Splicea little story about two scientists raising human-animal hybrids is steeped in discussions of scientific ethics before all hell breaks loose, as always.
Scientists play God
Scientists Clive and Elsa, played by Academy Award winners Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, manage to create two amorphous creatures named Fred and Ethel as proof that their genetic research is on the right track. Quietly, without letting their bosses know, the two manage to create Dren, named after a young being saw their shirts that said “NERD” and wrote it backwards. It’s a cute moment and young Dren is the highlight Splicebut if the experiments always turned out right, nobody would ever care science fiction film.
Splice mainly takes place on an abandoned farm where Clive and Elsa can raise Dren from prying eyes and also save some money in the budget as it can be seen that most of the effort went into the animal-human hybrid. Dren rapidly ages and becomes a “teenager”, played by French ballerina Delphine Chaneac, who excels at conveying Dren’s emotions without saying a single word.
Compared to the more classic body horror versions of many works David Cronenberg to a newer one Substance, Splice it’s not as disturbing, not in the classic “ick” fashion that one might expect. Instead, the film turns Dren into a strange hybrid who is attractive and apparently capable of emotion with his large anime-style eyes, so the horror comes from realizing that this apparently unnatural being is intelligent, capable of higher levels of thought, but again , is the product of an illegal experiment.
A slow burn that burns
The film makes a lot of use of the characters debating the ethics of scientific research, what counts as intelligent life, and how Dren fits into the world now that he’s here. That part Splice it is well made and compelling and contemplative for constant dialogue and debate. This makes the third act’s wild sequence at the last moment all the more terrifying when it arrives, and completely changes the tone of the film to one of pure horror.
Even with a twist ending, Splice became a hit with critics, even earning praise from Roger Ebert, but was largely ignored at the box office. With a budget of $30 million, the film grossed $28 million, and while the marketing budget was very small, it didn’t even recoup the production budget, relying on DVD and Blu-Ray releases to help the film turn a small profit. A dialogue-heavy sci-fi drama that veers into body horror isn’t an easy sell, and while the film attracted a small audience, it’s not yet at that cult classic level, and now, 15 years after its release, that ship has sailed.
You can experience Splice and judge for yourself to Max. Just be warned, there are some moments and images from the movie that are burned into your brain once you see them, and no matter what you do, they’ll be hard to forget. Don’t let the opening 15 minutes fool you; earns that R rating by going from 0 to 100 in the space of 5 seconds after the final act begins.
