Movie Review: Splice

There have only been two times that I left the theater, and I was breathless. Pan's Labyrinth and The Dark Knight, both fantastic films, and both, in their own right, modern classics. Never before, though, has a movie that I was only watching as a mindless diversion, one that I wasn't expecting anything from, left me feeling like I was having an asthma attack.

I have had a lot of people saying that I never have anything good to say about movies, and that none of the movies on here have been rated past 4 out of 6, meaning that they need a lot of work to be very good (4/6 is still a high "D"). I'm fully aware of this, and I have been meaning to find a really good movie to review, just to break that trend. Needless to say, I never though I would find it in the theaters, especially with the crap coming out this summer. When I saw the trailer for Splice, I was expecting a "maybe okay" horror film about genetic engineering. I wasn't expecting it to be mostly drama, nor was I expecting it to be anywhere near interesting. I'm glad I wasn't too, because it came as a much needed surprise that Splice may, in fact, be the first real horror film in 10 years that understands that the monster isn't just the scary part of the movie.

Let me say this right now: I'm opposed to most forms of genetic engineering, especially stem cell research that calls for abortion to fuel it (which, as far as I know, is illegal) and cloning. That's isn't why I watched this movie (though, it can be seen as a cautionary tale of what "may" come), but I was pleased to see that while the movie portrays the negative aspects of genetic engineering, it doesn't throw its views in your face. The band, Green Day, can take a lesson of subtlety from this movie. The product of the experiment, "Dren" (who takes her name after reading "NERD" on her "mother's shirt, and associating it with Sarah Polley) is not evil, but more or less half human and half animal. Both of the actresses playing her (one for child, the other for adult) portray this so well, that it rivals the Predator from its series of movies. She communicates through body language, and at no point in the movie do you need to guess what she wants. You know what she wants. One scene in particular was so well done, that despite being horrifying to watch (or imagine), you had to see it happen. And, no, I'm not going to spoil it, due to it being something you'd have to see to believe.

The two lead actors, Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Dead) and Adrian Brody (The Jacket) are very well cast into the roles of the makers of Dren. Brody at first wants to kill her, while Polley wants to keep her alive (the "abortion" message, it seems). Towards the middle of the movie, the game changes bit by bit. I've always like Polley, but Brody... well, I can't see him in half of the roles he plays (seriously, Predators?). He was good in The Jacket, though, and he is excellent in this. Him and Polley play off of each other well, and you can see certain things happening in this movie from his body language, too. If there were awards for subtle acting, him and Delphine Chaneac would easily take the cake this year.

While it's not an upfront horror movie, it does have that feeling of dread that you would expect. This is mainly because of what the two main characters are doing, and not because of Dren's existence. In fact, Dren is particularly interesting to watch as she evolves. At all times, Chaneac captures Dren's mix of animal nature and childlike sense of awe and mischief perfectly. For example, at one point she escapes to go outside, and kills a rabbit. When the scientists find her, she looks back, blood and entrails pouring out of her mouth, and smiles, as if to say, "Look what I did! Aren't you proud?" It's sick, but kind of funny to watch (especially for dog owners).

The last thing I want to touch on is the CGI. At first, I felt it was extremely unnatural. When Dren is born, though, you can't help but be captivated by her. She looks like a chicken with a human head. Then she grows arms. By the end of her evolution, she looks absolutely horrifying, and more humanoid monster than animal, and that's where the payoff for all of the CGI leads to. It is rare that you see a creature that inspires awe and terror within a 100 minute timeframe, and Dren does it.

The movie does have a hard "R" rating, but I can't picture it without most of the elements. If they'd cleaned the language up, it would've been great, but that's nitpicking. When I have to reach for that, then a movie's got to be pretty damn impressive. And Splice is definitely that. In fact, it may be even more than that.

I give it 6 out of 6 human/chickens.