SPLICE is an interesting psychological journey into science and ethics before turning into horror. This film is
the latest from director Vincenzo Natali (the director of CUBE). This film revolves around scientist couple Clive (Adrien
Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) who create a new lifeform by combining DNA from other species with human DNA. What they
get is a smart and rapidly aging creature named Dren. She experiences emotions and forms a bond with Clive and Elsa.
Will this bond be dangerous to Clive and Elsa? Are they playing God by creating Dren and play the consequences?
Vincenzo
Natali grabbed my attention with CUBE. SPLICE is about relationships and how the actions of people affect that. Clive
and Elsa rebel when the company they work for want to shut down the gene splicing lab. They take their experiments underground
and that first action has all sort of consequences that vibrate through the movie. Natali builds on those actions and
relationships to make the horror stick out more when it does come. He wants many levels to his movies. You
have a relationship movie along with a science fiction one and a horror movie in addition to a film about a creature that
is somewhat sexy. I do wish the film went on a little longer because the film does take quite a while before it gets
to the horror part of it. SPLICE is good, but it isn't as great as CUBE.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
A
DIRECTOR'S PLAYGROUND: VINCENZO NATALI ON THE SET OF SPLICE- a 35 minute behind-the-scenes featurette that takes a detailed
look at the production of SPLICE with interviews from teh director and various members of the cast and crew.
I
do wish they had a trailer and an audio commentary on the disc.
FINAL ANALYSIS: If you're looking
for an all-out horror movie or scary creature feature, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a complex film with sci-fi,
horror, and relationships, SPLICE might be the one for you to watch.
This DVD review is (c)10-29-2010
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com
