Film Review" SPLICE

There are few sci-fi – horror films that try to blend both of the genres and do it in a satisfactory manner. The ALIEN franchise and EVENT HORIZON are the ones that come to mind as well as writer & director Vincenzo Natali’s CUBE, so it is with great pleasure that I recommend Natali’s latest film SPLICE as one of these rare hybrids that actually work.

The film is about two geneticist Clive and Elsa (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, respectfully) who embark on splicing human DNA with that of an animal hybrid in order to further the advancements of mankind in the hopes of finding cures for various human ailments. Their experiment goes further than they expected when they give birth to a humanoid creature they later name “Dren.” At first everything starts off as a simply experiment as the two scientist try to learn as much from Dren as possible all the while keeping her existence a secret as they’ve just broken many legal and moral laws. The older Dren gets the more human she becomes and Clive and Elsa’s creation no longer can be described as an experiment as she becomes more and more fed up with being locked away from the world. Clive and Elsa soon realize that their experiment may have the better of them as Dren possesses more abilities than they could have ever hoped for.

The film delves deep into parental responsibly which is evident from the Frankenstein homage and motifs throughout the film but it goes deeper by updating the story for modern times in which genetic manipulation is reality. The emotional weight of the film comes from the moral implications and conflict between Clive and Elsa and their child “Dren.” The horror comes when that child grows up and the parents have not adequately prepared her for the outside world.

The film succeeds because the concepts and themes are the fears of every parent of their child and for a horror film they are multiplied exponentially. With a Natali film you’re guaranteed complex characters and a human story wrapped within the complexities of a sci-fi film that has a horrific outcome. He succeeds where so many others fail and SPLICE is truly a success story 100%.