Splice

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Splice

Movie Information

Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named "Dren", the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators - only to have that bond turn deadly.

Rated: [MA]
Cinema Release: 12 Aug 2010
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Running Time: 104 mins
Stars: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac

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Movie Review

Rating:

A QUICK dissection of the genetic-engineering thriller Splice reveals distinct trace elements of what is known in the movie business as the Frankenstein Principle.

The theory runs something like this: any screen scientist who dares to play God is doomed for a devil of a time.

Such is the fate surely awaiting lovers and lab partners Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley).

As Splice begins, this Brad and Angelina of the biochemistry world have been making headlines for their recent experiments with DNA. Their pride and joy is an oozy, slug-like organism that can be squeezed to release all number of medicinal fluids.

Cures for ailments ranging from the common cold through to cancer could be just one splash in the gene pool away. However, interference from their corporate backers forces Clive and Elsa to go solo with their next project.

And so, a synthetically bred humanoid known as Dren comes into being. This strange-looking child -- best described as a pretty little girl scrambled with the features of a domestic rodent -- is a handful to raise in secret.

Though Clive and Elsa marvel at her accelerated growth and learning rates, there is something downright disturbing about Dren that they can neither understand nor control.

Writer-director Vincenzo Natali is not above raising the ethical dilemmas surrounding such a renegade scientific achievement, but you can tell he is more at home with dishing out the ick factor in copious quantities.

And so, by the second half of Splice, the film has devolved into a rather silly, yet distinctly unsettling blob of horror.

With Dren (played in her grown-up form by Delphine Cheneac) going rogue and her mutated array of bodily functions going haywire, Clive and Elsa must decide whether they are de facto parents or dedicated scientists.

The climax of this conundrum may not make all that much sense, but it does make one heck of an impact.