It’s hard to sum up Toby Wilkins‘ 2008 highly rated horror, Splinter, without giving too much away. It’s a monster film, and it pretty much gets right into it, which is a refreshing change of pace from most modern horrors and on a relatively low budget it does have an impressive production value, but this one just didn’t hit home and I’m not too sure why.
The gist of the story is young couple Polly (Jill Wagner) and Seth (Paulo Costanzo) are taking a camping trip for their anniversary, when they come across and are quickly kidnapped by fugitives, Dennis Farell (Shea Whigham) and his lover, Lacey (Rachel Kerbs). While on the road though, they hit a strange animal which leads them to an isolated gas station where a mysterious creature which has already run rampant through that particular area begins terrorising the small group.
And that really is Splinter in a nutshell. It’s a simple premise, the set up is quick, easy to follow and doesn’t really deviate from the plot once it’s set up. Outside of a gas attendant at the beginning of the film and a rogue cop part-way through, these are the only characters we get on screen and it’s up to those four to carry the film, and to be fair, for the most part, they do. Whigham leads the way as fugitive Farell, who’s story has more than meets the eye and Wagner plays a confident bad-ass female lead while Costanzo follows the group with his portrayal as the lacking in confidence but highly intelligent biologist in-the-making, which is actually rather convenient for the film, but that’s okay.
Splinter has been getting rave reviews, people love it, but it’s hard to jump on that band wagon. It just felt like there was something amiss through the running time. It feels as though there wasn’t enough execution for the monster to be sinister or scary in any way and while it would have been an easy go to, as there are many films out there which do this (Slither, for example), this idea might have thrived under a more comic direction, rather than the straight shooting approach it took.
It’s not to say there aren’t enjoyable moments in Splinter. It gets truly gruesome at some points and again, the production value is fantastic for the budget the team worked with. It just doesn’t come together as a product and the final moments felt a bit flaccid. It might be a throwback to the more traditional Hollywood monster movies and maybe one that needs to grow on you over time, but outside of some key moments there’s very little to shout about with this mild-mannered horror flick.
Rating: A rare modern monster movie that may leave fans divided, (5/10)
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