Two weeks ago I notified my friend about a special screening of Splice with a Q&A session with the Director Vincenzo Natali. To my disappointment I couldn’t make this screening but a good friend of mine and moviebuzzers.com fan was able to go. I asked him to give us his take on the movie and he was glad to do so. After the jump you will find Norman’s effective early review of Splice starring Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley.
Norman’s Review:
Walking in to the preview screening of ‘Splice’ with my buddies, I was pretty sure I knew what to expect over the next hour and a half or so. Having seen early trailers for the film I was looking forward to a somewhat gory, eerie, claustrophobic science fiction tinged mutant/alien/horror movie, much in the vein of Event Horizon.
Don’t get me wrong, I was pumped for this movie-I loves me a bit of mutant/alien on human action so I do, and the fact that it had Oscar winning actor Adrian Brody in a leading role was a good indication that this would be an above effort in a genre that can be quite reliant on stale tricks and stories. However, I had the gut feeling that it wouldn’t be anything too original or bring anything new to the genre. I was to be pleasantly surprised!
Before I give my feedback, here’s a quick overview of the plot, without giving too much away:
Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley play Clive and Elsa,a couple (in every sense of the word) of rebellious scientists break all legal and ethical rules to perform a very dangerous experiment: splicing the DNA of a human and an animal to create a new ‘organism’, who is simply dubbed Dren. Surprise, surprise the experiment doesn’t go according to plan and Clive and Elsa find themselves in a very dangerous situation which threatens their careers and lives.
The first 30 or so minutes of the film play out exactly as I expected; lots of fancy sounding scientific terms, Adrian trying to convince Polley that the experiment was a bad idea, Adrian being right about this,and lots of jumpy moments with loud crashing effects breaking the silence at random yet well placed intervals.
Suddenly, however, the film changes pace and unfolded like I could never have imagined. Clive and Elsa start to care for Dren and form a bond with ‘her’. They treat her almost like a child and help her develop and grow, which she does at an alarming rate.
I won’t speak too much on what goes on in this part of the film but the whole scenario they find themselves in becomes very dark, very complicated and very VERY messed up before long. However, I was captivated by the whole relationship they form with Dren and found myselfing becoming very involved with the story, dying to know where it was all heading. So as not to spoil the movie that’s all I’m going to say on this part.
The film once again changes pace for the final act and we are thrown into a more modern feeling, face paced horror film. The changes in the film’s pace actually work really well and kept me glued to the screen throughout. Director Vincenzo Natali, who many of you may know as the man who directed ‘Cube’, shows a real flair for storytelling and pacing. As a side note, Vincenzo was actually present at the screening for a Q & A after it and came across as very personable and humorous, which is always good to see.
The acting from Brody and Polley is great (and not just compared to the usual low standard found in this genre of movies). They are both perfectly believable in their roles and this realism really helps the audience connect with them and feel for them. They also carry the majority of the dialogue of the film and of the screen time (there are only 5 human characters in the film, with Simona Maicanescu and David Hewlett deserving credit for making their characters small roles feel quite important to the story).
A special mention most also go out to Delphine Chaneac, who so effectively brings Dren to life. Played at times in prosthetics, CGI or sometimes a combination of both, her bird like movements and slight gestures (such as the ‘Micheal Myers’ head turn) make her a very unsettling creature to watch. However, Delphine does such an effective job with her facial expressions that she gives Dren a great range of emotions and feelings, without the use of any dialogue.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by ‘Splice’. Though I was expecting a bit more in the way of gore(I’m a gore-hound at heart!) and in jumps, the film presented a fresh,new twist on tried and tested genre and really kept me interested from start to finish with its twisting, captivating story delving into darker and darker places.
I would recommend this for any fans of science fiction, horror and those just looking for a good story which is a little bit different. Let’s just hope it doesn’t get lost in the summer Blockbuster shuffle.
Splice hits theaters on June 4.
Splice Trailer
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