Splice (2009)

"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."

Yet another so-called horror movie that turned out to be Sci-Fi and had all the fanboys wetting their knickers over a bit of nudity and bestiality. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad film, but it adds nothing new to the "Frankenstein" subgenre.

"Splice" is little more than a ripoff of David Cronenberg's "The Fly" but with genetic scientists rather than a teleporter splicing animal and human DNA together. Mercifully, however, there isn't any techno-babble or anything to really make the science involved seem credible. I'm sure that something like this might be possible one day but certainly not in the very near future.

So what are the fanboys on about? Well, it's all about the creature, Dren ("Nerd" backwards!), who gets produced from this gene-splicing experiment. She's a girl, and she's sort of pretty, so that's enough for some people. Yeah, you get to see her nude too. Whoopity-do! Without giving too much away, she later has sex with her "father" and "mother". Yeah, okay, so that really did give it away, but that will be the only reason anyone will want to watch this film in the first place. It's not as if I've told you how and why.

I suppose the acting is competent even if the characters aren't all that likeable. The practical effects look good as well, but without checking in to it, there seems to be a lot of CGI too. I might be mistaken about this, but I really don't see how else some bits were accomplished.

The story itself is, as you've gathered, about scientists playing God and getting their just deserts in the end. Maybe there's a moral message in there, maybe not. There's certainly some outright satire about corrupt corporations, but that will probably be wasted on most people who just want to see "the creature". I noticed it, and it made me a little bit angry. I only wanted to see the creature too.

Anyway, the bottom line is that "Splice" isn't a horrible film, but it's very derivative and not the "saviour of the horror genre" in any way. It's worth a rental, and maybe a purchase, but it's not something I would ever want to watch again.