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.
The Director Vincenzo Natali who also brought us the cult 1997 classic ‘Cube’ made this film for a 25million dollar budget with no studio attached after winning a few awards at Sundance SPLICE was then picked up by Warner Bro’s for its USA Theatrical Release (Madman picked up the rights for Australia) and by what I have read SPLICE has been released completely untouched so no changes from the studio what so ever! Which in hindsight is a good thing, the story itself could have gone in a completely different direction.
Adrian Brody(Predators, The Jacket) puts on a strong performance in this film playing the Scientist Clive Nicoli, I really felt for his character through out the film as he is struggling with ethical dilemma’s both personal and work related. Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Dead) plays opposite Brody as his girlfriend and also a fellow Scientist, Brody steals the show from her but shes still very good throughout but the standout in the film is Delphine Chanéac who is extremely well know in france but SPLICE is her first “Mainstream” role. She stars as ‘Dren’ the organism that is created by the two scientists her chilling portral of the non talking, beautiful, winged creature is amazing and the fact she didn’t talk throughout the film and we were made to watch her every mannerism was sensational.
I will be honest when I walked out after watching SPLICE I really didn’t like this film, but after a few days to think about it, for a Sci-Fi Horror it ticks all the boxes. There are a few scenes in this film where I was taken back a bit I’m not going to drop any spoilers but when it comes to shock value it works.
SPLICE hits Australian Screens on the 12th August. There is no rating for this film yet but I feel it will either be an MA or even a possible R.
I Give this film 3 out of 5 Stars.