Director: Vincenzo Natali
Starring: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley

4/5 popcorns
   
The horror genre generally produces just one or two decent films a year. The medium practically requires that every exercise in terror devolve into a violent, gory and twisted mess. But the few decent horror films are chilling rather than revolting. Viewers like to be entertained, but they like to be chilled to the bone even more, because it is such a rare and nearly unattainable feeling.
   
As ‘Splice’ winds down to an inevitably tragic climax, director Vincenzo Natali is helpless to prevent a few casualties here and there. What precedes them is exceptionally thrilling, however, and the final scene offers one of the most truly unsettling conclusions to any horror film in memory.
   
Wunderkind scientists Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) are superstars of the gene-splicing field, combining DNA of various organisms to produce valuable proteins that the conglomerate funding their research can sell at a tremendous profit. Partners in life as well as in the lab, the couple becomes frustrated when their employers deny their request to work with human DNA. Clive and Elsa obey their backers’ orders at first, but Elsa goes rogue on a small experiment when they work on a hybrid that can be used once they are allowed to begin the human gene-splicing process.
   
That small experiment becomes Dren, a lithe, four-fingered, woman-like creature with amphibious gills and a long tail with a lethal stinger on the end. As Dren matures, she does not develop a taste for human flesh, but rather an insatiable sexual appetite. This complicates Clive and Elsa’s already rocky relationship as they become fascinated by the creature’s habits and desires. Hidden from the world, Dren grows increasingly frustrated, and continues to evolve in ways Clive and Elsa could never have imagined. By the time Dren has realized her full potential, it becomes impossible to prevent the creature from ruining their lives and the world in which they live.
   
Certainly one of the most disturbing and provocative studio pictures released in many years, ‘Splice’ contains many edgy sex scenes. Many will find it repulsive and the minority will appreciate its revolutionary portrayal of primal sexual desire. The depiction of sex in ‘Splice’ serves to illuminate the complexity of Polley’s character, as it is revealed she was tormented by her mother, and thus rejects the idea of having children. Her maternal ideals are entirely new to the cinema, and the disturbing manner in which she obeys her material instincts provides the picture with its chilling resonance. In her complexity, Elsa is as new and exciting as Dren.
   
A modernization of ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ (Brody’s character is named after Dr. Frankenstein, and Polley’s character is named after the actress who played the monster’s bride) with inflections of ‘Rosemary’s Baby,’ ‘Splice’ is the rare new-age horror movie that is admittedly indebted to its influences. It is refreshing to see a film flaunt its technical prowess while professing its appreciation for the classics that paved the way for its production.
   
Like the latter of those two films, ‘Splice’ benefits from the casting of two phenomenal actors. Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody is terrific, and Sarah Polley, an Academy Award-nominated writer (‘Away From Her’) and accomplished director, is extraordinary in one of her very best roles since her unforgettable turn in ‘The Sweet Hereafter.’
   
‘Splice’ is as seminal a horror film as ‘Saw’ or ‘The Descent,’ reinvigorating the genre with unbridled sexual energy and artistic verve. Rarely do major releases anger and revolt the audience so profoundly.
   
smlittma@syr.edu