Splice

Very much not the film I was hoping for, Splice was a big letdown in several departments. For a film with trailers that made it look like a horror and a plot that made it sound like a remake of The Fly it ended up flitting between genres. I found it deeply unsatisfying and something of a wasted opportunity.

The story is about two scientists working outside the mainstream to create a hybrid human-animal life form. Something like The Fly or Primer for example - films that draw a viewer in by setting up a claustrophobic atmosphere while hinting a mysteries and ambiguities in story and character. Such a shame then that 'Splice' gets nowhere near doing any of these things - instead opting for lazy scripting and hackneyed attempts at shock tactics to scare (which fail anyway). The writing was on the wall early on when our two scientists work hard to try to splice the human and animal DNA together - cue montage! Any and all tension there might have been in this is drained out pretty quickly by the needless application of scientists in white coats furrowing their brows in front of unlikely computer graphical representations of their experiments. I don't remember Primer needing a montage when the protagonists first stumble across their time machine.

The more I've thought about this the more I think Splice has very few redeeming features. At least 'Species' had a well-hot actress in the lead role; Splice is trying too hard to be a serious science fiction film to go down that route, but it fails at every other turn. Especially the end with its 'to be continued' final scene - completely dull, telegraphed and miles short of the 'beware the dangers of science' ending (a la The Fly) they should of aimed at.

I guess it's not really a surprise then that when it was actually out at cinemas the only place it was on even slightly near me was Basingstoke, for once the multiplex distributers have done me a favour and saved me £7.