Splice

Splice is the story of two genetic engineer scientists whose ambitious side-project creates a creature that would have anti-stem cell campaigners crowing “We told you so, God-playing heathens!” The film has the potential to reach classic status within the (admittedly underachieving) genre of sci-fi B-movies.

We are introduced to Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrian Brody), our maverick leads. They are funded by, and also up against, The Man: corporate suits who drag them to board meetings to remind them that their research grant doesn’t come for free. The purpose of all their lab-based gene-splicing is to discover a cure-all protein that will prevent the spread of diseases in livestock. Elsa and Clive, however, have bigger ideas. They could discover the cure to cancer – if only they were able to use human genes in their experiments…

Elsa’s ambitions soon outstrip Clive’s, however, and her desire to open Pandora’s box and damn the consequences drives the story from there. Elsa and Clive manage to make being geeky look kind of sexy, all dishevelled hair and tongue-in-cheek T-shirt slogans. It helps that they are also romantically involved, and there is plenty of chemistry between the actors; as a result the couple’s arguments and love scenes feel unusually naturalistic for a Hollywood film. Further than this, Splice has a pleasingly twisted take on mutant sexuality: in the latter part of the film Dren (played by Delphine Chanéac), the inevitable mutant creation, soon feels the urge to go forth and multiply. The film’s closest cinematic cousin is definitely Cronenberg’s sexy and gross 1986 film The Fly. As anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing this body horror classic will know, things get messy pretty rapidly once the subject of an ill-advised experiment develops a libido of its own.

Splice is not one of those films that are overtly styled as a comedy, but there is plenty to be amused by. Wry humour pervades the script, and the experimental monsters created in the lab are hilariously, grotesquely phallic. Nerdy allusions abound, and the actors carry the ironic tone lightly enough to avoid the trap of looking smugly clever-clever. There is a mass of Freudian theory to pick out from the unfolding sci-fi plot, and part of the fun of the film is thanks to this mix of high and low brow culture. Guillermo Del Toro is the executive producer behind Splice, and his gift for imagining unsettlingly humanoid beings is put to good use in the character of Dren. All of the CGI is convincingly rendered. Splice may be a B-movie in scope, but it’s an A-movie (wait, is that even a thing?) in production values.

Come summer, cinemas are traditionally inundated with blockbusters – franchises, sequels, vehicles. These tend to be big, dumb, and not all that fun. If you feel like watching a movie on a Friday night but would rather steer clear of the latest overblown superhero/vampire offering, Splice is a great alternative. It’s weird, sexy and funny; it’ll make a great date movie for any couple with a mutual inclination towards the geekier side of life.

Last edited: 11th July 2010