Splice

Plot synopsis:
Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast hope to achieve fame by splicing animal DNA to create hybrids for medical use at the company N.E.R.D. (short for Nucleic Exchange Research and Development). Their work previously yielded Fred, a dog-sized vermiform creature intended as a mate for their female specimen, Ginger. After successfully mating them, Clive and Elsa plan to create a human-animal hybrid that could revolutionize science. Their employers Joan Chorot of N.E.R.D. and William Barlow forbid them to do this. Instead, they are to find and extract proteins used for commercial drug production from Fred and Ginger. Clive and Elsa pursue their own agenda in secret. They develop a viable prepubescent female creature.
Although they had planned to terminate the hybrid before it reached full term, Elsa persuades Clive to let it live. They discover that she is aging at a vastly accelerated rate. Elsa discovers that the creature is undergoing mental development such as that of a young human child. Elsa names the creature "Dren" after the creature spells out NERD, having seen the letters on Elsa's shirt.
After moving Dren to a new location for fear of discovery, they find she has a dangerously high fever. In an attempt to save her they place her in a large industrial sink full of cold water. Clive places a hand around Dren's neck and pushes her under the water, seemingly drowning her. However, it is found that Dren is amphibious.
While studying Dren, Elsa and Clive neglect their work with Fred and Ginger. At a highly publicized presentation of their work, Fred and Ginger savagely fight to the death. It is subsequently discovered that Ginger had spontaneously changed to a male, but Elsa and Clive failed to notice because they were focused on Dren.
Elsa forms a motherly bond with Dren. After Dren jumps on Clive's brother, Gavin, they move her to an isolated farm. There, Dren displays carnivorous tendencies and retractable wings. She grows into adolescence and becomes bored with being locked up in the barn, but Elsa and Clive fear that letting her outside might lead to her discovery. Clive realizes that the human DNA used to create Dren was Elsa's, not from an anonymous donor as Elsa had told him. After Dren kills a cat and steals Elsa's keys Elsa restrains Dren and removes her stinger, using it to synthesize the protein for which they had been searching.
Meanwhile Dren and Clive have developed a mutual attraction. Elsa discovers them having sex in the barn and becomes upset. Clive accuses Elsa of never having wanted a "normal" child because of her fear of losing control; instead she chose to raise one as an experiment, where control could be assured. Deciding the only solution is to terminate Dren, they return to the farm and find Dren apparently already dying.
William Barlow discovers human DNA in Dren's protein samples and arrives to investigate. Elsa tells Barlow that Dren is dead and buried behind the barn. However, Dren, having metamorphosed into a male, rises from the grave and attacks the group, killing Barlow and Gavin before raping Elsa. Clive attacks Dren to save Elsa, but Dren overpowers him. Elsa intervenes and is about to kill Dren, but she hesitates, which allows Dren to kill Clive. Elsa then kills Dren.
Elsa is later informed that Dren's body contained numerous biochemical compounds for which the company has begun filing patents. Joan offers Elsa, now visibly pregnant with Dren's baby, a large sum of money to go through with the pregnancy, which Elsa accepts.

Tags: violence, comedy, murder, romantic, flashback

Review:
That it remains intellectually stimulating, even when the surface-area film dips into more traditionally hokey horror territory, is its greatest strength.What's so interesting about the story, in spite of what the trailer suggests, is that the creature artificially spawned by genetic engineers Clive and Elsa (Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley) is not an antagonist for the vast majority of the film.
Her general lack of dialogue sometimes forces the performance to rely a little too heavily on pantomime, but that we can both feel for and fear Dren simultaneously is a testament to the range of the actress.Perhaps it's because "Splice" nails the big performances and the big ideas, and because the gears turning behind the action are so consistently fluid, that it's all the more apparent when it stumbles over little things, like stilted motivation issues, and superfluous, grating secondary characters.
It is a film with very few characters, but every moment not spent on that central dynamic feels like time wasted.Still, that minor gripe is forgivable because "Splice" has two hugely important and rare qualities for modern horror—Original thought and fearless storytelling.
Maybe, like me, potential moviegoers just saw a trailer for another crappy horror movie instead of the interesting, offbeat experiment it is.It's Warner Brother's loss, and the audience's..
Vincenzo Natali's visually intense direction is also worth mentioning, and he clearly enjoys playing with a generous budget as compared with his previous features like Cube.This is, however, no modern masterpiece – the plot becomes predictable and contrived in the final third, the minor characters are little more than stereotypes (lax young brother, venal bosses) and the comedic elements of the film don't always sit comfortably with the horror aspects (there is, however, a notable exception in a hilarious scene towards the end).
THis specific plot started with a scene involving the creature and the character played by Adrian Brody, and it was a scene that didn't quite work because there wasn't enough of a build up towards something like that happening.
On top of that the movie goes even farther into absurdity at the conclusion, involving the character played by Sarah Polley and the creature again, taking much of the intelligence of the film out of the equation.In my opinion, the director was onto something in the beginning but then took the story into an unnecessary direction that might've still worked if there had been some real build up to those points which led to the conclusion.
And rounding out this prolific bunch is David Lynch's "Eraserhead," a hauntingly surreal horror film that not only presents parenthood with fearful uncertainty, but treats acts of sexuality and procreation with a metaphorically clinical (but never explicit) disgust.Vincenzo Natali's "Splice" falls somewhere within this noteworthy pantheon of mad science, moral/ethical conundrums, and icky special effects.
For a while, the film plays like something closer to an art-house feature (especially given the presence of character actors like Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) with intriguing ideas and a solid FX budget.
There are missteps along the way, but for the most part, this is a solid little sleeper.Clive (Brody) and Elsa (Polley) are young scientists who have made a breakthrough in artificial life: two blob-like creatures (one male, one female) with the ability to manufacture an artificial protein for the purpose of nourishing livestock.
Driven by curiosity, the duo wind up creating Dren (Delphine Chaneac), a creature whose accelerated life cycle prompts the creepily maternal Elsa to keep her as part of a more personal "experiment." "Splice" contains subtle, well-played allusions to bad childhoods, long-term psychoses, and the shifting roles of parents in the eyes of children (Clive starts off as vehemently oppositional; later, he becomes a reluctant accomplice who ultimately develops a bizarre affection for the creation), not to mention the tension between parents amid the child-rearing process; watching this trio interact supplies most of the film's compelling, hypnotic moments.
Playing of God. Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) are scientists of the Newstead Pharmaceutics researching the splice of DNA from different animals to form new genetic beings and find medical benefits to mankind.
"Splice" is a dramatic sci-fi horror film with the story of two young unethical scientists that decide to play God. The plot is unoriginal but is attractive and engaging, specially because the trio formed by Sarah Polley, Adrian Brody and Delphine Chanéac.
Well,I was amazed to be honest,literally amazed when I saw the trailer because it's been a while since I saw a movie made on the same lines as the cronenberg classics.The "man creates rare specimen-turned frankenstein" type of films was widely used in the 70's and most importantly the 80's and I kinda liked that category of sci-fi thrillers so it took me almost 8 months till I finally got my hands on it and thought I was gonna see a typical sci-fi thriller which takes you all the way,but I did'nt see what I expected...The plot revolves around two scientists,a couple,with a taste for doing the extraordinary and finally go for it when the try to splice human with animal DNA against the orders of their superiors which proves a touch costly when the result turns out to be an animal-human hybrid which looks all but friendly,initially it turns out to be friendly but as it grows...things change.My heart tells me to tell you more about the unexpected twists and turns the story takes but I just don't wanna spoil the thrills which I experienced and trust me it's something like never before...When I was seeing this movie I kinda had that perpetual deja vu maybe because it gave me that lurch in the stomach,that kind of feeling you had when you saw classics like "The Fly"..Well ,the reason why I am not giving it an 8 or a 9 is mainly because of the casting..Sarah Polley was anything but impressive in her role,she lacked that energy or enthusiasm of a rogue scientist and was mostly irritating,Adrien Brody did'nt look like a circumspect rogue-scientist,in fact he had that Mr. Nice guy look all through the film but still impresses and I still feel that the role of adrein brody's brother in the film could have been given more screen time to add that moral edge to the movie..Splice is a highly absorbing,engaging and even thrilling sci-fi flick which packs a good punch and carries a rare originality through it's story and screenplay.I could have given it an 8 or a 9 but for the casting.I still give it a decent 7/10..
The whole film has a pulse unlike anything I have seen from the genre in recent years (outside of the enigmatic Avatar), and its low budget grittiness helps the tones and ideas of the picture go a very long way.It is because of these elements that Splice rises out of the gluttony of modern horror and science fiction films.
Much like other great science fiction titles, Splice makes the audience think very hard about the morals being broken at any given time, the consequences of the characters' actions, and the very nightmare before them of whether a splicing experiment gone wrong like this one, could actually happen in reality.If there is anything wrong with the film, it is the final act.
Ironically, a lot of these last scenes are in the television spots that make Splice look like any other horror movie, while the rest of the film tries its hardest to distance itself from everything else.The various creatures that appear during the film, specifically the differing evolutions of the spliced together science project nicknamed Dren, are the true marvel of the film.
The main characters, Elsa and Clive (played by Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody, respectively) were both likable and detestable, and yet all the time believable throughout the film.
The character's themselves were even named after pivotal actors in Bride of Frankenstein (Colin Clive and Elsa Lanchester), an homage to one of the great creatures of Science Fiction films, and a source of inspiration to the director himself.
The pacing of the film started almost magical, like ET, then quickly picked up pace, paralleling the frenetic tension the scientists themselves must have been feeling.It wasn't a perfect movie by any means and it certainly wasn't one of my favourites in recent years, but I enjoyed it.
"Splice" is a science fiction cum horror film concerning Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley), two young rebellious scientists who are told by their employers to halt their groundbreaking work that has seen them produce new creatures with medical benefits by splicing together multiple organisms' DNA.
Overall, the casting was not credible enough."Splice" strength lies in its strange or rather unusual storyline, amazingly stupid or unique creature design and it's ending, where a lot happens to give an entirely new significance to the movie.
I rated the movie 2, I basically never vote lower than 5.This movie had a lot of potential in that it explored a lot of ideas - I'm going to stretch and say they are, abortion, bio-ethics, sex/gender roles, child abuse, insanity, incest, rape, bestiality, pornography etc.However, it was so predictable, the characters were so foolish and silly that my wife and I just started laughing at various scenes.I'm a big fan of sci-fi and horror so I forgive a lot but this was unforgivable.
Although the main characters made obviously stupid decisions, the movie was decently shot and it made sense.But honestly, beyond that when the plot finally plunges off the cliff, I just felt like walking out of the cinema if not for the fact that I was in the middle of the row.This film is one of the worst I have watched in a cinema-setting.
Splice (2009) *** (out of 4) Interesting, if not totally successful, sci-fi about scientists (Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley) who are working with cloning but decide to take it a step further and add human DNA.
"Splice" is an enjoyable and ethically challenging movie, and it does force you to confront within yourself all of these ethical dilemmas that are around us right at this very moment.Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are the stars as Clive and Elsa - two young scientists working for a company looking to genetic research to develop now wonder drugs by "splicing" together the genes of various animals.
The scene in which Clive and Dren have sex was troubling on a number of fronts, and really - in the overall context of the movie - served virtually no purpose except to make me (and I suspect many who watched the movie) think "gross!" I also have to say that, while I liked Brody and Polley and there's nothing in particular about their performances that I can point to that didn't work, for some reason I still found them less than credible as super-scientists.Still, even though the ending weakened the movie considerably in my opinion, I still enjoyed it, if only because it made an effort to deal with the hot-button issues we still face in a thought-provoking and entertaining manner.
No surprises then that the experiment is a total mess, quickly evolving from a phallic blob into a fully grown female humanoid with some unique physical attributes and an unpredictable psyche.The main characters' unprofessional methodology isn't the only seriously sloppy thing about Splice: the whole script is a shambles, the opening lab scenes full of incomprehensible scientific hogwash, the latter half of the film seeing Clive and Elsa repeatedly altering personality to suit the clumsy narrative: Clive initially wants to kill his creation, then he tries to help it (smuggling it out of the lab in a cardboard box—great security they have there!), then he screws the genetic abomination on the floor, and then he wants it dead again; Elsa, on the other hand, starts off feeling protective towards the creature (which she affectionately christens Dren), then tries to maim it, is subsequently kind to it, but winds up smashing it over the head with a shovel.
This film introduces most American audiences to Delphine Chanéac who plays the character of Dren, the creation of the two scientists (Brody & Polley), with an eerie animal like performance.
The ethical character in any given scene is quite likely to abandon their conviction in the next scene, although we never really understand why.Splice is an ironically appropriate title for a movie that comes off as an awkward splicing together of drama, parody, comedy, social commentary, and good old-fashioned "monster in the foggy woods at night" horror.
Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley do a fine job in the lead roles to drive the plot forward.While there are things to balk about, there's more thought and image provoking stuff here than you'd find in a dozen typical sci-fi / horror movies.
And despite some occasionally clunky dialogue, the performances are uniformly strong, particularly Polley, giving her all for what ultimately becomes a very silly movie.Brody is solid, but the best part of his casting is that he kinda looks like the result of a gene-splicing experiment in the first place.Sadly, it's all in service of a story that goes completely off the rails in its final act — and sorry, that's about all I can say to avoid spoiling it.
The result is Dren, the first case of human DNA splicing, and the story heads into a twist of family ethics and creature horror movie.Splice has several good points to it.
Psychologically thrilling and terrifying, it would be almost right to call it a thinking persons Sci-Fi. Unfortunately, a few characteristics knock Splice off of that throne, and it stands as something that just barely makes the grade, a few questionable actions and some scenes near the end of the movie all make it hard to swallow, yet still enjoyable.
However considering the movie is still constantly on my mind, long after seeing it I feel like it merits some credit.In the film, we have two brilliant scientists (Polley and Brody) who spend there lives splicing DNA and then the obvious plan to splice human and animal DNA together eventually pops into there heads.
Also the horror movie finale seems too rushed and it comes in a little too late.But despite it's flaws, all the good outshines the bad.It succeeds on it's brilliant and refreshingly original premise despite the fact that the actual end result doesn't fill it out to its full potential.
Unfortunately, the film didn't pull all of its elements together for a coherent entertainment, but for at least two-thirds of it, my interest was held.The product of the genetic 'splice' in this movie is called Dren (nerd spelled backwards) and she is an effective combination of real actors and special effects.
Of everything I saw at Sundance this year (like A Prophet, which was actually an amazing movie) I expected this one to NOT get a major release.But don't worry, Splice is getting re-edited, so maybe all the bad parts will get cut, leaving the 'just OK' parts of the film in.
Splice rewards the patient fan who loves what is possible within the horror and science fiction genres but who also craves something thoughtful, unique, unsettling, and daring too.I preferred "Let the Right One in," myself and I think most people who also enjoyed "Let the Right One In" and found it to be a welcome addition to what's possible within genre films due to a greater emphasis on asking interesting questions (many critics thought it was refreshing and thought-provoking) will also find a lot to like in Splice.
It should also be noted that the film is a rich and mature study of science going a long way to being deeply flawed, a rich character study depicting two people whose lives outside of their work parameters become inexplicably entwined with their lives inside of their work parameters; culminating in a stretch reminiscent of all those shoddy teenaged orientated horror flicks you've seen, but this time with great depth and involvement added instead.The two scientists are Adrian Brody's Clive Nicoli and Sarah Polley's Elsa Kast; hardworking, dangerously advanced people working at an American company named, perhaps somewhat unrealistically, NERD – an abbreviation for Nucleic Exchange Research and Development.
Maybe the finished product is completely different from what we saw, because it makes no sense for the Splice I saw to be getting good reviews.Sarah Polley and Adrian Brody are normally great actors so I'm really not sure what they were thinking when they signed on for this.
This "film" was unbelievably bad I have never left a movie early and I didn't with this but I tell you I spent a good amount of time looking too the door and too my watch hoping and waiting for an ending.
(I think you can get it on Blu Ray).I don't usually review movies, but actually Splice is so bad I had to comment on it - and especially registered on IMDb just to do so.Save you money and time - look for something better to watch..
Now with Splice, his first feature in years, he gives us a good premise about two doctors who are trying to create some new organisms and stumble upon a possibility of making a human-animal hybrid, they do, and then it becomes like a child for them - or at least the 'mother', and then later the father becomes attached as well.Natali's film is unlike so many other horror movies nowadays because it's about SOMETHING.
Every minute I watched this film I thought to myself just one thing, "WHY DON'T YOU JUST KILL THIS DAMN CREATURE."Splice stars Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley as two scientists on the brink of finding a protein that can cure a variety of terminal diseases.
Sadly, just like this movie, it goes on way too long, and gets worse and worse by the minute.Stay far away from Splice, I haven't been so against a film in quite some time..