Z/Web

Director: Vincenzo Natali

Cube is one of my most favorite movies of all time, so when I heard the director of Cube was doing Splice, I was intrigued, though the trailer and premise did not seem to offer much in the way of innovation. The story seemed too basic and predictable: two scientists splice together the DNA of several species, including human, to create a new creature — which then turns on them. Ho hum. Haven’t we seen that hundreds of years ago with Frankenstein’s monster?

I am pleased to report that this film is much better and deeper than the trailer suggests. What I didn’t get from the trailer is that the creature is less a monster and is nearly human — a beautiful woman, no less. That sets up intriguing relationship issues, which are really the core of the film. The husband and wife scientist team have their own problems, there’s the whole moral dilemma of playing God with human DNA (an issue I would have liked to have been explored more), and there’s the nature of the creature itself: is she human? The film asks a lot of intriguing questions. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t quite fit into any genre. That’s a bad thing because this isn’t quite enough of a horror film for folks who like that sort of thing, and science fiction fans will feel short-changed because there’s too much emphasis on the horror. Another awkward aspect — slight spoiler alert — is the concept of inter-species sex. That caught me completely by surprise (the trailer doesn’t even hint at that), and though it’s essential to the plot and perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the story, it was so unexpected it felt like a clip from a different movie had been spliced in (ha ha). The result is an uneven film: not quite horror, not quite science fiction, not really a love story. There’s not much action and the plot is fairly minimal as well (it reminded me of a play). The most intriguing aspect are the performances by the actors, which are all excellent, but even there we’re cut off from the true impact of the situation, unlike in David Cronenberg’s The Fly, which is probably the closest similar film. In that film, we felt the horror in our gut. In this one, it is interesting, but from a distance. We don’t know the scientists well enough to care about them that much, we don’t understand their motivations in creating the chimera, and we’re not sure how we feel about the creature (Is she good? Is she evil? Is she human or animal?). The bottom line is that this is a fantastic premise with intriguing possibilities that aren’t exploited, but skirted, and in the end, we’re left a little short. That isn’t to say this isn’t a film worth seeing. It’s got a lot going for it: great acting, unusual ideas, fascinating visuals, and a decent (though predictable) ending. Fans of Natali will probably like most of what they see. Hard-core horror fans will likely be the most disappointed as this really isn’t a monster flick like the trailer makes it sound: it’s much smarter than that, though not as smart as The Fly. Still, I recommend this if you’re into the genre or curious about the premise. It is definitely above average; it just didn’t quite reach the level I hoped.