Splice's Flawed Finale

As much as I enjoyed Vincenzo Natali's Sci-fi Horror hybrid, Splice, the film is littered with a number of minor issues that, for me, can be overlooked in the big scheme of things. However, one major problem I have with the film - and something that truly holds it back, in my opinion - is the final act where the viewer is given the long awaited opportunity to see what the man-made monster, Dren (Delphine Chanéac), is truly capable of. Obviously, this will be a complete spoiler, so go away if you've not already seen the movie. Don't get all pissy about it…you can come back later on after you've seen the movie. Anyway, as you know, Splice ends with a scene where it is believed that Dren - the creature created by Genetic engineers, Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) - is dead. Clive and Elsa take Dren's body and bury it outside of their secluded farmhouse where they had been hiding Dren from the always-pesky pesky-people that love to do pesky things. You know the type.   

Soon afterwards, Clive and Elsa's poorly fleshed-out boss, William Barlow, shows up along with Clive's brother and co-worker, Gavin, when Dren - who underwent a metamorphosis that transformed her from a female, to a male - suddenly attacks both men. After killing both Barlow and Gavin, Dren goes on to rape Elsa and kill Clive after he stabs her with a branch. Elsa delivers the final blow with a rock to the head and that would seem to do it for Dren. Now, I should mention that this whole scene is very well put together - outside of the ridiculously handled rape, of course - and should work in a way that is a sort of a payoff for the slow moving, character driven time spent leading up to this action filled finale. The wooded setting is absolutely gorgeous, with how the moon's rays cast ominous shadows, illuminating the snow-covered ground to make for quite the incredible backdrop for a scene of violence and action.

So, where exactly does my problem lie with the ending of Splice? Well, as I mentioned earlier, before Dren attacks she makes a drastic transformation into a male. She becomes a different creature (despite being played by the same actress), and it's very clear that the monster known as Dren is not present in any real way that translates to film (because her internal thoughts and feelings clearly do not translate to celluloid). All of the time spent with Splice is time spent with Dren as she is. A female. We watch her grow and mature into what may be one of the finest looking monsters I have seen in quite some time. A truly original creature that is almost, dare I say it, sexy (I know, gross), but in a way that is dangerous and frightening at the same time. Dren has a horrifying elegance as a monster that goes well beyond Splice as a film, and it's a complete shame to sit through an entire movie with this wonderful creation, only to have it taken away at the last minute for the sake of a plot device.

And what was that plot device again? Earlier in the film, Clive and Elsa's purple booger experiment goes awry when the female hybrid creature they created turns into a male and the two purple boogers kill each other. This would seem to be the clue that Dren would also swap sexes, but the question is, why? Why does the purple booger have to change into a male to become volatile? Is it to show that the male is more aggressive than the female thus the male Dren attack scene at the film's end? Dren already showed intense signs of intense aggression and a lack of rational thought, so that throws that theory out the window. The only reasonable explanation to make Dren a man is solely to impregnate Elsa. Regardless of it serving the purpose of a cliffhanger/plot-twist, I really do not see any reason why Dren, as was, couldn't be capable of impregnating someone herself. 

To ask your audience to suspend their disbelief and accept the fact that a female gendered science experiment, complete with a serious phallic symbol, could impregnate a human woman, is not the tallest of orders. No one knows how this created creature would mate, procreate, or do anything for that matter. If anything, I find it more believable to just have Dren be able to do this because she isn't a human and can quickly adapt to move her new brand of species forward. Evolution for the sake of survival. Her aggression, as well as that of the purple boogers, can be as simple as that, an experiment that resulted in chaos, which is sort of the film's point, correct?! Therefor, this entire unnecessary plot point serves no real purpose but to try to be smart, but instead takes away a major piece of the puzzle from what is essentially a monster film. It takes away the monster.

What sayeth you?!

Adrien Brody…Scream King?

It recently dawned on me that Adrien Brody has really started to emerge as a full-fledged genre actor as of late. Since winning an Oscar for his role in Roman Polanski's The Pianist in 2002, he has appeared in numerous horror related films, with some of them being high profile, while others where somewhat less than so. In 2004, he put forth a fabulous performance in The Village, a film that has its issues and its detractors but is one that I personally love. The following year, he popped up in a giant remake of a giant monster movie, with Peter Jackson’s incredibly flawed King Kong, quickly followed by the underrated thriller, The Jacket that same year.

Considered terrible by most horror fans, Brody even showed up in an Argento film in 2009 with Giallo, a movie I have yet to see and am really in no rush to either based off what I have heard. Still, it's an Argento movie, and it gives a shred of horror cred to the actor in a way. But what really brings all of this actors work to my attention, is what he has on slate this year alone, with at least two of his films being much anticipated horror movies. The very promising Splice is just around the bend and looks to bring us a type of film we haven't seen in theaters in quite some time. Based off the new TV spots, the movie looks like it will deliver, and I believe that horror fans are pretty excited for the film, as I know I am.

What is even more anticipated than Splice is this year’s return of the dreaded one (plus some), with Predators, a movie that is by far one of the highest profile genre films of the year. Even with both of these big horror movies on the horizon, he still has another film due out in 2010 with the remake of 2001's Das Experiment, aptly titled, The Experiment. That's three horror movies in one year, two of which are definitely being released wide like your mom. Now, I think Brody is, most of the time, an excellent actor, and to have him doing as much work in the field of horror as he is doing is a great thing.

In a genre (and medium) that has become overly prettified over the last decade or so, it's nice to see an actor who can act, is respected and slightly awkward looking. Awkward as in, he looks kind of like the horse from Ren & Stimpy. So here's my question to you…is Adrien Brody carving himself a nice little niche as a horror icon, or am I completely crazy?

Totally Tubular Trailers!

Here we go again with yet another fabulous set of trailers that are sure to pique your interest in one way or another. Unless you accidentally stumbled upon this site while looking for something to make syrup to, in that case, you probably don't care at all. I don't blame you.

Moving on… 

First up is a trailer for Splice, a film about two scientists who create something a little more than they expected when playing with human and animal DNA. This trailer starts off a little hokey, but by the end, it looks like it could be a pretty cool little horror film in the vein of Species, only better. Hopefully. One positive thing about Splice is it's helmed by Vincenzo Natali who directed one of the best horror films of the 90's with Cube, so we'll see if he can do something solid with this one.

Next trailer I got for you is for The Mechanic, which is a remake of the fantastic 1972 Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent hit-man film. While it would be very hard to live up to the original, if any man in film is worthy of playing a role once played by Bronson, it's Statham, though they are about as different as you can get in every way. And in all honesty, it's Statham that has me interested in giving this one a shot since I have a bit of a completely straight man crush on him. However, Ben Foster does not help this film at all and hopefully he can subdue his overacting for one fucking moment in his life.

This next trailer is for Alexandre Aja's much anticipated and long in the works, Piranha 3D. I have no reason to go over this one as you know about the movie already, but seeing this first teaser, I am pretty underwhelmed. Piranha 3D looks decent enough, but the second the titular antagonists are shown, I am completely flabbergasted with how shitty they look. I mean, this is a film that is going to be wearing it's cheese firmly on it's sleeve, but the piranha effects are not where you want to get that feel from. Sorry, SyFy already has that covered and it's never a good thing when a film has bad CGI creatures no matter what film it is. I have a really bad feeling about this one after seeing the trailer and my anticipation for the film just went into the toilet. Plop. 

(My apologies about the video and the ad at the beginning – apparently, Piranha 3D is so important that embedding is disabled on You Tube.)

Now, this last trailer makes up for the let down of Piranha by keeping shit real! Burning Bright (aka Ravenous) is one I have been excited for since hearing the insane premise, which is about a young girl and her autistic brother getting trapped in their house during a hurricane. Doesn't sound too bad, I know, but they aren't trapped in the house alone, instead, they are trapped with a ravenous tiger! Now that's what I am talking about! This movie looks awesome and cool and tight and bad-nasty and sick and wicked and dope and badass and rad and phat and and and… *passes out*

Sorry, I had a tiger trapped in a house film breakdown for a second, forgive me. Check out the trailer and get ready for your breakdown! 

And on that high note, I leave you, but not for long as I will be back ASAP to hold and love you the way that you would want to be held and loved.