![]() What one ends up with in Splice is a film both weird and lovely, apropos of the seductive yet horrifying creature at its center. This horrific eroticism hybridizes incest and bestiality the same way the film splices together different cinematic genre staples to come up with something entirely new. But the compressed space of time in which this repulsive mewling slug metamorphoses into an enchanting siren, along with his growing disgust with his girlfriend's ethical callousness, provokes Colin to view Dren in an alarmingly erotic light. Colin's desire for a child transforms into dread when faced with the actual responsibilty over this surrogate. And the humor-horror mashup is a longstanding tradition in cinema (I refer you again to the nearly 80-year-old Bride of Frankenstein).Īt times seriously disturbing, Splice is unafraid to venture even into taboo sexual territory to explore some of the stranger moral questions which often go unmentioned in the parental arena. ![]() But Splice's sly sense of humor is evocative of the same in Cronenberg's "body horror" films, movies which truly use the levity as comic relief to distance the viewer from the upsetting nature of the story until one is viewing it with an almost clinical detachment. And sometimes the dialogue hits like a sledgehammer on the ears the exchange between Colin and Elsa as they realize they haven't fooled around since Dren was born is one of these instances: "It's been a while, hasn't it?" "The exhaustion just catches up with you." yadda-yadda, or something to that effect. ![]() The early scene where Colin and Elsa try to force feed veggies to the chicken/slug-like Dren with a baster predictably ends with the young creature "spitting up" to the delight of moviegoers who have experienced the same with their own children. Like in the best examples of its genre Splice asks its questions by employing allegory-sometimes a bit too heavyhandedly. Rather than fashion a derivative retread of Bride, one which would again rely exclusively on the tired trope forming its premise, Natali uses the film as a starting point for exploring the fear associated with raising a child. It is no coincidence then that its protagonists' names are an homage to two lead actors from a cinematic forerunner, 1935's The Bride of Frankenstein (for further links to film history visit Jim Emerson's blog Scanners where he catalogues a wealth of sources). ![]() Splice, directed by Vincenzo Natali ( Cube), is a throwback to the kind of science fiction films you rarely see anymore, the ones that warn us not to play in God's domain lest you incur severe consequences. ![]()
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