In my last post I praised the early work of Michael Bay and lamented his diminishing talent as a director. I failed to mention, mainly because it wasn’t pertinent to the topic, his horror remake trend. He has rebooted almost every great horror franchise from the seventies and eighties.
He started with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. Then he moved on to “The Amityville Horror”, “The Hitcher”, “Friday the 13th”, and most recently the horribly bad “Nightmare on Elm Street”. All of these films were inferior to their originals. Don’t get me wrong, not all of the originals have held up well. They are only great in our minds because we remember what they meant to us when we were younger. We remember the scares Freddy and Jason gave us, but the reason these movies sucked is because, believe it or not, audiences are smarter than they used to be.
Bear with me for a moment. Despite the popularity of reality television shows like “The Jersey Shore”, American audiences actually are smarter. Moviegoers can predict the outcome of almost any film, and most scenes faster than any moviegoer from 1930 or 1970. We’ve seen it all. It is becoming harder and harder to surprise us, or trick us in any way.
Because of this, when it comes to horror films, we as an audience are pretty much screwed. It’s almost impossible to scare us anymore. In response many films have gone the gross out route. The bloodier and gorier the film, the more likely we are to confuse disgust with fear.
This is the long way of telling you that finally a horror film has come along that disturb me. I think I do “Splice” a disservice by calling it a horror film. It’s more of a sci-fi/horror/drama. And it’s not really scary. Basically I’m full of shit, but too egotistical to go back and delete my ramblings about the state of horror films today.
“Splice” is to “Species” as “The Hangover” is to “Dude, Where’s My Car?” It’s a similar concept, but with better execution.
Biochemists Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polly) have created a new species by splicing human DNA with a multitude of other animals. They grapple with the moral and legal ramifications of their actions before falling in love with their “child”. The child, Dren, grows rapidly while struggling to cope with its inability to be a part of the world outside. As Dren grows, Clive and Elsa move further and further from the line they crossed when they made her to discover that they no longer have any concept of right or wrong.
Director Vincenzo Natali seems to be the second coming of David Cronenberg. If I didn’t know any better I would’ve sworn Cronenberg had directed this film. Natali directed the 1997 film “Cube”, a underapreciated masterpiece in the sci-fi/horror genre.
Underneath the science and horror of the “Splice” is a subtle drama about the morality of science and the inescapable pitfalls of human nature. Once Dren is created the audience wanted nothing more than for her to be destroyed. We think we know what’s coming, but as the film progresses and Dren grows into a woman, I wanted nothing more than to hug the poor little monster and let her know that everything would be okay.
Unfortunately the nearly pitch-perfect film unravels a bit at the end, but it is saved by one twist, before finally being sealed with a predictable tag on scene. Despite these flaws “Splice” should be recognized as a film that has brought credibility back to both the sci-fi and horror genres.
