movie review splice

Somebody let the genome out of the bottle

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley in "Splice."

Well-timed to open soon after genome pioneer Craig Venter’s announcement of a self-replicating cell, here’s a halfway serious science-fiction movie about two researchers who slip some human DNA into a cloning experiment, and end up with a unexpected outcome or a child or a monster, take your pick. The script blends human psychology with scientific speculation and has genuine interest until it goes on autopilot with one of the chase scenes Hollywood now permits few films to end without.

In the laboratory of a genetic science corporation, we meet Clive and Elsa ( Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley ), partners at work and in romance, who are trying to create a hybrid animal gene that would, I dunno, maybe provide protein while sidestepping the nuisance of having it be an animal first. Against all odds, their experiment works. They want to push ahead, but the corporation has funded quite enough research for the time being and can’t wait to bring the “product” to market.

Elsa rebels and slips some human DNA into their lab work. What results is a new form of life, part animal, part human, looking at first like a rounded SpongeBob and then later like a cute kid on Pandora, but shorter and not blue. This creature grows at an astonishing rate, gets smart in a hurry and is soon spelling out words on a Scrabble board without apparently having paused at the intermediate steps of learning to read and write.

Clive thinks they should terminate it. Elsa says no. As the blob grows more humanoid, they become its default parents, and she names it Dren, which is nerd spelled backward, so don’t name your kid that.

Dren has a tail and wings of unspecific animal origin, and hands with three fingers, suggesting a few sloth genes, although Dren is hyperactive. She has the ability common to small monkeys and CGI effects of being able to leap at dizzying speeds around a room. She’s sweet when she gets a dolly to play with, but don’t get her frustrated.

The researchers keep Dren a secret, both because they ignored orders by creating her, and because, though Elsa didn’t want children, they begin to feel like Dren’s parents. This feeling doesn’t extend so far as to allow her to live with them in the house. They lock her in the barn, which seems harsh treatment for the most important achievement of modern biological science.

Dren is all special effects in early scenes, and then quickly grows into a form played by Abigail Chu when small and Delphine Chaneac when larger. She also evolves more attractive features, based on the Spielberg discovery in “E.T.” that wide-set eyes are attractive. She doesn’t look quite human, but as she grows to teenage size she could possibly be the offspring of Jake and Neytiri, although not blue.

Brody and Polley are smart actors, and the director, Vincenzo Natali , is smart, too; do you remember his “The Cube” (1997), with subjects trapped in a nightmarish experimental maze? This film, written by Natali with Antoinette Terry Bryant and Douglas Taylor , has the beginnings of a lot of ideas, including the love that observably exists between humans and some animals. It questions what “human” means, and suggests it’s defined more by mind than body. It opens the controversy over the claims of some corporations to patent the genes of life. It deals with the divide between hard science and marketable science.

I wish Dren’s persona had been more fully developed. What does she think? What does she feel? There has never been another life form like her. The movie stays resolutely outside, viewing her as a distant creature. Her “parents” relate mostly to her memetic behavior. Does it reflect her true nature? How does she feel about being locked in the barn? Does she “misbehave,” or is that her nature?

The film, alas, stays resolutely concerned with human problems. The relationship. The corporation. The preordained climax. Another recent film, “ Ricky ,” was about the French parents of a child who could fly. It also provided few insights into the child, but then Ricky was mentally as young as his age, and the ending was gratifyingly ambiguous. Not so with Dren. Disappointing then, that the movie introduces such an extraordinary living being and focuses mostly on those around her. All the same, it’s well done, and intriguing.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Brandon McGibbon as Gavin
• Delphine Chaneac as Dren
• David Hewlett as Barlow
• Sarah Polley as Elsa
• Adrien Brody as Clive
• Antoinette Terry Bryant
• Douglas Taylor

Directed by

• Vincenzo Natali

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Splice (2009)

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Movie Review | 'Splice'

Careful, That Test Tube Might Be Incubating a Bouncing Baby Monster

• Share full article

By Manohla Dargis

• June 3, 2010

The two recognizable stars of “Splice,” a pleasurably shivery, sometimes delightfully icky horror movie about love and monsters in the age of genetic engineering, are Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, a well-matched pair of earthbound oddities. Given their respective performative idiosyncrasies and, as important, their singularly nontraditional beauty, the pair’s casting immediately signals that the director Vincenzo Natali is after something different. With Ms. Polley and Mr. Brody on board, there’s a chance that despite the big-studio brands on the movie, you’re not headed into genre purgatory with the usual disposable plastic people who often populate (and perish in) mainstream horror. When these two bleed, you might actually care.

That’s a good thing, and it helps explain how “Splice” delivers for the horror movie fan who has grown weary of being suckered by films that promise new frights only to deliver the same old buckets of gore and guts. Ms. Polley and Mr. Brody play Clive and Elsa, live-in lovers and rock-star bio-engineers (they’re on the cover of Wired), who are creating new organisms from the DNA of different animals. The money bankrolling them comes from a pharmaceutical outfit, one of those shady corporations that occasionally foot the bill in movies of this sort. Such is the case in “The Fly,” David Cronenberg’s 1986 film, another cautionary tale about genetic mayhem that Mr. Natali appears to have absorbed into his own aesthetic DNA.

The Cronenberg influence here is evident in Mr. Natali’s interest in the body and birth and in an initially subdued, near-narcoleptic atmosphere that helps build a nice sense of foreboding. “Splice” opens with Clive and Elsa ushering their latest entity into the world, an event partly shot from the newborn’s point of view. “He’s so cute,” Elsa says, beaming. The he is a writhing, vaguely penile blob, Fred, which is soon introduced to a second blob, Ginger. (Mr. Natali, who wrote the script with Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor, likes his allusions: Clive is most likely a homage to Colin Clive, who played Dr. Frankenstein in James Whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein,” with Elsa Lanchester as the memorably shocked betrothed.)

Although Fred’s point-of-view shot might seem like a throwaway, it’s fundamental to Mr. Natali’s design. Point-of-view shots don’t necessarily put you in a character’s (in this case, metaphoric) shoes, but because they let you see what a character sees, allowing you to share his or her perspective, they can create a sense of empathy for the character. In this case, though, empathy with Fred seems less the point than what it is we see through his eyes: Clive and Elsa, fully masked and dressed in laboratory clothes, working in the slightly sickly greenish light of a laboratory bought and paid for by a big company playing at God. This is the vision of Clive and Elsa that Mr. Natali wants you to remember, despite all that comes next.

And my, what a lot of unnerving fun comes next, including a spectacular splash of blood, a fall from grace, some true relationship talk and an impulsive, cataclysmically wrongheaded decision. Fred and Ginger, alas, make an abrupt exit, leaving Clive and Elsa close to losing their funds. Inspiration strikes, and a new creature is born, a real doozy that’s initially christened H-50 and, after some growing pains (for everyone), Dren. A sensational, vividly realistic being, Dren is a seamless amalgam of computer-generated effects, mechanical effects and human performance — played as a child by Abigail Chu and as an adult by Delphine Chanéac — that scuttles, slithers and vaults into the horror cinema annals. A mutant is born.

Mr. Natali handles Dren’s eerie entrance into the world with near-flawless timing and a thickening air of dread. Working with Robert Munroe (the visual-effects supervisor) and Howard Berger (special makeup and creature effects), Mr. Natali has fashioned a creature that, with her tail, skinned-chicken legs and cleft head alternately looks as harmless as a bunny and like something that might leap out from Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (or, scarier yet, a David Lynch film). Still, for Elsa, Dren is no mere experiment: she’s a test-tube baby, one that comes with the emotional and psychological weight of an in-utero conception. And the bigger Dren gets — she soon grows arms that hug Elsa tight — the deeper the bond between the two and the greater the trouble for Elsa and Clive.

Watching Dren develop — from newt to child to va-va-va-voom adult — you understand why “Splice” attracted the support of the director Guillermo del Toro, one of its seven executive producers. Mr. Natali, whose earlier films include “Cube,” hasn’t reinvented the horror genre. But with “Splice” he has done the next best thing with an intelligent movie that, in between its small boos and an occasional hair-raising jolt, explores chewy issues like bioethics, abortion, corporate-sponsored science, commitment problems between lovers and even Freudian-worthy family dynamics. The shivers might often outweigh the scares, and Mr. Natali loses his way in the last half-hour. Yet working with actors who make you care and a neo-Frankenstein creation that touchingly does, too, he has become one of the genre’s new great fright hopes.

“Splice” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It’s scary.

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Vincenzo Natali; written by Mr. Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor, based on a story by Mr. Natali and Ms. Bryant; director of photography, Tetsuo Nagata; edited by Michele Conroy; music by Cyrille Aufort; production designer, Todd Cherniawsky; costumes by Alex Kavanagh; produced by Steven Hoban; released by Warner Brothers Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes.

WITH: Adrien Brody (Clive Nicoli), Sarah Polley (Elsa Kast), Abigail Chu (Young Dren) and Delphine Chanéac (Adult Dren).

Splice Review

A latter day frankenstein tale, by way of cronenberg..

3.5 out of 5 Stars, 7/10 Score

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Movie review: ‘Splice’

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“Splice” is a hybrid that works. It’s a smart, slickly paced, well-acted science-fiction cautionary tale-horror movie-psychological drama. In its mix are ethical quandaries in biotechnology, nature versus nurture and an adorable-sexy-disturbing monster. So there’s that. But it wins best in show by focusing on one of the weirder relationship triangles in recent memory.

Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive ( Adrien Brody) are brilliant scientists creating genetically modified organisms to harvest proteins that might cure diseases. Their crowning achievement is a pair of multi-animal creations that resemble massive, fleshy worms. When they realize they’re about to lose the chance to pursue their ultimate goal — a human-animal hybrid ( George W. Bush was right!) whose proteins could defeat cancer and other scourges — they rush to finish their work. As Clive says, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

As one might imagine, the worst is more than a Petri dish of nonviable goo. The resulting creation, Dren, resembles a rabbit-cat-human infant at first (the visual effects are top notch), something downright huggable. They start off so cute….

The clever script and grounded performances — especially by Polley — convincingly sell the “good idea at the time” hubris of geniuses making horrible decisions. Polley’s Elsa is a multilayered person balancing an aversion to motherhood with deep-seated maternal yearnings.

Perhaps the film’s most interesting and nerve-jangling component is the evolving dynamic among the childless couple and their experiment-pet-baby-monster. The authenticity of that triangle is sure to generate some of the most uncomfortable laughter you’ll hear at a movie this year.

The film avoids cliché and has several effective reveals and genuinely funny moments, including one of the least-encouraging shareholder meetings ever. As the boss who is very worried, David Hewlett is hilariously unhappy. Delphine Chanéac, who plays Dren for most of the film, marries the behaviors of several animals with the emerging consciousness of a human being.

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“Splice” has echoes of “Aliens” and “Frankenstein,” but whatever components the film is sewn together from, it feels original. That’s largely because of the seriousness with which the characters and their qualms are explored. The film earns its freakiness: Director Vincenzo Natali and company have wisely realized that if situations and conflicts are believable first and foremost, the experience will be far more immersive — and intense — than the usual jumping-out-of-cupboards nonsense.

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Splice Review

23 Jul 2010

103 minutes

The characters in Splice are named after actors in James Whale’s Bride Of Frankenstein; an indication of the approach writer/director Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Cypher) took to the subject of artificial life. Like Mary Shelley, Natali is concerned with scientific ethics — intensified in the 21st century by corporate sponsorship and demand for profitable products from expensive research — but equally troubled by the unique relationship Frankenstein and the monster may have. Signalled by a mid-film location shift from antiseptic corporate lab to run-down Gothic farm, sci-fi turns to horror as the personal failings of the creators and the created lead (inevitably) to violent clashes.

For the most part, this is a complex character drama: Elsa (Sarah Polley), who has seemingly put her own horrible childhood behind her, resists having a baby with Clive (Adrien Brody), but is eager for her experiment to become a daughter, though she is as flustered by Dren’s extreme metamorphoses and mood-swings as any mother of a tearaway teen. The centrepiece of any Frankenstein film is the monster, and Dren is extraordinary, portrayed by Delphine Chanéac with CGI augmentations. Sprouting wings or gills, with a deadly barb at the end of her prehensile tail, Dren feels as real as Karloff’s Monster. Natali plays expertly on our sympathies as the plot takes a darker tone — this is a horror movie in which we are as afraid of what will happen to the monster as of what she will do to other people.

Frankenstein’s crime was not loving his monster. This film asks what may happen if a mad scientist loves the creation; the creature shyly adores the labcoats who have bred her, but is still capable of jealous anger. There are as many heartfelt, emotional scenes as acute horror moments. An oddly disjointed third act offers more conventional action/horror but feels curtailed (major plot points, even characters, get swallowed between scenes) and less poignant than the build-up.

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'Splice': Your Results May Vary (And Be Scary)

David Edelstein

Mom? Dren may be a modern-day Frankenstein's monster, but Delphine Chaneac plays her with a mythical beauty and ballerina's grace. Sarah Polley stars as Elsa, one of the creature's two creators. Warner Bros. hide caption

• Director: Vincenzo Natali
• Genre: Science-Fiction Horror
• Running Time: 100 minutes

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Creating new life is a messy business -- so said Mary Shelley, writing in the early 19th century in Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. So you'd think, given all the gene-mapping and cloning going on nowadays, that horror movies would be lousy with Frankenstein scenarios -- cautionary tales in which technology outpaces our understanding of how to use it. But mostly we have splatter flicks, torture porn and lame remakes. In that context, Vincenzo Natali's Splice calls to us like a luminous laboratory beaker. What a strange and wonderful brew!

It's set in Toronto and owes a lot to David Cronenberg , especially his films The Brood and The Fly. Throw in Splice and you can start to define an Ontario subgenre: faceless, sterile modern settings, wintry and blue-lit, in which monsters are grown or hatched. And those monsters have a metaphorical component; they're as much a product of wayward emotions as of liberated biochemistry.

In Splice, Canada's own Sarah Polley and long-faced Adrien Brody play Clive and Elsa, celebrated nerdy scientists splicing genes for a pharmaceutical company -- called, in fact, NERD, for Nucleic Exchange Research and Development. When we meet them, they're delivering a new life form, literally, from some kind of pulsing ovum in an incubator -- a giant, wormy, wriggling mass of tissue from which they're going to mine all kinds of patent-worthy medical processes.

But then company bigwigs put the kibosh on future research: Use what's there and generate capital, they command. That's when Clive and Elsa think: Why not mix in some human DNA and see what grows? Just to, you know, prove they can. After a lot of tinkering, the implant takes. The fetus -- a kitchen sink's worth of species -- comes quickly to term. And then we hear the words immortalized first in 1931 by Frankenstein 's Colin Clive: "It's alive."

Clive is about to gas the lab and kill the infant creature, but to stop him, Elsa whips off her oxygen helmet. That's the first sign in Splice that the two will approach this "child" from different angles. Clive, very nervous, wants to kill it. Elsa develops less scientific feelings.

It's Alive: Polley and Adrien Brody star as nerdy scientists who inadvertently create the humanoid Dren as part of a genetic research project for a pharmaceutical giant. Warner Bros. hide caption

It's Alive: Polley and Adrien Brody star as nerdy scientists who inadvertently create the humanoid Dren as part of a genetic research project for a pharmaceutical giant.

What's endlessly fascinating in Splice is trying to get a handle on what the creature is. Elsa calls it "Dren," nerd spelled backwards, and it's seemingly female.

First it's a pile of flesh with eyes on either side of its head. Then, quickly, since its growth is accelerated, it begins to look humanoid, albeit with other components, from amphibious to avian -- plus a long tail with a lethal spike. It has no language you'd recognize -- clicks and rattles and chirps.

When Dren makes too much of a racket, Elsa and Clive sneak her down -- she's wearing a cute little dress -- to their facility's dank basement.

"I don't know about this," says Clive.

"You got a better idea?" asks Elsa.

"I'm starting to feel like a criminal," he says.

"Scientists push boundaries," his wife says. "At least, important ones do."

You know no good will come from this, right? But the way in which it all goes bad has a distinctly human dimension. It turns out that Elsa, so militantly maternal, had an abusive mom -- and as Dren grows over a couple of months and becomes more assertive, like a mischievous child and then a rebellious teenager, something dark and scary in Elsa takes hold. And Clive, who wanted to destroy Dren, begins to soften. Soon this high-tech Frankenstein acquires a vein of freaky, low-tech Gothic psychodrama.

Brody and Polley are thoroughly convincing when their characters are smart, and only slightly less so when they turn crazy-dumb. But then Dren could drive anyone mad: The Paris-born actress Delphine Chaneac plays the maturing monster with help from creature effects designer Howard Berger, and she has her own mythical beauty. Her head tilts, birdlike, as her wide almond eyes take in her new world. She totters on colt legs above bird feet, but with a ballerina's poise.

I'm sad to say the climax of Splice feels too rushed. But if gene-splicing can give us monsters as poetically strange as Dren, it bodes well for our horror movies -- if not necessarily for our species. (Recommended)

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Movie Review: Splice (2009)

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• --> June 14, 2010

Frankenstein author Mary Shelley could not have foretold that her gothic tale of an errant scientist who creates a man/monster out of the limbs of dead bodies would become a harbinger of things to come with the emergence in the 21st century of the science of genetic engineering. Instead of stitching together body parts, today’s scientists directly manipulate the DNA of organisms. Their work has given the world genetically altered vegetables; “designer” hypoallergenic cats and dogs; super cows; and most famously, the world’s first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep

Vincenzo Natali’s film Splice takes us into the world of genetic engineering but not in the manner one might expect of your typical science fiction feature. Instead of presenting a thought-provoking, cautionary tale about the evils of meddling in God’s territory, Natalie opts for a singular approach that moves the story away from science fiction and into the realm of a dark and disturbing fairytale. I applaud him for taking the risk. The story does cast a spell over you; unfortunately, you won’t remain enchanted for very long.

Fresh from their success in creating a new hybrid organism from the splicing of the DNA of various animals, biochemists Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) are eager to continue their groundbreaking experiments. However, the pharmaceutical big wig paying the bills (Joan Chorot) is less interested in funding more research and development than she is in making the couples’ discovery turn a profit, so the company cuts off their funding to go forward with production.

On the personal side, Clive thinks it’s time he and Elsa become parents. Elsa’s not ready to be a mother. She thinks they have more pressing concerns — namely, creating a new hybrid by introducing human DNA into the mix — financial, ethical and legal prohibitions notwithstanding. Clive is reluctant, but Elsa refuses to be stopped. Her determination suggests hidden disturbances are driving her that even she may be unconscious of.

The couple proceeds in secret with their experiment, and their efforts produce “Dren” (nerd spelled backwards), a creature that resembles a cross between a seal and a chicken. Clive and Elsa go from objective scientists to doting parents.

Ironically, with Dren Elsa eagerly embraces the part of mother, a role she previously claimed she didn’t want. When Dren’s rapid development makes it impossible to keep her concealed at the lab, Elsa and Clive move her to Elsa’s old family farm in the woods. There, the three of them settle down to play happy family.

Splice operates like an extended metaphor for Freudian family dynamics, specifically, the drama of mother/daughter competition, and father/daughter incest. The gigantic birth chamber in which Dren was conceived is analogous to Elsa’s womb. Metaphorically, it takes on the job of surrogate mother for the developing egg, a job Elsa doesn’t want literally. The whole process becomes even more psychologically complicated when the source of the human DNA is revealed.

As Dren develops into a beautiful mythological-like creature that has fish gills and can sprouts wings, trouble arises in happy-family land. What was once a cute and easily controlled child has become an individual with a mind and will of her own. Dren, the daughter, has become competition for Elsa, the mother, and temptation for Clive, the father.

The graphic sex scene between Clive and the adult Dren (Delphine Chanéac) elicited different responses from the audience at the screening I attended. Some viewers were clearly put off by it. The fan boys loved it. Others, including myself, just laughed out loud.

The scene I found most disturbing concerns the manner in which Elsa chooses to remedy Dren’s sexual transgression. Or perhaps I should say punish. She straps Dren onto a table, exposes her body needlessly, and then excises the stinger (which emerges during sex) from Dren’s tail with the cold precision of a detached surgeon. The procedure is nothing less than genital mutilation, made all the more horrific for all it was perpetrated against the daughter at the hands of her mother.

Splice is a fascinating Freudian nightmare that looks at the way in which childhood wounds can compel people to re-enact in the present the dysfunctional family drama of the past. Elsa, the child of an abusive mother, becomes in adulthood the abuser. However, for all of Natali’s ambition to deliver a story that straddles the elements of science-fiction thriller, psychological drama, and kinky fairy tale, his work doesn’t hold together. Too often I found myself laughing at events and dialog that were clearly not meant to be funny. The director couldn’t find a way to tie the underlying complex psycho/sexual themes together with the plot. Nor could he rise above the story’s goofier elements which eventually overshadowed the serious and compelling aspects of the story.

I've been a fanatical movie buff since I was a little girl, thanks to my parents who encouraged my brother and I to watch anything and everything we wanted, even the stuff deemed inappropriate for minors. I work, write, and reside in San Francisco the city where I was born and bred.

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Common Sense Media Review

Intense, twisted monster movie explores DNA experimentation.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Splice is a monster movie that's not particularly bloody or gory but has many intense, shocking situations that have the potential to deeply disturb sensitive viewers. On top of this, the movie also involves some thorny sexual situations (between human and quasi-human) and lots of foul…

Why Age 17+?

We hear "f--k" and variations on the word at least eight times, and "s--t" a few

The main characters, Clive and Elsa, flirt and kiss. They have sex without much

Intense moments of terror and shocking behavior, without much blood or gore. We

Any Positive Content?

The movie's main message goes all the way back to Frankenstein and other creatur

Clive and Elsa are scientists, and they're really smart, but not great role mode

We hear "f--k" and variations on the word at least eight times, and "s--t" a few times. Additionally, there is "damn," "God" (as an exclamation), "Goddammit," "Jesus," and "retard."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

The main characters, Clive and Elsa, flirt and kiss. They have sex without much nudity and discuss the idea of having a baby together. (The film doesn't mention it, but they do not appear to be married.) The movie grows far more twisted when Clive begins to develop feelings for the adult Dren, who is like their surrogate child. He eventually has sex with her (bringing up all kinds of weird moral and Freudian ideas). In one scene, we see adult Dren naked, though she's really only partly human. Finally there is a quasi-rape scene as a male creature attacks Elsa.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Intense moments of terror and shocking behavior, without much blood or gore. We see disturbing imagery in a laboratory, with odd creatures forming and moving around. A creature breaks free and hides in the lab, threatening to jump out and attack. Characters try to decide whether or not to kill the creature, and one character makes an attempt. A creature eats a raw, bloody rabbit that she has killed. Additionally, characters argue quite often, and the creatures sometimes make disturbing screeching noises.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The movie's main message goes all the way back to Frankenstein and other creature features: Don't mess with Mother Nature. The movie struggles with a plethora of moral and ethical issues, and the characters seem to know that they have stepped wrong, but have no idea how to correct it until it's too late. Likewise, the characters keep secrets and seem to grow apart, working against one another.

Positive Role Models

Clive and Elsa are scientists, and they're really smart, but not great role models. They're arrogant and a bit reckless, and their attempts to create an unnatural, man-made life form result in untold mayhem, as well as many troubling moral and ethical issues. Likewise, there comes a point at which Clive and Elsa can no longer trust anyone around them, and they begin to distrust one another as well.

Parents need to know that Splice is a monster movie that's not particularly bloody or gory but has many intense, shocking situations that have the potential to deeply disturb sensitive viewers. On top of this, the movie also involves some thorny sexual situations (between human and quasi-human) and lots of foul language, including multiple uses of "f--k" and "s--t." The movie raises several complex ethical and moral questions around the creation of life and the meaning of family that has the potential to intrigue and/or offend. Either way, it's a real conversation-starter. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (6)
• Kids say (17)

Based on 6 parent reviews

Not For Feint Of Heart

What's the story.

On the verge of losing control of their laboratory under a tangle of red tape, two rebellious scientists, the romantically-involved Elsa ( Sarah Polley ) and Clive ( Adrien Brody ) impulsively decide to experiment with crossing animal and human DNA. The result of their experiment matures frighteningly fast, eventually appearing as the weirdly pretty adult female creature known as "Dren" ( Delphine Chanéac ). Unfortunately, since Elsa and Clive have crossed many legal and ethical lines, they must keep Dren a secret. But their emotional involvement with the creature -- and with each other -- may prevent them from understanding what Dren really is: a potentially deadly monster.

Is It Any Good?

This movie is messed up ! Directed and co-written by Vincenzo Natali , Splice moves through familiar territory, giving nods to Frankenstein , E.T. , and Jurassic Park , but it touches on some seriously complex and twisted ideas, such as the meaning of family and the concept of creation. Nevertheless, it has a perfectly confident and nonchalant tone as it navigates these sticky issues; it's even ever so slightly comical. (Or perhaps the laughter is just a reaction to the movie's uncomfortable suggestions.)

The director balances everything pitch-perfectly, from the performances to the hair-raising sound effects, and all the way down to images of the creepy, snowy woods during the film's tense climax. It's a thoroughly satisfying movie for viewers looking for something with a bit more depth and wit than the average summer blockbuster. After the thrills have ended, brave viewers will find plenty of interesting themes and ideas to discuss, though more sensitive -- and younger -- viewers should approach with caution.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the way this movie dealt with the implications of creating a new life. What issues does it bring up? How is this movie different from or similar to other "creature features" like Frankenstein , etc.?

How does this movie compare to horror films filled with blood and gore? Was it more or less scary? How did the movie's violence make you feel? Was it disturbing? Were you frightened, or did it make you uncomfortable?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 4, 2010
• On DVD or streaming : October 5, 2010
• Cast : Adrien Brody , Delphine Chanéac , Sarah Polley
• Director : Vincenzo Natali
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Run time : 104 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language
• Last updated : August 16, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Splice Reviews

Gets points for being bizarre and incorporating evocative body-horror elements, though the story itself doesn't offer up anything substantial.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 22, 2023

In concept alone, not to mention the first exciting half-hour, the film promises greatness before failing to live up to those promises with a second half that feels emotionally disengaged and a finale that’s rushed.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 18, 2023

Splice invents new nightmares with Dren. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 19, 2022

It takes the goalposts of a made-for-SyFy movie and goes so far with them that we as viewers are left in awe.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2021

The big showdown, when it comes, is a disappointment. But on reflection, that's probably because the determination to get there overshadows the moral ambiguity of human decisions which is, as in life, where the real horror lies.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 19, 2021

Nothing can quite prepare you for the last 15 minutes of this movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 9, 2021

It takes a deeply debated subject and treats it with the utmost seriousness for the first half-hour, then slowly digresses into an often uncomfortably bizarre monster movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Nov 30, 2020

A film that detours from potential greatness for the sake of a few dark laughs and modestly chilling thrills.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4.0 | Sep 24, 2020

Brody and Polley both bring a seriousness of purpose to their portrayal...their authenticity lends an air of substance to what might have been just another risible creature feature in the hands of lesser actors...

Full Review | Mar 5, 2020

Bottom line: Splice asks you to suspend your disbelief to the extreme, but if you can, it's a whole lot of fun.

Full Review | Mar 8, 2019

Natali's Splice is an engaging, disquieting and most of all thought-provoking film that asks complex questions about the nature of parenthood, the ethics of medical science and what it is to be human.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2018

Where the movie succeeds - and I think it does succeed, overwhelmingly - is in drawing you into an emotional relationship with its characters.

Full Review | May 23, 2018

[Director Natali] treads the fine line of a film that is just believable enough to get the audience's attention, and sci-fi enough for us to think this could never happen. Or could it?

Full Review | May 18, 2018

Despite the conventional plot it's always fun, even when the action gets increasingly absurd.

Full Review | May 14, 2018

Though Splice has viscera a-plenty, the horror of it isn't in the gore. It's in the notion that sometimes children end up evil and it might be entirely our fault.

Full Review | Aug 9, 2017

A grisly and raw cautionary tale on the dangers of science without regard to consequences.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 18, 2014

Who would have thought talent of that calibre would combine to create such a catastrophic stinker.

Full Review | Original Score: 0/5 | Feb 15, 2013

Because of the writers' choice to stay so superficial, we get a sluggishly-paced, forgettable thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 1, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

It's the very special genetic engineering episode of Parenthood that was too hot for TV.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 4, 2011

Den of Geek

Splice review

As Vincenzo Natali’s Splice arrives in the UK, Duncan finds a mainstream B-movie with shocks and laughs in almost equal measure…

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I always tend to make a habit of writing up a film review within twenty-four hours of watching it, mostly to retain the freshness of my emotional reaction to it, good or bad. So, it’s a fine testament to Splice that exactly a week after seeing it, the film has still managed to leave a solid imprint on my mind.

The reason being because Splice is insane.

So insane, that every screening I’ve been to since has been populated by people talking about it, as it seems to be proving quite divisive amongst the other writers I’ve spoken to. Some seem to be drawn to the more Freudian elements, others to its themes of relationships and childbirth. And as for me? Well, I thought it was one of the greatest attempts at making a mainstream B-movie I’ve ever seen.

Director Vincenzo Natali is probably best known to us geeks as the director of inspired low budget hit Cube and the criminally overlooked Cypher . What fascinated me about Splice was that Natali clearly shows an intelligent awareness of how ludicrous the whole premise of the film is, yet still manages to inject genuine moments of terror and pathos in amongst some great visual comedy.

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Rather than Species , I’d compare Splice to Hollow Man in terms of how the movie feels, without trying to be too descriptive and give anything away, as I’d avoided reading or watching anything to do with the film, and the pay off was immense.

Whether you liked Hollow Man or not, you should appreciate that it involved a fearsomely talented director, essentially, trying to make a studio movie with interesting results. Paul Verhoeven started the film with a visceral, gory punch, before taking the elements that interested him the most (never underestimate the man’s love of breasts, Verhoeven’s that is) and straining them through Hollywood’s cookie cutter to make his film conform to their monster movie conventions.

Splice treads a very similar path, as we follow the scientific journey that Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast (played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, respectively) take, as they pay no heed to the lesson learnt by Dr. Frankenstein in their quest to create new, genetically engineered life. The film is given an incredible strength from its premise, as the results of their work mean that any organism we’re shown in the film is entirely new and therefore, entirely unpredictable.

Many of the film’s shocks come from seeing what will develop next, and Natali holds an incredible feeling of unease and tension over the entire film, so much so that my usual note taking was kept to a bare minimum as I sat enthralled by it. I knew within the first five minutes that I was onboard with Splice , as it ably showed a great sense of comedy, mixed in with some suitably disgusting effects.

It came as no surprise to see Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger’s names in the opening credits, though I’m a little confused as to how they seem to be able to do the effects for about ninety percent of the films I watch. Since their Evil Dead days they really have become the kings of special effects, and their work is so good in Splice that they effectively sell the reality of the situation.

And by making Dren such a masterwork – a mix of the beautiful, innocent, deadly and ethereal – you don’t ever question what’s on screen.

At one point, my head started to spin at how realistic and aesthetically stunning some of their work is. If you don’t know what a Dren is, then I implore you not to go looking, especially not on IMDb, where I was mortified to see a spoiler of film-ruining potential. Quite how no one’s had it taken down is a mystery.

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While the KNB EFX group go to work, it remains for the emotional and comedic core of Splice to be divided between Brody and Polley. It was an incredibly savvy move, as both actors are known for effortlessly dealing with dramatic content, so between them they easily ground and realise the more preposterous parts of the story.

What came as a surprise was how readily they dealt with the humour of the film, most notably in an early scene which hammered home the B-movie roots of Splice , as a moment of over-the-top slapstick plays out when Polley’s character finds herself trapped in a lab room with ‘something’.

Adrian Brody is a notable actor and much more on the geek radar after the likes of King Kong and, more recently, Predators , whereas Sarah Polley, despite Go and the Dawn Of The Dead remake, still seems to be a massively underappreciated and underused actress in Hollywood. Hopefully, the controversial nature of Splice will bring her more attention, as she’s more than deserving of it.

The film isn’t without its flaws, though. There is an unoriginal element of corporate greed, of the usual ‘give us results, or we’re shutting you down’ variety, which I always associate with the likes of Carter Burke, but which even Splice couldn’t bring any freshness to, despite the incredible presentation it leads to later on. In fact, the entire third act is relatively weaker, losing some of its momentum and tension, especially when compared to the first two.

The closer the film draws to its finale, the more conventional it seems to become, falling into predictability, not once, but twice, after striving so hard to be the opposite.

There is one moment near the end that is incredibly disturbing and still makes me feel uneasy. It’s just a shame it happened amongst the weaker parts. The moment I refer to, as well as other parts of the last act, when things become more intimate and hostile, will prove to be talking points for a long time to come, I imagine, and it’s very difficult to write my way around them, but I can assure you that the fresher you are to the film, the more impactful it will be.

I’ll wait to hear what others make of it. No doubt, many will hate it, but Natali has earned even more of my respect for making, quite possibly, the funniest, twisted, darkest, and most crazy mainstream B-movie of recent times.

Our first Splice review is here .

Duncan Bowles | @duncanbowles

Han Solo, Pierce Brosnan and Ryan Reynolds quipping Warm Lohan feelings when Indy is whipping All 19 versions of Lord of the Rings These are a…

SPLICE Review

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'IT' Fans Are in For a Terrifying Treat Next Month

Ana de armas, rosamund pike, and joel kinnaman teamed up for this sharp crime thriller, the '90s thriller nicole kidman would have happily shot for five years.

Splice is for mature audiences only.  That note not only applies to the content of the film, but to its themes.  It's a fun, entertaining movie but also one that's deceptive and will unnerve audiences in unexpected ways.  The trailers for the movie depict it as a jump-scare film, but it's nothing so disposable.  Splice is a movie that will stick with you if you're willing to intellectually engage with it.  But there will come a point in the film that will shatter your expectations and mature audiences will become totally captivated by its bold decision.  Immature audiences will most likely check out completely and fail to see that Splice is not only entertaining, but it's creepier than most "horror" films in recent memory.

Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody) are rock stars of the science world.  The couple are on the cover of Wired , they wear cool clothes, and they've hit upon a revolutionary breakthrough in the realm of genetically engineering that could possibly cure a score of diseases including cancer.  But pushed by a mixture of her own ambition, arrogance, and other reasons which I won't spoil, Elsa ropes Clive into secretly splicing together a new creature—one that contains human DNA.  As the creature—who they eventually name "Dren"—continues to develop and change, so too does Clive and Elsa's relationship as well as their notions of love, morality, and control.

Co-writer and director Vincenzo Natali effortlessly carries Splice across various tonalities: horrific, darkly comic, and even a sweet family film.  But where it will eventually take you is to a very creepy place and I won't spoil what the turning point is, but you'll know it when you see it.  That turning point pulled me even deeper into the movie, but the audience I saw it with responded with scorn and derision and anything the film did from that point was placed in the "so bad its good" pile.

But while the audience was hooting and hollering, I was completely absorbed in the film up until the end when Splice becomes a bit too slasher-flick.  Splice is a monster movie, but it's a monster movie that's doesn't need to resort to jump-scares.  But for the majority of the movie, Natali stays away from that approach and instead layers his film with thoughtful imagery (of which a large portion is unapologetically Freudian), striking cinematography, and expert editing.

Heavy credit goes to Polley, Brody, and Delphine Chanéac—who plays teenage Dren—for their performances.  The chemistry between Polley and Brody is a key element to the film's success.  Without it, you wouldn't believe that Elsa and Clive would be so close and therefore wouldn't care about the way their relationship changes over the course of the movie.  As for Chanéac, she's phenomenal.  Dren can't communicate through speech so the actress not only has to rely heavily on body language to convey her emotions, but has to do so with a body that isn't totally human.  The humanity in Dren is essential not only to the character but to the entire film and Splice wouldn't work without Chanéac's remarkable performance.

Splice is a movie that's sure to divide audiences.  I ask that if you go see it (and you should go see it), that you try to engage the film even when it makes you so uncomfortable that you want to run away into ironic detachment.  Sci-fi horror at its finest is supposed to not only stimulate our minds, but take us to disturbing places in order to do so.  Splice may not be a perfect movie, but it's a damn fine one.

Splice Ending Explained: The Twisted Conclusion To Vincenzo Natali's Movie

Warning: spoilers for Splice are in play. If you haven’t seen Vincenzo Natali’s twisted sci-fi thriller, head back out of this story if you don’t want the surprises to be ruined for you.

While it’s an 11-year-old movie at this point, director Vincenzo Natali’s Splice is a film that’s known for its rather twisted ending . People have loved to talk about the conclusion of this 2009 sci-fi thriller for some time, and the film’s recent inclusion on the Netflix streaming library has sparked those talks yet again. But believe it or not, this modern reinterpretation of Frankenstein has an ending that’s anchored in some deeper thought.

Rather than just deploying its twisted ending for funsies, Vincenzo Natali’s creation parable gives us all we need to know in a very sneaky manner, throughout the entire movie. Looking back at the clues provided throughout Splice , we’re going to take apart the shocking conclusion of the film, and put it all together to show the chilling picture it was setting the audience up for the whole time. Last chance to back out before spoilers, as we’re going to start with a recap to the ending of Splice .

What Happens At The End Of Splice

Clive Nicoli ( Adrien Brody ) and Elsa Kast ( Sarah Polley ) are confronted by Clive’s brother, Gavin (Brandon McGibbon,) as well as their boss, William Barlow (David Hewett.) The reason for this confrontation is the fact that they’ve been running an illegal experiment to synthesize a miracle protein that’d be the building block to untold genetic miracles. Unfortunately, that experiment has a name, and an attitude, and it’s presumed to have just died. The creature, aptly named Dren (Delphine Chanéac,) turns out to be very much alive, and starts to pick off each of these participants in a brand new form.

Previously known to be a female, Dren has now changed sex, and is a male with a newfound purpose: it wants to breed with Elsa. Killing Gavin and William, Dren pins Elsa to the ground and proceeds to rape her. After Clive dies trying to save his partner, Elsa kills Dren once and for all, and is eventually shown to be carrying its child in Splice’s epilogue. Rather than terminate the pregnancy, Elsa takes a healthy sum from her employer, Newstead Pharmaceuticals, to keep the child; as Dren’s DNA is rich in scientific wonders.

Why Is Splice’s Ending So Twisted

The ending to Splice is something that’s absolutely chilling to behold, as the sexual development of Dren goes from a consensual flirtation and consummation with Clive to the violation of Elsa, in a very short span of time. A sheltered being that’s partially human, Dren has a very limited viewpoint to the world; which is skewed by the fact that Elsa starts to maim, torture, and scold the child she fought so hard to keep alive. Things start to get uncomfortable when Dren and Clive have their tryst, but there’s a component that makes Dren and Elsa’s eventual fate all the more twisted.

Early on in Splice , we’re told that the human genetic profile used to make Dren’s hybrid species is from a “Jane Doe” with a clean medical history. It’s later revealed that it’s not just a random person’s DNA inside the resulting creature, it’s Elsa’s. She uses this fact to try and bond with her then daughter, as she tells Dren that part of her is inside Dren, and conversely part of her child is within her. Something that’s thrown back in her face when the male Dren tells Elsa that the one thing he wants is “inside…you.”

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The Clues Splice Provides That Anchor That Twist

Throughout the entirety of Splice , the experiment that’s supposed to put Clive and Elsa on the map is through a pair of vermiform creatures named Fred and Ginger. Through the creation of these two initially lovely creatures, the protein known as CD356 is generated for pharmaceutical usage and research. These creatures are also the other half of the hybrid structure for Dren’s DNA, which is combined with Elsa’s DNA to create the total package we see in the film.

However, as we learn through Fred and Ginger’s story progression, their pairing ends rather violently at a Newstead Pharmaceutical shareholder’s presentation. Surprise, life found a way to turn Ginger into a male, and our intrepid scientists didn’t see this. Meanwhile, Dren is described as having everything Fred and Ginger had, and more, reinforcing that she’s partially made from their DNA as well. So all the mistakes that Clive and Elsa made previously were only amplified by adding an unpredictable human element into the mix.

How Vincenzo Natali Prepared The World For Splice’s Ending Without Even Spoiling The Film

As if those clues weren’t enough to prepare the audience, Vincenzo Natali himself pretty much set the table way back in 2007, shortly before his long term passion project went into production. Describing Splice to the now defunct horror news site Shock Till You Drop , Natali gave the world all of the warning it needed when heading into this particular film:

Splice is very much about our genetic future and the way science is catching up with much of the fiction out there. [This] is a serious film and an emotional one. And there's sex... Very, very unconventional sex. The centerpiece of the movie is a creature which goes through a dramatic evolutionary process. The goal is to create something shocking but also very subtle and completely believable.

Without even dropping the meaty details of Dren’s evolution, and just hinting at the “unconventional sex” that Splice would hold in its core, Natali was able to provide everyone with enough preparation to decide if this film was or was not for them. Though even with fair warning, the conclusion is still a chilling thing to behold, especially when piecing together all the clues previously given.

The Ultimate Meaning Of Splice’s Twisted Conclusion

There’s a lot at work in Splice’s twisted conclusion. Above all else, there’s a Frankenstein -esque message of how just because we can create new and exciting lifeforms doesn’t mean we should. That’s only hammered home by the fact that Clive and Elsa are presumably named after Colin Clive and Elsa Lanchester, actors were both a part of Universal’s Frankenstein franchise. But the greater message that pops up in the film is that parenting is as much of an experiment with a hybrid organism child as it is with a regular human kid.

In creating Dren, Elsa felt that she could have a child and be in control of the result, as the unpredictability of parenting is what’s always made her reluctant to have a child. But in trying to avoid the mistakes of her own abusive past, Elsa only ended up making them again. Only this time, the resentful child took its vengeance out in a much more horrifying way. We may never know the consequences of Splice’s foreboding ending, but it’s almost assured that the future is going to lead to even more unpredictable results, as the child of Elsa and Dren seems destined to follow in their bloody footsteps.

The resurgence of Splice is bound to have people talking yet again about just why this infamous ending is a disturbing masterpiece of shock; and maybe even lead to a conversation about how the world lost out when Vincenzo Natali didn’t get to make his version of Swamp Thing. Looking at the details layered in the film’s story, Natali didn’t just surprise the audience without any rhyme or reason. This twisted conclusion has a basis in the events that took place prior to the fateful showdown at the family farm, and if Clive and Elsa were paying attention, they might have been able to prevent them from happening. But they didn’t, and the impressionable ending of Splice now sits for all to behold on Netflix’s streaming library.

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

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Screen Rant

104 minutes

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Vincenzo Natali

Copperheart Entertainment Téléfilm Canada Gaumont

Warner Bros. Pictures

Vincenzo Natali

Copperheart Entertainment Téléfilm Canada Gaumont

Warner Bros. Pictures

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104 minutes

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Adrien brody, sarah polley, delphine chaneac, screenrant review, 'splice' review.

While it's certainly not for everyone, 'Splice' is the creepiest movie to come out so far this year - and one of the better ones as well.

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