As far as summer movies go, 2010 has been something of a disappointment. I haven’t visited the local cineplex nearly as much as in summers past simply because the releases haven’t been very compelling. If the studios want me to part with $10, they’re going to have to do better than remakes of The A-Team and video game adaptations. Fortunately, films like Splice demonstrate that Hollywood can still produce original, entertaining fare. Splice tells the story of two genetic scientists (Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody) who have already had some success splicing together animal genes to create crude new life forms. When their corporate sponsor directs them to stop splicing and focus on harvesting useful chemical components from their existing creations, the couple resents the interference and they decided to create a human splice in cellular form just to show that it can be done. The experiment goes further than intended and the couple soon find themselves caring for a rapidly maturing creature that initially resembles a deformed rodent with a wicked-looking stinger on its tail, but soon begins to resemble something much more human.
Of course, things go quickly downhill for the scientists and the film’s denouement is probably one of the more disturbing of the year. Sarah Polley is great as a not-entirely-stable scientist whose instincts waver between warmly maternal and chillingly clinical. And Brody should get the MTV Movie Award for the Best Freaky Sex Scene of the Year (Hetero). The film is effective both as science fiction and horror; it’s a shame it didn’t do better at the box office. Perhaps it will be one of those movies that develops a cult following on DVD and late-night cable.
