Splice (2009)

Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast hope to achieve fame by successfully splicing together the DNA of different animals to create new hybrid animals for medical use.

Director:

Vincenzo Natali

Writers:

Vincenzo Natali (screenplay), Antoinette Terry Bryant (screenplay),

Stars:

Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chanéac

4 wins & 21 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Adrien Brody	...	Clive Nicoli
Sarah Polley	...	Elsa Kast
Delphine Chanéac	...	Dren (as Delphine Chaneac)
Brandon McGibbon	...	Gavin Nicoli
Simona Maicanescu	...	Joan Chorot
David Hewlett	...	William Barlow
Abigail Chu	...	Child Dren

Storyline

Two young rebellious scientists are told by their employers to halt groundbreaking work that has seen them produce new creatures with medical benefits by splicing together multiple organisms' DNA. They decide to secretly continue their work, but this time splicing in human DNA.

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Plot Keywords:

dna | genetics | scientist | experiment | abandoned farm | 

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Taglines:

She's Not Human ... Not Entirely.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

18A

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France] Official site [Japan]

Country:

Canada France USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

4 June 2010 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Nouvelle espèce

Filming Locations:

Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$26,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£110,225 (UK) (23 July 2010)

Gross:

£239,538 (UK) (30 July 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gaumont, Copperheart Entertainment, Dark Castle Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The gestation cell that Clive and Elsa use to splice Dren has the acronym BETI placed conspicuously on the front of the machine. BETI stands for Biomechanical Extroutero Thermal Incubator. However, interestingly the word "BETI" means daughter in Urdu and Hindi, spoken in large parts of Pakistan and India.

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Goofs

In the first scene when Clive and Elsa take Dren to the barn, it is night, but when they go inside, there is sun streaming through the skylights.

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Quotes

Elsa Kast: If you could understand crazy, it wouldn't be crazy.

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Crazy Credits

The cast credits and finally the title are scattered throughout the opening credits, instead of appearing consecutively.

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Connections

Featured in Richard Roeper & the Movies: Splice (2010)

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Soundtracks

Hail Destroyer
Written and Performed by Cancer Bats
Courtesy of Distort Inc.

User Reviews

A likable but flawed sci-fi tale

Splice centres on two renowned young scientists (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) that are quasi-famous for successfully creating a new species of animal, a species with enormous pharmaceutical industry potential in the form of an ability to secrete profitable proteins. Despite a refusal by their company bosses to approve the next stage of the project, or anything that tampers with human DNA, their ambitions lead them to create a human-animal hybrid by combining human genes with those of the created species. This in turn leads to the creation of a new entity they name Dren, which they raise and attempt to study as a personal project concealed from their employers and colleagues.

The story becomes highly engrossing as we follow the creature's development alongside that of the two scientists, who are in a relationship that becomes increasingly strained by a series of ethical and logistical dilemmas. The two central performances are well-judged, but the real star is Dren; or the CGI responsible for her creation, which is always convincing and solid at all stages of the creature's evolution. Vincenzo Natali's visually intense direction is also worth mentioning, and he clearly enjoys playing with a generous budget as compared with his previous features like Cube.

This is, however, no modern masterpiece – the plot becomes predictable and contrived in the final third, the minor characters are little more than stereotypes (lax young brother, venal bosses) and the comedic elements of the film don't always sit comfortably with the horror aspects (there is, however, a notable exception in a hilarious scene towards the end). But these drawbacks are outweighed by the plus points, which makes Splice an enjoyable experience overall.