Having an actual actor portray supernatural characters goes a long way in the “suspension of disbelief” department - it’s the leap from “toddler” to “child” where the strange Dren becomes real, and a real threat. What makes the “Child” version of Dren more unsettling than her predecessors is the knowledge that you’re watching a flesh-and-blood child actor (with a heavy CG assist, of course). The “Infant” and various “Toddler” forms of Dren are certainly unsettling with their bizarre worm-like shapes and strange movements, but their effect is somewhat diminished by the knowledge that they’re either puppets or CG creations (or both).
Here are the film’s most unsettling moments. It’s freaky and weird and hot and sometimes truly terrifying. That’s the story in a nutshell (or a DNA strand, as it were). Dren is sexy in that weird, uncomfortable way that sci-fi horror films are sometimes able to pull off (you know what we’re talking about - Dario Argento did a bang-up job of it recently in his Masters of Horror episode, “Jenifer”). The premise is simple: two young, attractive and brilliant geneticists, Elsa and Clive (Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody), cook up a human-animal hybrid named Dren. It wants to thrill you, shock you and make you squirm. It’s kind of like Re-Animator, except it has no interest in amusing you.
It’s what Species probably wishes it were. Director Vincenzo Natali has taken what’s essentially an old-fashioned Frankenstein story and turned it into a psychosexual horror show that isn’t afraid to go to all sorts of extremes. This article assumes that you’ve seen Splice and are up for a discussion on just how awesome - and oh so freaky - it really is. Close your browser, turn off your computer and go watch it. If you haven’t seen Splice, stop right here.
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