Splice

Director: Vincenzo Natali

Throughout the year, the thriller/horror genre has experienced some dramatic changes, both good and bad. It can be said that “Splice” is in some way a mixture of every form that horror movies have taken in the last forty years. Unfortunately, the mix of something great isn’t always great itself.

Vincenzo Natali, despite the fact that he has worked in an almost every movie-making field (from the art department to writing and directing), has made only one horror movie in his  entire career as a director, but can still be called a horror movie expert, since that one movie was “The Cube.” Nevertheless, without regard to the great success of his most well-known creation, Natali decided to step back from his previous unique and independent style and add a little bit of everything into his newest creation.

The Phantasmagorical monster, looking like a chimera, the psychological tension between characters (common for every horror movie), genetic modifications, a mighty biologic corporation chasing profits; so, basically, this is everything that the viewer has already seen in the most popular Hollywood-made horror films. In a desperate way to make an iconic horror film, Natali has used all classic horror film schemes, all together.

Despite this, the movie lacks the essential quality for every horror movie. It wasn’t scary. Therefore, since the main point of a horror film is to frighten the viewer, all the attempts to use well known schemes, or every other course the director decided to take, were unsuccessful.

What can be mentioned as a positive aspect is, of course, the acting, mainly the acting of Adrian Brody, who plays the leading role. From 2002, Brody has constantly proved that he is able to create a wonderful character, even if the role itself is not so well written. This particular performance is not any different. Still, the rest of the cast was less successful, to say the least.

So if you are looking for a real horror movie, “Splice” is probably not the movie for you. As it turns out, in movie making, the beaten path is not always the right one. 

Now showing in Latvia and Estonia, starts on August 13 in Lithuania