Splice dren12/23/2023 And not giving Dren an obvious drive is one of the unfortunate failings of the film. It’s also a concern that the screenwriters-Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Douglas Taylor-forgot to address, or at least didn’t deal with in enough detail. Resolving how smart she is, or what her desires are, that’s another matter entirely. With all of those physical characteristics, it’s impossible to keep track of what she’s capable of. The creature has wide eyes, a tail with a stinger on the end, gills for breathing underwater, retractable wings, and (eventually) the humanoid appearance of a young woman, though without hair. This modern day Frankenstein’s Monster is named Dren, and she’s played by Abigail Chu in adolescence, and then Delphine Chaneac in young adulthood. It grows quickly, with minutes existing for days, and soon it appears something like a human child. When their creation is born, the scientists witness a new form of life with animal and human components in its genetic structure. Clive, aware of this at the last moment, concedes to go along with her plan, keeping their progress secret from the company. With a mad glint in her eye, Elsa underhandedly places human DNA in their new experiment and sets it to grow. The scientists want to do the same thing to benefit humans, but the company is wary of using human gene splicing. They work for a corporation that wants a protein to help cure diseases in cattle, so they’ve been using animal genes to make a hybrid creature that produces the protein, a fleshy mass that looks something like a game pod from eXistenZ. Could it be just a coincidence that Brody’s character shares a name with Colin Clive, the actor who played Henry Frankenstein in the 1931 film, or that Polley shares a name with Elsa Lancaster, the actress who played the Bride of Frankenstein in the 1935 film? Decidedly not. Except, these questions are never really engaged in any meaningful way, leaving the film to be merely a monster movie.Īdrien Brody plays a geneticist named Clive, and Sarah Polley plays Elsa, his lover and lab partner. Taking a cue from Frankenstein, the film asks a lot of important questions about what “human” means, about the controversy of using human material in scientific experimentation, and about the human element in objective science. 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. Vincenzo Natali’s Splice attempts to blend modern science and human psychology in a low-budget but smartly made genre film.
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