The Shuddery Pleasures of "Splice"

Director Vincenzo Natali makes interesting puzzle-box films that are a little more demanding of the audience than most. There's usually a science-fiction or metaphysical bent to his plots, where his hapless protagonists are at the mercy of larger, unknowable forces beyond their control. In "Cube," his best-remembered feature, we followed a group of unhappy individuals trapped in a deadly maze of interconnected cubes. "Cypher" was about a spy with a very fickle identity. "Nothing" dropped its heroes in a place where literally nothing existed outside of their house. Natali's latest horror film, "Splice" is a similarly cerebral piece of work.

Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) are a pair of young scientists who are romantically involved with each other, and lead a team responsible for creating novel life forms based on splicing genes together from different organisms. They're a little different from Natali's other leads, as they bring the oncoming horror upon themselves, but they are no less subject to the whims of strange and sinister forces. Their biggest successes, when we first meet them, are Fred and Ginger, a pair of caterpillar-like creatures who can synthesize a valuable protein. Clive and Elsa want to push ahead with splicing experiments involving human DNA, which could lead to cures for deadly diseases, but their corporate overlords are wary of the moral implications, and want to wait. For once, the corporate overlords are right.

Elsa goes ahead with an experiment with human DNA regardless, despite Clive's serious misgivings, which leads to the birth of a creature who will eventually be named Dren. The less you know about Dren going into the film, the better it plays, and I won't go into too many spoilers about her development. Dren is a remarkable creation, one of the few truly feminine cinema monsters in a field dominated by wolf men, vampire lotharios, and asexual little green people from Mars. Her most horrific moments manifest in very masculine ways, but best scenes are when she is at her most recognizably human, and a curious, distinctly female personality emerges. Visually, she's an fascinating collection of human and inhuman features that keep changing as she grows, bit by bit, so the audience never has the chance to become acclimated to her appearance and is always left feeling slightly unnerved or off balance. Dren never quite registers as a human being, yet her humanity is undeniable. She displays a full range of emotions, from petulance to despair, despite not speaking except in chirps and warbles. This is achieved by having Dren a portrayed by a pure CGI creation in early scenes, and then by actresses with seamless CGI enhancements.

As impressive as Dren is, the performances by Brody and Polley are vital to why the picture works. One might be tempted to ask what these two award-winning performers are doing in a creature feature, but their talents are put to good use here. Clive and Elsa are initially the picture of arrogant scientists who thoughtlessly decide to play God, with a bit of Sillicon Valley dot-com hipsterism tossed in for good measure. They play heavy metal while working at the lab, treat their managers like nagging parents, and regularly sport T-shirts and jeans when they aren't in lab coats. Elsa reveals the more interesting hidden depths, uncomfortable with the idea of having children, but all too eager to bring Dren into the world. While Clive's initial instinct is to recoil from their creation, Elsa bonds almost immediately, placing strain on their relationship as the two of them gradually assume the roles of Dren's parents. They seem to age and mature before our eyes, soon becoming very different people than they were at the outset.

There are some twists that occur late in the story that have caused considerable controversy online, and may be the reason why some audiences have responded very negatively to "Splice." Natali is not afraid of crossing lines that others would balk at, and he and the actors sell what could have been some pretty dicey material. I can understand the objections to some of the events in the film's second half, but there's never anything that feels exploitative or gratuitous about what we see, and the outcomes are reached organically, with plenty of buildup if the viewer is paying attention. Clive remarks at one point that the rules have changed, but I think it would be better to say that the rules have been replaced. When Dren finds human morality lacking, she substitutes her own, more brutal version. But like "Frankenstein" before her, Dren cannot really be blamed for her actions, as everything she is originates from the two scientists that created her.

"Splice" works fine as a horror film, with a few good jump scares and some running around in the dark, but at heart it's a science-fiction fable for the bioengineering age. It also touches on several other genres, including a little character study and a little morbid family drama. The story goes in so many different, unexpected directions, viewers have to stay on their toes. The closest thing I can think to compare it to is David Cronenberg's take on "The Fly," which also examined the unfortunate results of unrestrained scientific exploration, except "Splice" is much less straightforward. I enjoyed being unable to figure out where the movie was going, and the director's willingness to embrace unconventional developments made it all the more unpredictable.

Of course, this is not a viewing experience that everyone is going to appreciate, as it does push the boundaries and goes to some uncomfortable places. But for those who don't mind being challenged by their movies once in a while, and enjoy a good squirm, "Splice" is one to seek out.