Splice

[ClosetOtaku]

Saw it this afternoon. Not going to review or spoil, just let me say the following:

1. Rated R for very good reasons. It is not a film for children or young teens.

2. For the older crowd who can handle adult themes maturely... it is still disturbing.

3. For those who can still handle it -- more cerebral than most horror flicks.

4. That said, probably not good soul food for Christians in general, but most of you know your limits.

[Rocketshipper]

I really want to see this. Looks to me like its "Species" meets "Parasite Eve".

[GrubbTheFragger]

It looked kinda weird at first then the reviews started all coming positive. I'll see it eventually. I am deffently worried for the sexual aspect of it though.

[Wolf-man]

If your worried about the sexual aspect then don't go see it.
http://www.pluggedin.com/movies/intheaters/splice.aspx

This movie sounds really bizarre. I will probably rent it on DVD and use clearplay to screen out the sex and profanity. Though, even with that it sounds like it will be very disturbing.

[ShiroiHikari]

This movie piqued my interest because the TV ads were so vague. You don't see vague ads very often. Usually they just show you all the cool parts. Plus, I'm always happy when someone actually manages to make a good horror film.

[GhostontheNet]

I went to see Splice, it's a rather brilliant take on the Frankenstein mythos in the age of genetics, a biopunk horror film for a new world of cyborgs and monsters. Director Vincenzo Natali sardonically refers to Splice as his "family film", and in a perverse sense this is quite apt. Splice is a good example of contemporary developments in the new wave of horror films beginning in the late 1960's described by film critic Robin Wood. According to Wood, at this stage of the game, the locus of monstrosity shifts to the nuclear family itself as the agents of "socialization" into the "norms" of bourgeoisie patriarchal values. Here the film exposes the oppressive and repressive dimensions of normalization by means of the narrative about a young woman who breaches the human-animal divide. Dren is the abjected "monster" who can find no place for herself within the realm of the symbolic because she both bears the marks of her debt to nature, and represents the unnatural fringes of scientific potentiality. Her efforts at existential assertion to gain states of transcendence are systematically denied, which bears a strong irony because of the libertine ethos of her parents, but she rebels to assert her own humanity. And lurking in the background is the corporation that would claim ownership over her by means of a patent, a very important subtext for the age of genetically modified organisms, a subtext Natali brings up in interviews. Without a doubt, this is one of the best, most skillfully executed, and most important horror films of recent memory.

[Atria35]

^ ooooh, I love movies that have Frankensteinian- and his monster- themes in them. I think I'll movie this up my to-watch list!

[ClosetOtaku]

I went to see Splice, it's a rather brilliant take on the Frankenstein mythos in the age of genetics, a biopunk horror film for a new world of cyborgs and monsters. Director Vincenzo Natali sardonically refers to Splice as his "family film", and in a perverse sense this is quite apt. Splice is a good example of contemporary developments in the new wave of horror films beginning in the late 1960's described by film critic Robin Wood. According to Wood, at this stage of the game, the locus of monstrosity shifts to the nuclear family itself as the agents of "socialization" into the "norms" of bourgeoisie patriarchal values. Here the film exposes the oppressive and repressive dimensions of normalization by means of the narrative about a young woman who breaches the human-animal divide. Dren is the abjected "monster" who can find no place for herself within the realm of the symbolic because she both bears the marks of her debt to nature, and represents the unnatural fringes of scientific potentiality. Her efforts at existential assertion to gain states of transcendence are systematically denied, which bears a strong irony because of the libertine ethos of her parents, but she rebels to assert her own humanity. And lurking in the background is the corporation that would claim ownership over her by means of a patent, a very important subtext for the age of genetically modified organisms, a subtext Natali brings up in interviews. Without a doubt, this is one of the best, most skillfully executed, and most important horror films of recent memory.

A great assessment. I'm wondering if you'd consider this film a cousin to Eraserhead -- it's the visceral reaction I had to the early forms of Dren, and comparing her to the 'baby' in that film -- although there, the notion of alienation belonged to the main character and not to the 'monster'.

[GhostontheNet]

^ ooooh, I love movies that have Frankensteinian- and his monster- themes in them. I think I'll movie this up my to-watch list!

Right on!

A great assessment. I'm wondering if you'd consider this film a cousin to Eraserhead -- it's the visceral reaction I had to the early forms of Dren, and comparing her to the 'baby' in that film -- although there, the notion of alienation belonged to the main character and not to the 'monster'.

Thank you very much. Yes, beyond a doubt the director saw David Lynch's Eraserhead, the film even pays homage to it in shots and story elements. The main difference between the films is that Eraserhead is a surrealist art house film, which is to say that it tries to translate the contents of the unconscious directly into the film, whereas Splice represents a kind of cinema verite rationalism that projects the elements of myth into the world by means of the magic of genetics. I tend to think David Lynch's films deal with the sort of feeling of "Dear God, why am I such a freak?" This is where a lot of the pathos of the deformed baby of Eraserhead or Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man comes from. By contrast, Dren isn't aware that she is a "freak", because nothing in her environment tells her so. It's just something is incongruous about her, something she herself can't account for. She's receiving mixed messages that tell she's normal, and that she's nowhere near normal. David Lynch's game is to show up the assumed norms of American life for being quite bizarre. As such, the project of the two films is not all that different, even if their formal approach is.