Splinter

I am not usually a fan of creature horror. It's typically at the bottom of my list of cherished horror subgenres. But once in a while, a movie comes along that changes that, at least temporarily. The greatest of these is John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), which remains one of the best and most beloved sci-fi/horror movies of all time. Another fairly good one is Leviathan, one of two deep-sea creaturefests from 1989 (the other being Deep Star Six, also enjoyable). Echoes of Leviathan and The Thing permeate Splinter (2008), although the films are quite distinct in most respects. But all three films employ a limited environment to escalate the tension and create a stifling sense of paranoia and claustrophobia. The most significant similarity between Splinter and its predecessors is in creature design. The three films each make use of an "amalgamated creature," though the method of amalgamation is unique in each one. While the creature from The Thing uses mimicry, the Leviathan monster uses absorption, and the Splinter creature uses simple mechanical fusion.

Splinter opens on the back roads of Oklahoma, following young couple Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly (Jill Wagner), out on the weekend for some camping. But their outdoor vacation gets derailed when they run afoul of Dennis (Shea Whigham) and Lacey (Rachel Kerbs), on the run from the law and looking for a ride. But the real ordeal starts when they stop for gas. The service station becomes a haven when the two couples are beseiged by a parasitic mold that consumes blood and, like a puppeteer, uses the remaining living tissue for mobility.

Splinter is not a particularly great movie. The plot and dialogue are formulaic at best and hackneyed at worst. The conventions are laughably predictable. Turns out, Seth has a PhD in biology and figures out the biomechanics of the splinter creature. Well, isn't that convenient. And of course there's a tough guy with a heart of gold who just wants to do right by his junkie girlfriend and to lay the demons of the past to rest. How heartwarming. And of course, the film wouldn't be complete without a cop who falls prey to the creature because she didn't heed the warnings from Seth and Dennis. And who could forget the use of gratuitous explosions? That always helps with a subpar script. And don't even get me started with Seth's brilliant (read: terrible) idea for evading the monster. On top of this, the music is forgettable and the acting is stilted and strained.

Ok, so Splinter is by no means a great movie. But its not bad either, and I have to give it credit in the area of make-up and creature effects, because that is where this movie excels. The splinter creature really comes alive, and the mechanics involved are quite unique. The secret is not advanced CGI, which frankly never seems to work all that well, nor is it puppetry, which looks a lot better and is what I had expected. Nope. The secret to the splinter monster is a very flexible gymnast. The film's director hired a local gymnast and asked him to create a themed set of movements for the splinter creature. What emerged was a surprisingly effective mix of floor gymnastics, interpretive dance, and animal mimicry. So, add a pretty good make-up and prosthetics team to this gymnast's choreography, and you have one of the more exciting and believable monsters in recent years.

Storyline & plot: 3/10
Cinematography & effects: 9/10
Music & mood: 5/10
Performances: 4/10

The Reverend says: 5/10