Anytime I’ve ever heard anyone talk about Splice the conversation has never gone any further than, “Did you know Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley both have sex with that experiment thing?” That may be true, but this movie is so much more than making sexy time with the find of the century. Splice is about creation and desire and the classic “You can’t play with god!” theme that has made so many previous sci-fi and horror movies so memorable.
Splice is about genetic engineers Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) who hope to achieve success by combining the DNA strands of several animals to create an animal/human hybrid. The results are a humanoid creature with a pointed stinger that they lovingly name “Dren”. The organism ages quickly, growing from a young girl-thing to a eerily beautiful woman-thing and soon becomes aggressive. It becomes difficult for Clive and Elsa to take charge of something that they have grown to love and even harder when Dren becomes lethal. And yes, there’s a part where Dren learns she can change her gender and has sex both with researchers. Deal with it.
This David Cronenberg-esque thriller was written and directed by Vincenzo Natali, best known for his sci-fi cult favorite flick Cube and Splice continues his trend of thought provoking experiences. Where do we draw the line between what makes something civilized or human? If something is highly intelligent should it be held captive? There’s so much being said from an ethical standpoint. Combined with clever writing, entertaining effects, and a slick pace, Splice is a rewarding experience. It’s a movie that’s more than just Adrien Brody getting it on with some kind of human hybrid.
Let’s get it on!
I don’t know man, if you create life, if you raise that child, and then both you and your partner have sex with her, I think it reasonable to say you’ve shifted the narrative.
I don’t know, the hybrid comes on to them, almost more as a defense mechanism. It has a lot of layers.