With that change comes a corresponding shift in our sympathies and our fears: Just who is the monster here, and where exactly on the human/animal spectrum does that monstrousness reside? A suddenly cruel Mom, who has dark maternal issues buried in her own past, is literally tying the girl down, while a confused Dad finds himself predatorily attracted to Dren's youthful flirtatiousness. That's when the parental dynamic changes. Sure, she cries a bunch, is a fussy eater and often stinks, but Mommy is bonding fast - Daddy not so much.Īlas, fated to age at an accelerated rate (plots love that conceit), Dren grows up fast into an aggressive teenager, with venom in her tail and the urge to fly on newly protruding wings. And damned if Baby Dren, although missing a few fingers and toes, doesn't sprout into the cutest of tykes, all wide-eyed and spiffed up in her tiny blue dress. Soon the thing has a name - Dren (anagram of "nerd"). Daddy Clive wants to abort this slimy experiment but Mommy Elsa argues strenuously to bring it to term. Once we get some windy medical exposition out of the way ("It would help the millions of people who are suffering and dying"), this is where matters start to defy our expectations and thus get interesting. Off go the deep thinkers to their furtive cloning and, right quick, out pops (and hops) a squeaky little thing coated in slime and boasting a tail. Of course, being hubristic geniuses, Elsa and Clive want to push the genetics that crucial step further, whipping up a "human/animal hybrid." Now you might well argue that, from the annals of Greek myth to the history of political despots to the playing fields of sport, such hybrids aren't exactly in short supply. The lab's head honchos couldn't be happier - seems there's big money in the feed business. We first see them genetically splicing another matched set, a couple of pulsating pupae coyly named Fred and Ginger - when not jitterbugging in their incubator, they serve as freshly minted protein for hungry livestock. Long-time partners in and out of the laboratory, Elsa and Clive (Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody) are a matched pair of not-so-mad scientists. Then again, in these summer days of brain-dead blockbusters, why complain? Perhaps too much - this is one of those genre films that really wants to show off some smarts, to set itself above the common beast, but that cerebral badge sometimes seems a bit ponderous and, in a realm where the visceral rules, a little counterproductive. Yet below that, in a vast sub-layer of twisted psychology, there's a whole lot going on. On the surface, it's a classic Frankenstein's monster tale, albeit ramped up to a modern lab and outfitted with the latest in biotechnology. Splice summons them in impressive numbers. Written by Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, Doug TaylorĪ good horror flick always does metaphoric battle with our interior demons, and.
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