movie review of splice

Somebody let the genome out of the bottle

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley in "Splice."

Well-timed to open soon after genome pioneer Craig Venter’s announcement of a self-replicating cell, here’s a halfway serious science-fiction movie about two researchers who slip some human DNA into a cloning experiment, and end up with a unexpected outcome or a child or a monster, take your pick. The script blends human psychology with scientific speculation and has genuine interest until it goes on autopilot with one of the chase scenes Hollywood now permits few films to end without.

In the laboratory of a genetic science corporation, we meet Clive and Elsa ( Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley ), partners at work and in romance, who are trying to create a hybrid animal gene that would, I dunno, maybe provide protein while sidestepping the nuisance of having it be an animal first. Against all odds, their experiment works. They want to push ahead, but the corporation has funded quite enough research for the time being and can’t wait to bring the “product” to market.

Elsa rebels and slips some human DNA into their lab work. What results is a new form of life, part animal, part human, looking at first like a rounded SpongeBob and then later like a cute kid on Pandora, but shorter and not blue. This creature grows at an astonishing rate, gets smart in a hurry and is soon spelling out words on a Scrabble board without apparently having paused at the intermediate steps of learning to read and write.

Clive thinks they should terminate it. Elsa says no. As the blob grows more humanoid, they become its default parents, and she names it Dren, which is nerd spelled backward, so don’t name your kid that.

Dren has a tail and wings of unspecific animal origin, and hands with three fingers, suggesting a few sloth genes, although Dren is hyperactive. She has the ability common to small monkeys and CGI effects of being able to leap at dizzying speeds around a room. She’s sweet when she gets a dolly to play with, but don’t get her frustrated.

The researchers keep Dren a secret, both because they ignored orders by creating her, and because, though Elsa didn’t want children, they begin to feel like Dren’s parents. This feeling doesn’t extend so far as to allow her to live with them in the house. They lock her in the barn, which seems harsh treatment for the most important achievement of modern biological science.

Dren is all special effects in early scenes, and then quickly grows into a form played by Abigail Chu when small and Delphine Chaneac when larger. She also evolves more attractive features, based on the Spielberg discovery in “E.T.” that wide-set eyes are attractive. She doesn’t look quite human, but as she grows to teenage size she could possibly be the offspring of Jake and Neytiri, although not blue.

Brody and Polley are smart actors, and the director, Vincenzo Natali , is smart, too; do you remember his “The Cube” (1997), with subjects trapped in a nightmarish experimental maze? This film, written by Natali with Antoinette Terry Bryant and Douglas Taylor , has the beginnings of a lot of ideas, including the love that observably exists between humans and some animals. It questions what “human” means, and suggests it’s defined more by mind than body. It opens the controversy over the claims of some corporations to patent the genes of life. It deals with the divide between hard science and marketable science.

I wish Dren’s persona had been more fully developed. What does she think? What does she feel? There has never been another life form like her. The movie stays resolutely outside, viewing her as a distant creature. Her “parents” relate mostly to her memetic behavior. Does it reflect her true nature? How does she feel about being locked in the barn? Does she “misbehave,” or is that her nature?

The film, alas, stays resolutely concerned with human problems. The relationship. The corporation. The preordained climax. Another recent film, “ Ricky ,” was about the French parents of a child who could fly. It also provided few insights into the child, but then Ricky was mentally as young as his age, and the ending was gratifyingly ambiguous. Not so with Dren. Disappointing then, that the movie introduces such an extraordinary living being and focuses mostly on those around her. All the same, it’s well done, and intriguing.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Brandon McGibbon as Gavin
• Delphine Chaneac as Dren
• David Hewlett as Barlow
• Sarah Polley as Elsa
• Adrien Brody as Clive
• Antoinette Terry Bryant
• Douglas Taylor

Directed by

• Vincenzo Natali

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Watch Splice with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

It doesn't take its terrific premise quite as far as it should, but Splice is a smart, well-acted treat for horror fans.

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Common Sense Media Review

Intense, twisted monster movie explores DNA experimentation.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Splice is a monster movie that's not particularly bloody or gory but has many intense, shocking situations that have the potential to deeply disturb sensitive viewers. On top of this, the movie also involves some thorny sexual situations (between human and quasi-human) and lots of foul…

Why Age 17+?

We hear "f--k" and variations on the word at least eight times, and "s--t" a few

The main characters, Clive and Elsa, flirt and kiss. They have sex without much

Intense moments of terror and shocking behavior, without much blood or gore. We

Any Positive Content?

The movie's main message goes all the way back to Frankenstein and other creatur

Clive and Elsa are scientists, and they're really smart, but not great role mode

We hear "f--k" and variations on the word at least eight times, and "s--t" a few times. Additionally, there is "damn," "God" (as an exclamation), "Goddammit," "Jesus," and "retard."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

The main characters, Clive and Elsa, flirt and kiss. They have sex without much nudity and discuss the idea of having a baby together. (The film doesn't mention it, but they do not appear to be married.) The movie grows far more twisted when Clive begins to develop feelings for the adult Dren, who is like their surrogate child. He eventually has sex with her (bringing up all kinds of weird moral and Freudian ideas). In one scene, we see adult Dren naked, though she's really only partly human. Finally there is a quasi-rape scene as a male creature attacks Elsa.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Intense moments of terror and shocking behavior, without much blood or gore. We see disturbing imagery in a laboratory, with odd creatures forming and moving around. A creature breaks free and hides in the lab, threatening to jump out and attack. Characters try to decide whether or not to kill the creature, and one character makes an attempt. A creature eats a raw, bloody rabbit that she has killed. Additionally, characters argue quite often, and the creatures sometimes make disturbing screeching noises.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The movie's main message goes all the way back to Frankenstein and other creature features: Don't mess with Mother Nature. The movie struggles with a plethora of moral and ethical issues, and the characters seem to know that they have stepped wrong, but have no idea how to correct it until it's too late. Likewise, the characters keep secrets and seem to grow apart, working against one another.

Positive Role Models

Clive and Elsa are scientists, and they're really smart, but not great role models. They're arrogant and a bit reckless, and their attempts to create an unnatural, man-made life form result in untold mayhem, as well as many troubling moral and ethical issues. Likewise, there comes a point at which Clive and Elsa can no longer trust anyone around them, and they begin to distrust one another as well.

Parents need to know that Splice is a monster movie that's not particularly bloody or gory but has many intense, shocking situations that have the potential to deeply disturb sensitive viewers. On top of this, the movie also involves some thorny sexual situations (between human and quasi-human) and lots of foul language, including multiple uses of "f--k" and "s--t." The movie raises several complex ethical and moral questions around the creation of life and the meaning of family that has the potential to intrigue and/or offend. Either way, it's a real conversation-starter. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (6)
• Kids say (17)

Based on 6 parent reviews

Not For Feint Of Heart

What's the story.

On the verge of losing control of their laboratory under a tangle of red tape, two rebellious scientists, the romantically-involved Elsa ( Sarah Polley ) and Clive ( Adrien Brody ) impulsively decide to experiment with crossing animal and human DNA. The result of their experiment matures frighteningly fast, eventually appearing as the weirdly pretty adult female creature known as "Dren" ( Delphine Chanéac ). Unfortunately, since Elsa and Clive have crossed many legal and ethical lines, they must keep Dren a secret. But their emotional involvement with the creature -- and with each other -- may prevent them from understanding what Dren really is: a potentially deadly monster.

Is It Any Good?

This movie is messed up ! Directed and co-written by Vincenzo Natali , Splice moves through familiar territory, giving nods to Frankenstein , E.T. , and Jurassic Park , but it touches on some seriously complex and twisted ideas, such as the meaning of family and the concept of creation. Nevertheless, it has a perfectly confident and nonchalant tone as it navigates these sticky issues; it's even ever so slightly comical. (Or perhaps the laughter is just a reaction to the movie's uncomfortable suggestions.)

The director balances everything pitch-perfectly, from the performances to the hair-raising sound effects, and all the way down to images of the creepy, snowy woods during the film's tense climax. It's a thoroughly satisfying movie for viewers looking for something with a bit more depth and wit than the average summer blockbuster. After the thrills have ended, brave viewers will find plenty of interesting themes and ideas to discuss, though more sensitive -- and younger -- viewers should approach with caution.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the way this movie dealt with the implications of creating a new life. What issues does it bring up? How is this movie different from or similar to other "creature features" like Frankenstein , etc.?

How does this movie compare to horror films filled with blood and gore? Was it more or less scary? How did the movie's violence make you feel? Was it disturbing? Were you frightened, or did it make you uncomfortable?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 4, 2010
• On DVD or streaming : October 5, 2010
• Cast : Adrien Brody , Delphine Chanéac , Sarah Polley
• Director : Vincenzo Natali
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Run time : 104 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language
• Last updated : August 16, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

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What to watch next.

Frankenstein

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Movie review: ‘Splice’

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“Splice” is a hybrid that works. It’s a smart, slickly paced, well-acted science-fiction cautionary tale-horror movie-psychological drama. In its mix are ethical quandaries in biotechnology, nature versus nurture and an adorable-sexy-disturbing monster. So there’s that. But it wins best in show by focusing on one of the weirder relationship triangles in recent memory.

Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive ( Adrien Brody) are brilliant scientists creating genetically modified organisms to harvest proteins that might cure diseases. Their crowning achievement is a pair of multi-animal creations that resemble massive, fleshy worms. When they realize they’re about to lose the chance to pursue their ultimate goal — a human-animal hybrid ( George W. Bush was right!) whose proteins could defeat cancer and other scourges — they rush to finish their work. As Clive says, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

As one might imagine, the worst is more than a Petri dish of nonviable goo. The resulting creation, Dren, resembles a rabbit-cat-human infant at first (the visual effects are top notch), something downright huggable. They start off so cute….

The clever script and grounded performances — especially by Polley — convincingly sell the “good idea at the time” hubris of geniuses making horrible decisions. Polley’s Elsa is a multilayered person balancing an aversion to motherhood with deep-seated maternal yearnings.

Perhaps the film’s most interesting and nerve-jangling component is the evolving dynamic among the childless couple and their experiment-pet-baby-monster. The authenticity of that triangle is sure to generate some of the most uncomfortable laughter you’ll hear at a movie this year.

The film avoids cliché and has several effective reveals and genuinely funny moments, including one of the least-encouraging shareholder meetings ever. As the boss who is very worried, David Hewlett is hilariously unhappy. Delphine Chanéac, who plays Dren for most of the film, marries the behaviors of several animals with the emerging consciousness of a human being.

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“Splice” has echoes of “Aliens” and “Frankenstein,” but whatever components the film is sewn together from, it feels original. That’s largely because of the seriousness with which the characters and their qualms are explored. The film earns its freakiness: Director Vincenzo Natali and company have wisely realized that if situations and conflicts are believable first and foremost, the experience will be far more immersive — and intense — than the usual jumping-out-of-cupboards nonsense.

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast hope to achieve fame by successfully splicing together the DNA of different animals to create new hybrid animals for medical use. Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast hope to achieve fame by successfully splicing together the DNA of different animals to create new hybrid animals for medical use. Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast hope to achieve fame by successfully splicing together the DNA of different animals to create new hybrid animals for medical use.

• Vincenzo Natali
• Antoinette Terry Bryant
• Doug Taylor
• Adrien Brody
• Sarah Polley
• Delphine Chanéac
• 455 User reviews
• 376 Critic reviews
• 66 Metascore
• 4 wins & 23 nominations

• Clive Nicoli

• (as Delphine Chaneac)

• Gavin Nicoli
• Joan Chorot

• William Barlow

• (uncredited)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Special effects designers Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero developed 11 different versions of Dren for the film.
• Goofs When Dren hangs upside down from the rafter in the barn, her dress doesn't fall down around her shoulders.

Elsa Kast : If you could understand crazy, it wouldn't be crazy.

• Crazy credits The company logos appear on X-rays.
• Alternate versions Finnish and German Blu-rays are 108 min. versions. US and UK versions 104 min.
• Connections Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: The Back-up Plan/The Losers/Paper Man (2010)
• Soundtracks Frenchy's Written and Performed by Holy Fuck Courtesy of XL Music Ltd / 4AD Music Ltd

User reviews 455

• colinrgeorge
• Jun 8, 2010
• How long is Splice? Powered by Alexa
• What is "Splice" about?
• Is "Splice" based on a book?
• What were Clive and Elsa trying to accomplish with their research?
• June 4, 2010 (United States)
• United States
• Official site (France)
• Official site (Japan)
• York University, North York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Copperheart Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $30,000,000 (estimated)
• $17,010,170
• Jun 6, 2010
• $27,127,620

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 44 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Movie Review | 'Splice'

Careful, That Test Tube Might Be Incubating a Bouncing Baby Monster

• Share full article

By Manohla Dargis

• June 3, 2010

The two recognizable stars of “Splice,” a pleasurably shivery, sometimes delightfully icky horror movie about love and monsters in the age of genetic engineering, are Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, a well-matched pair of earthbound oddities. Given their respective performative idiosyncrasies and, as important, their singularly nontraditional beauty, the pair’s casting immediately signals that the director Vincenzo Natali is after something different. With Ms. Polley and Mr. Brody on board, there’s a chance that despite the big-studio brands on the movie, you’re not headed into genre purgatory with the usual disposable plastic people who often populate (and perish in) mainstream horror. When these two bleed, you might actually care.

That’s a good thing, and it helps explain how “Splice” delivers for the horror movie fan who has grown weary of being suckered by films that promise new frights only to deliver the same old buckets of gore and guts. Ms. Polley and Mr. Brody play Clive and Elsa, live-in lovers and rock-star bio-engineers (they’re on the cover of Wired), who are creating new organisms from the DNA of different animals. The money bankrolling them comes from a pharmaceutical outfit, one of those shady corporations that occasionally foot the bill in movies of this sort. Such is the case in “The Fly,” David Cronenberg’s 1986 film, another cautionary tale about genetic mayhem that Mr. Natali appears to have absorbed into his own aesthetic DNA.

The Cronenberg influence here is evident in Mr. Natali’s interest in the body and birth and in an initially subdued, near-narcoleptic atmosphere that helps build a nice sense of foreboding. “Splice” opens with Clive and Elsa ushering their latest entity into the world, an event partly shot from the newborn’s point of view. “He’s so cute,” Elsa says, beaming. The he is a writhing, vaguely penile blob, Fred, which is soon introduced to a second blob, Ginger. (Mr. Natali, who wrote the script with Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor, likes his allusions: Clive is most likely a homage to Colin Clive, who played Dr. Frankenstein in James Whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein,” with Elsa Lanchester as the memorably shocked betrothed.)

Although Fred’s point-of-view shot might seem like a throwaway, it’s fundamental to Mr. Natali’s design. Point-of-view shots don’t necessarily put you in a character’s (in this case, metaphoric) shoes, but because they let you see what a character sees, allowing you to share his or her perspective, they can create a sense of empathy for the character. In this case, though, empathy with Fred seems less the point than what it is we see through his eyes: Clive and Elsa, fully masked and dressed in laboratory clothes, working in the slightly sickly greenish light of a laboratory bought and paid for by a big company playing at God. This is the vision of Clive and Elsa that Mr. Natali wants you to remember, despite all that comes next.

And my, what a lot of unnerving fun comes next, including a spectacular splash of blood, a fall from grace, some true relationship talk and an impulsive, cataclysmically wrongheaded decision. Fred and Ginger, alas, make an abrupt exit, leaving Clive and Elsa close to losing their funds. Inspiration strikes, and a new creature is born, a real doozy that’s initially christened H-50 and, after some growing pains (for everyone), Dren. A sensational, vividly realistic being, Dren is a seamless amalgam of computer-generated effects, mechanical effects and human performance — played as a child by Abigail Chu and as an adult by Delphine Chanéac — that scuttles, slithers and vaults into the horror cinema annals. A mutant is born.

Mr. Natali handles Dren’s eerie entrance into the world with near-flawless timing and a thickening air of dread. Working with Robert Munroe (the visual-effects supervisor) and Howard Berger (special makeup and creature effects), Mr. Natali has fashioned a creature that, with her tail, skinned-chicken legs and cleft head alternately looks as harmless as a bunny and like something that might leap out from Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (or, scarier yet, a David Lynch film). Still, for Elsa, Dren is no mere experiment: she’s a test-tube baby, one that comes with the emotional and psychological weight of an in-utero conception. And the bigger Dren gets — she soon grows arms that hug Elsa tight — the deeper the bond between the two and the greater the trouble for Elsa and Clive.

Watching Dren develop — from newt to child to va-va-va-voom adult — you understand why “Splice” attracted the support of the director Guillermo del Toro, one of its seven executive producers. Mr. Natali, whose earlier films include “Cube,” hasn’t reinvented the horror genre. But with “Splice” he has done the next best thing with an intelligent movie that, in between its small boos and an occasional hair-raising jolt, explores chewy issues like bioethics, abortion, corporate-sponsored science, commitment problems between lovers and even Freudian-worthy family dynamics. The shivers might often outweigh the scares, and Mr. Natali loses his way in the last half-hour. Yet working with actors who make you care and a neo-Frankenstein creation that touchingly does, too, he has become one of the genre’s new great fright hopes.

“Splice” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It’s scary.

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Vincenzo Natali; written by Mr. Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor, based on a story by Mr. Natali and Ms. Bryant; director of photography, Tetsuo Nagata; edited by Michele Conroy; music by Cyrille Aufort; production designer, Todd Cherniawsky; costumes by Alex Kavanagh; produced by Steven Hoban; released by Warner Brothers Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes.

WITH: Adrien Brody (Clive Nicoli), Sarah Polley (Elsa Kast), Abigail Chu (Young Dren) and Delphine Chanéac (Adult Dren).

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'Splice': Your Results May Vary (And Be Scary)

David Edelstein

Mom? Dren may be a modern-day Frankenstein's monster, but Delphine Chaneac plays her with a mythical beauty and ballerina's grace. Sarah Polley stars as Elsa, one of the creature's two creators. Warner Bros. hide caption

• Director: Vincenzo Natali
• Genre: Science-Fiction Horror
• Running Time: 100 minutes

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'It's Not Due For Months'

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'It's Empty'

'You Know I Love You'

Creating new life is a messy business -- so said Mary Shelley, writing in the early 19th century in Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. So you'd think, given all the gene-mapping and cloning going on nowadays, that horror movies would be lousy with Frankenstein scenarios -- cautionary tales in which technology outpaces our understanding of how to use it. But mostly we have splatter flicks, torture porn and lame remakes. In that context, Vincenzo Natali's Splice calls to us like a luminous laboratory beaker. What a strange and wonderful brew!

It's set in Toronto and owes a lot to David Cronenberg , especially his films The Brood and The Fly. Throw in Splice and you can start to define an Ontario subgenre: faceless, sterile modern settings, wintry and blue-lit, in which monsters are grown or hatched. And those monsters have a metaphorical component; they're as much a product of wayward emotions as of liberated biochemistry.

In Splice, Canada's own Sarah Polley and long-faced Adrien Brody play Clive and Elsa, celebrated nerdy scientists splicing genes for a pharmaceutical company -- called, in fact, NERD, for Nucleic Exchange Research and Development. When we meet them, they're delivering a new life form, literally, from some kind of pulsing ovum in an incubator -- a giant, wormy, wriggling mass of tissue from which they're going to mine all kinds of patent-worthy medical processes.

But then company bigwigs put the kibosh on future research: Use what's there and generate capital, they command. That's when Clive and Elsa think: Why not mix in some human DNA and see what grows? Just to, you know, prove they can. After a lot of tinkering, the implant takes. The fetus -- a kitchen sink's worth of species -- comes quickly to term. And then we hear the words immortalized first in 1931 by Frankenstein 's Colin Clive: "It's alive."

Clive is about to gas the lab and kill the infant creature, but to stop him, Elsa whips off her oxygen helmet. That's the first sign in Splice that the two will approach this "child" from different angles. Clive, very nervous, wants to kill it. Elsa develops less scientific feelings.

It's Alive: Polley and Adrien Brody star as nerdy scientists who inadvertently create the humanoid Dren as part of a genetic research project for a pharmaceutical giant. Warner Bros. hide caption

It's Alive: Polley and Adrien Brody star as nerdy scientists who inadvertently create the humanoid Dren as part of a genetic research project for a pharmaceutical giant.

What's endlessly fascinating in Splice is trying to get a handle on what the creature is. Elsa calls it "Dren," nerd spelled backwards, and it's seemingly female.

First it's a pile of flesh with eyes on either side of its head. Then, quickly, since its growth is accelerated, it begins to look humanoid, albeit with other components, from amphibious to avian -- plus a long tail with a lethal spike. It has no language you'd recognize -- clicks and rattles and chirps.

When Dren makes too much of a racket, Elsa and Clive sneak her down -- she's wearing a cute little dress -- to their facility's dank basement.

"I don't know about this," says Clive.

"You got a better idea?" asks Elsa.

"I'm starting to feel like a criminal," he says.

"Scientists push boundaries," his wife says. "At least, important ones do."

You know no good will come from this, right? But the way in which it all goes bad has a distinctly human dimension. It turns out that Elsa, so militantly maternal, had an abusive mom -- and as Dren grows over a couple of months and becomes more assertive, like a mischievous child and then a rebellious teenager, something dark and scary in Elsa takes hold. And Clive, who wanted to destroy Dren, begins to soften. Soon this high-tech Frankenstein acquires a vein of freaky, low-tech Gothic psychodrama.

Brody and Polley are thoroughly convincing when their characters are smart, and only slightly less so when they turn crazy-dumb. But then Dren could drive anyone mad: The Paris-born actress Delphine Chaneac plays the maturing monster with help from creature effects designer Howard Berger, and she has her own mythical beauty. Her head tilts, birdlike, as her wide almond eyes take in her new world. She totters on colt legs above bird feet, but with a ballerina's poise.

I'm sad to say the climax of Splice feels too rushed. But if gene-splicing can give us monsters as poetically strange as Dren, it bodes well for our horror movies -- if not necessarily for our species. (Recommended)

Splice Review

23 Jul 2010

103 minutes

The characters in Splice are named after actors in James Whale’s Bride Of Frankenstein; an indication of the approach writer/director Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Cypher) took to the subject of artificial life. Like Mary Shelley, Natali is concerned with scientific ethics — intensified in the 21st century by corporate sponsorship and demand for profitable products from expensive research — but equally troubled by the unique relationship Frankenstein and the monster may have. Signalled by a mid-film location shift from antiseptic corporate lab to run-down Gothic farm, sci-fi turns to horror as the personal failings of the creators and the created lead (inevitably) to violent clashes.

For the most part, this is a complex character drama: Elsa (Sarah Polley), who has seemingly put her own horrible childhood behind her, resists having a baby with Clive (Adrien Brody), but is eager for her experiment to become a daughter, though she is as flustered by Dren’s extreme metamorphoses and mood-swings as any mother of a tearaway teen. The centrepiece of any Frankenstein film is the monster, and Dren is extraordinary, portrayed by Delphine Chanéac with CGI augmentations. Sprouting wings or gills, with a deadly barb at the end of her prehensile tail, Dren feels as real as Karloff’s Monster. Natali plays expertly on our sympathies as the plot takes a darker tone — this is a horror movie in which we are as afraid of what will happen to the monster as of what she will do to other people.

Frankenstein’s crime was not loving his monster. This film asks what may happen if a mad scientist loves the creation; the creature shyly adores the labcoats who have bred her, but is still capable of jealous anger. There are as many heartfelt, emotional scenes as acute horror moments. An oddly disjointed third act offers more conventional action/horror but feels curtailed (major plot points, even characters, get swallowed between scenes) and less poignant than the build-up.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Drama , Horror , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• June 4, 2010
• Adrien Brody as Clive Nicoli; Sarah Polley as Elsa Kast; Delphine Chanéac as Dren; Abigail Chu as Child Dren

Home Release Date

• October 5, 2010
• Vincenzo Natali

Distributor

• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

It’s a simple question, made up of two insignificant words. But it’s the question every world-shaking scientific discovery has been predicated upon. What if mold could be used to treat disease? What if we split the atom? What if we went to the moon?

Or, in the case of genetic researchers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast, what if we spliced DNA from different animals and created a life-form the world has never seen?

That’s the question Clive and Elsa (romantic partners as well as scientific peers) have answered in the forms of Fred and Ginger, the slug-like results of their genetic-engineering experiments. And they’re just getting started, they think. Until the pharmaceutical company bankrolling them says it’s content to extract one special protein from Clive and Elsa’s creations and call it a day.

No way, Elsa says. Not now. Not with so much on the line. Like this tantalizing extrapolation: What if we spliced human DNA? Clive questions the ethics of his girlfriend’s reckless suggestion. But he doesn’t stop her.

The consequence is Dren.

At first, Dren—conceived and incubated in an artificial womb—looks like the fusion of a kangaroo, a mole and a dinosaur. But she grows and changes … fast. With each passing day, Dren looks more human. Soon, she’s not just an experiment. She’s more like a daughter .

So Clive and Elsa whisk Dren out of the lab to a deserted farm once owned by Elsa’s mother. That buys them some time to figure out what happens next. Meanwhile, Dren matures into something like a beautiful young woman. Never mind her retractable wings, ape-like agility, extra leg joint and ability to breathe underwater. Oh, and her long tail.

With Dren’s changes, Clive and Elsa soon realize, come more questions … the kind of questions that come after you’ve blown the lid off Pandora’s genetic box without considering what comes next.

[ Note: The following sections contain spoilers. ]

Positive Elements

When things go unimaginably wrong with Dren—in ways that Clive and Elsa scarcely could have foreseen—the message the film delivers is unequivocal: The unintended consequences of genetic manipulation are beyond anyone’s ability to predict.

Early on, Elsa rationalizes her desire to combine human DNA with that of animals by telling Clive to consider all the diseases—Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, cancer—that their research might cure. In the end, however, the film strongly suggests that such rationalizations are arrogant and foolish.

Both Clive and Elsa have fleeting moments of clarity in which they try to convince each other that they’ve crossed taboo boundaries. “This is the disaster everyone worries about,” Clive says, “a new species set loose in the world.” And when Clive makes an insanely immoral choice later on, Elsa scolds harshly, “There are some things we do not do.”

As the film progresses, Elsa becomes more and more emotionally unhinged, and we learn that her mother was insane and emotionally abusive. Trying to overcome her own flawed genetic heritage, however, Elsa works hard (when she’s not losing her temper) to be a good “mother” to Dren. She uses Scrabble letters to teach Dren to communicate, for instance, and at times tenderly cares for Dren’s needs. Elsa gives Dren a Barbie doll that Elsa’s own mother had forbidden her to play with. Elsa also puts makeup on Dren as she becomes more and more human looking. Clive has some similarly tender moments with Dren, such as when he tries to teach her to dance and calms her by saying he loves her.

Spiritual Elements

A brief conversation between Clive, Elsa and another colleague shrugs off the suggestion that the scientists are playing God. Speaking to an audience about their discoveries, Elsa waxes eloquent about creating new life “by design,” referring to Fred and Ginger as a new “origin of the species” and a new “Adam and Eve.”

Dren’s eventual appearance—with wings and a pointy tail—arguably brings to mind caricatures of both angels and demons, perhaps a visual metaphor for the promise and peril of genetic tampering.

Sexual & romantic Content

While mostly clothed, Clive and Elsa have sex on a couch. We see her gyrate on top of him—as does Dren, who watches the copulating couple through a gauzy curtain. Clive notices her watching, but doesn’t stop.

Dren may be part animal, but her appearance is all human from the knees up. Her bare breasts get lots of camera time when Elsa cuts her dress off to perform a gruesomely violent procedure on her. Sexually attracted to Dren, Clive at first reacts to his own feelings with shock and horror. But he gradually gives in to his lust, watching her swimming naked on a live video feed—and ultimately mating with her.

That culminating sexual scene is lengthy and explicit. It includes fondling, nudity, and graphic sexual movements and sounds. (Elsa bursts in just as Dren is climaxing.)

Then things get much, much weirder … and disturbingly darker. Dren spontaneously undergoes a mutation in which she changes into a male. He then chases Elsa down in a forest and begins tearing her clothes off and ultimately rapes her. (At this point the camera focuses on their faces.)

Violent Content

A public exhibition of Fred and Ginger goes bloodily awry when the two creatures stab and kill each other with their spiky tails. The glass cage they’re in overturns and showers blood on the shocked audience.

Dren’s “birth” is a vicious, gory affair in which her first act is to bite Elsa. Clive holds a struggling Dren underwater when she’s fairly young. It seems as if he’s trying to drown her, though eventually she begins breathing the water. When Elsa questions whether Clive knew that Dren was an amphibian, he says yes. But we still get the feeling that he was in fact trying to kill the creature they created.

Dren kills a cat with the needle-like appendage at the end of her tail. She then tries to do the same to Elsa, who resists her.

What happens next is truly shocking. After knocking Dren out with a shovel to the head, Elsa straps her to a table and tears her clothes off. Though she had been relating to Dren like a beloved daughter, Elsa now reverts to treating her like a scientific specimen. As Dren writhes in horror, pain and fear, Elsa mercilessly cuts the end of her tail off in what feels like a torture scene from one of the Saw movies.

After Dren morphs into a male, he kills two of Clive and Elsa’s associates. (We see their bloodied bodies.) Clive impales Dren with a sharp tree limb. Dren returns the “favor” by killing Clive with his stinger. Elsa finishes Dren off by crushing his head with a large stone.

Crude or Profane Language

Nearly 20 f-words; half-a-dozen s-words. God’s name is misused six or seven times (twice with “d‑‑n”). Jesus’ name is abused three times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

One scene pictures Clive with a glass of hard liquor.

Other noteworthy Elements

Elsa harbors a deep rebellious streak, in part because of her damaged relationship with her now-deceased mother. That personality trait is even more volatile when combined with her scientific genius and pride. Her relationship with Clive is clearly unhealthy, as she repeatedly goads him past his reservations about what they’re doing. (“Scientists push boundaries,” she argues.) Eventually, Clive learns that Elsa has used her own DNA to create Dren, a secret she had kept from him.

Despite her efforts to “parent” Dren differently than her mother did with her, Elsa often disciplines Dren extremely harshly.

The movie concludes on a particularly chilling note—one that could be construed as positive if properly extrapolated, but is clearly negative when looked at from the point of view of the story’s hero—Elsa. She’s pregnant with Dren’s hybrid genetic offspring and has apparently agreed to let the pharmaceutical company she’s worked for have the baby. “You can never speak of this to anyone,” a representative for the company says. “Ever.” The woman praises Elsa for her willingness to take things to the “next level.” Elsa wearily asks, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

It’s the same question she asked before beginning the experiment that created Dren.

As for the pharmaceutical company, the organization isn’t motivated by humanitarian kindness. Instead, it’s all about capitalizing financially on Elsa and Clive’s biogenetic discoveries.

Splice is both obscenely and profoundly provocative as it shows us two deeply flawed people pursuing something like Promethean fire … with similar results. For me—as well as a colleague who saw the film with me—the message here is crystal clear: Don’t play God.

Surprisingly, that’s not exactly the way director Vincenzo Natali sees things. “I don’t feel Splice makes a clear statement about whether the actions of Clive and Elsa are good or bad. Their mistakes in creating Dren are mostly well-intentioned,” he says in the movie’s production notes. “Clive and Elsa are smarter than they are wise, and while they play with the building blocks of life, they don’t really have any deep understanding of what life is. … [And so] Dren becomes a catalyst for their own darker needs.”

“Unlike Frankenstein ,” Natali continues, “I never perceived this film as making a statement about dangerous ground. … On the surface, the message is about what happens when you play with genetics. But at a deeper level, it’s about being responsible for the things you make.”

If we’re going to talk thoughtfully about being responsible for the things we make, however, similar questions need to be asked about Natali’s filmmaking choices. Like Mary Shelley’s famous monster story, Splice grapples with the question of what it means to be human. “We watch the humans turn into monsters,” Natali tells us, “as the monster reveals its humanity.” But the images viewers are subjected to are nothing short of monstrous themselves.

It’s hard to even know how to categorize Clive’s graphic sexual coupling with Dren, for example. At the very least, it’s fornication and infidelity. But it might also qualify as something close to bestiality. And perhaps closer to incest, given Clive’s heretofore father-like relationship with the female creature. And then Dren swaps genders and rapes his other creator, impregnating her with … something .

“Vincenzo has a savage imagination,” says the film’s executive producer Guillermo del Toro (who should know what he’s talking about since he’s helmed  Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth) . “ Splice is incredibly powerful and morally ambiguous. Both the creators and the creature are flawed. At stages the creature is innocent, then malevolent; the scientists are empathetic, then ruthless. In so many ways this story crosses the line.”

It’s as if del Toro and Natali are content to ask, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Splice review

As Vincenzo Natali’s Splice arrives in the UK, Duncan finds a mainstream B-movie with shocks and laughs in almost equal measure…

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I always tend to make a habit of writing up a film review within twenty-four hours of watching it, mostly to retain the freshness of my emotional reaction to it, good or bad. So, it’s a fine testament to Splice that exactly a week after seeing it, the film has still managed to leave a solid imprint on my mind.

The reason being because Splice is insane.

So insane, that every screening I’ve been to since has been populated by people talking about it, as it seems to be proving quite divisive amongst the other writers I’ve spoken to. Some seem to be drawn to the more Freudian elements, others to its themes of relationships and childbirth. And as for me? Well, I thought it was one of the greatest attempts at making a mainstream B-movie I’ve ever seen.

Director Vincenzo Natali is probably best known to us geeks as the director of inspired low budget hit Cube and the criminally overlooked Cypher . What fascinated me about Splice was that Natali clearly shows an intelligent awareness of how ludicrous the whole premise of the film is, yet still manages to inject genuine moments of terror and pathos in amongst some great visual comedy.

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Rather than Species , I’d compare Splice to Hollow Man in terms of how the movie feels, without trying to be too descriptive and give anything away, as I’d avoided reading or watching anything to do with the film, and the pay off was immense.

Whether you liked Hollow Man or not, you should appreciate that it involved a fearsomely talented director, essentially, trying to make a studio movie with interesting results. Paul Verhoeven started the film with a visceral, gory punch, before taking the elements that interested him the most (never underestimate the man’s love of breasts, Verhoeven’s that is) and straining them through Hollywood’s cookie cutter to make his film conform to their monster movie conventions.

Splice treads a very similar path, as we follow the scientific journey that Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast (played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, respectively) take, as they pay no heed to the lesson learnt by Dr. Frankenstein in their quest to create new, genetically engineered life. The film is given an incredible strength from its premise, as the results of their work mean that any organism we’re shown in the film is entirely new and therefore, entirely unpredictable.

Many of the film’s shocks come from seeing what will develop next, and Natali holds an incredible feeling of unease and tension over the entire film, so much so that my usual note taking was kept to a bare minimum as I sat enthralled by it. I knew within the first five minutes that I was onboard with Splice , as it ably showed a great sense of comedy, mixed in with some suitably disgusting effects.

It came as no surprise to see Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger’s names in the opening credits, though I’m a little confused as to how they seem to be able to do the effects for about ninety percent of the films I watch. Since their Evil Dead days they really have become the kings of special effects, and their work is so good in Splice that they effectively sell the reality of the situation.

And by making Dren such a masterwork – a mix of the beautiful, innocent, deadly and ethereal – you don’t ever question what’s on screen.

At one point, my head started to spin at how realistic and aesthetically stunning some of their work is. If you don’t know what a Dren is, then I implore you not to go looking, especially not on IMDb, where I was mortified to see a spoiler of film-ruining potential. Quite how no one’s had it taken down is a mystery.

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While the KNB EFX group go to work, it remains for the emotional and comedic core of Splice to be divided between Brody and Polley. It was an incredibly savvy move, as both actors are known for effortlessly dealing with dramatic content, so between them they easily ground and realise the more preposterous parts of the story.

What came as a surprise was how readily they dealt with the humour of the film, most notably in an early scene which hammered home the B-movie roots of Splice , as a moment of over-the-top slapstick plays out when Polley’s character finds herself trapped in a lab room with ‘something’.

Adrian Brody is a notable actor and much more on the geek radar after the likes of King Kong and, more recently, Predators , whereas Sarah Polley, despite Go and the Dawn Of The Dead remake, still seems to be a massively underappreciated and underused actress in Hollywood. Hopefully, the controversial nature of Splice will bring her more attention, as she’s more than deserving of it.

The film isn’t without its flaws, though. There is an unoriginal element of corporate greed, of the usual ‘give us results, or we’re shutting you down’ variety, which I always associate with the likes of Carter Burke, but which even Splice couldn’t bring any freshness to, despite the incredible presentation it leads to later on. In fact, the entire third act is relatively weaker, losing some of its momentum and tension, especially when compared to the first two.

The closer the film draws to its finale, the more conventional it seems to become, falling into predictability, not once, but twice, after striving so hard to be the opposite.

There is one moment near the end that is incredibly disturbing and still makes me feel uneasy. It’s just a shame it happened amongst the weaker parts. The moment I refer to, as well as other parts of the last act, when things become more intimate and hostile, will prove to be talking points for a long time to come, I imagine, and it’s very difficult to write my way around them, but I can assure you that the fresher you are to the film, the more impactful it will be.

I’ll wait to hear what others make of it. No doubt, many will hate it, but Natali has earned even more of my respect for making, quite possibly, the funniest, twisted, darkest, and most crazy mainstream B-movie of recent times.

Our first Splice review is here .

Duncan Bowles | @duncanbowles

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Movie Review: Splice (2009)

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• --> June 14, 2010

Frankenstein author Mary Shelley could not have foretold that her gothic tale of an errant scientist who creates a man/monster out of the limbs of dead bodies would become a harbinger of things to come with the emergence in the 21st century of the science of genetic engineering. Instead of stitching together body parts, today’s scientists directly manipulate the DNA of organisms. Their work has given the world genetically altered vegetables; “designer” hypoallergenic cats and dogs; super cows; and most famously, the world’s first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep

Vincenzo Natali’s film Splice takes us into the world of genetic engineering but not in the manner one might expect of your typical science fiction feature. Instead of presenting a thought-provoking, cautionary tale about the evils of meddling in God’s territory, Natalie opts for a singular approach that moves the story away from science fiction and into the realm of a dark and disturbing fairytale. I applaud him for taking the risk. The story does cast a spell over you; unfortunately, you won’t remain enchanted for very long.

Fresh from their success in creating a new hybrid organism from the splicing of the DNA of various animals, biochemists Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) are eager to continue their groundbreaking experiments. However, the pharmaceutical big wig paying the bills (Joan Chorot) is less interested in funding more research and development than she is in making the couples’ discovery turn a profit, so the company cuts off their funding to go forward with production.

On the personal side, Clive thinks it’s time he and Elsa become parents. Elsa’s not ready to be a mother. She thinks they have more pressing concerns — namely, creating a new hybrid by introducing human DNA into the mix — financial, ethical and legal prohibitions notwithstanding. Clive is reluctant, but Elsa refuses to be stopped. Her determination suggests hidden disturbances are driving her that even she may be unconscious of.

The couple proceeds in secret with their experiment, and their efforts produce “Dren” (nerd spelled backwards), a creature that resembles a cross between a seal and a chicken. Clive and Elsa go from objective scientists to doting parents.

Ironically, with Dren Elsa eagerly embraces the part of mother, a role she previously claimed she didn’t want. When Dren’s rapid development makes it impossible to keep her concealed at the lab, Elsa and Clive move her to Elsa’s old family farm in the woods. There, the three of them settle down to play happy family.

Splice operates like an extended metaphor for Freudian family dynamics, specifically, the drama of mother/daughter competition, and father/daughter incest. The gigantic birth chamber in which Dren was conceived is analogous to Elsa’s womb. Metaphorically, it takes on the job of surrogate mother for the developing egg, a job Elsa doesn’t want literally. The whole process becomes even more psychologically complicated when the source of the human DNA is revealed.

As Dren develops into a beautiful mythological-like creature that has fish gills and can sprouts wings, trouble arises in happy-family land. What was once a cute and easily controlled child has become an individual with a mind and will of her own. Dren, the daughter, has become competition for Elsa, the mother, and temptation for Clive, the father.

The graphic sex scene between Clive and the adult Dren (Delphine Chanéac) elicited different responses from the audience at the screening I attended. Some viewers were clearly put off by it. The fan boys loved it. Others, including myself, just laughed out loud.

The scene I found most disturbing concerns the manner in which Elsa chooses to remedy Dren’s sexual transgression. Or perhaps I should say punish. She straps Dren onto a table, exposes her body needlessly, and then excises the stinger (which emerges during sex) from Dren’s tail with the cold precision of a detached surgeon. The procedure is nothing less than genital mutilation, made all the more horrific for all it was perpetrated against the daughter at the hands of her mother.

Splice is a fascinating Freudian nightmare that looks at the way in which childhood wounds can compel people to re-enact in the present the dysfunctional family drama of the past. Elsa, the child of an abusive mother, becomes in adulthood the abuser. However, for all of Natali’s ambition to deliver a story that straddles the elements of science-fiction thriller, psychological drama, and kinky fairy tale, his work doesn’t hold together. Too often I found myself laughing at events and dialog that were clearly not meant to be funny. The director couldn’t find a way to tie the underlying complex psycho/sexual themes together with the plot. Nor could he rise above the story’s goofier elements which eventually overshadowed the serious and compelling aspects of the story.

I've been a fanatical movie buff since I was a little girl, thanks to my parents who encouraged my brother and I to watch anything and everything we wanted, even the stuff deemed inappropriate for minors. I work, write, and reside in San Francisco the city where I was born and bred.

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Splice is for mature audiences only.  That note not only applies to the content of the film, but to its themes.  It's a fun, entertaining movie but also one that's deceptive and will unnerve audiences in unexpected ways.  The trailers for the movie depict it as a jump-scare film, but it's nothing so disposable.  Splice is a movie that will stick with you if you're willing to intellectually engage with it.  But there will come a point in the film that will shatter your expectations and mature audiences will become totally captivated by its bold decision.  Immature audiences will most likely check out completely and fail to see that Splice is not only entertaining, but it's creepier than most "horror" films in recent memory.

Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody) are rock stars of the science world.  The couple are on the cover of Wired , they wear cool clothes, and they've hit upon a revolutionary breakthrough in the realm of genetically engineering that could possibly cure a score of diseases including cancer.  But pushed by a mixture of her own ambition, arrogance, and other reasons which I won't spoil, Elsa ropes Clive into secretly splicing together a new creature—one that contains human DNA.  As the creature—who they eventually name "Dren"—continues to develop and change, so too does Clive and Elsa's relationship as well as their notions of love, morality, and control.

Co-writer and director Vincenzo Natali effortlessly carries Splice across various tonalities: horrific, darkly comic, and even a sweet family film.  But where it will eventually take you is to a very creepy place and I won't spoil what the turning point is, but you'll know it when you see it.  That turning point pulled me even deeper into the movie, but the audience I saw it with responded with scorn and derision and anything the film did from that point was placed in the "so bad its good" pile.

But while the audience was hooting and hollering, I was completely absorbed in the film up until the end when Splice becomes a bit too slasher-flick.  Splice is a monster movie, but it's a monster movie that's doesn't need to resort to jump-scares.  But for the majority of the movie, Natali stays away from that approach and instead layers his film with thoughtful imagery (of which a large portion is unapologetically Freudian), striking cinematography, and expert editing.

Heavy credit goes to Polley, Brody, and Delphine Chanéac—who plays teenage Dren—for their performances.  The chemistry between Polley and Brody is a key element to the film's success.  Without it, you wouldn't believe that Elsa and Clive would be so close and therefore wouldn't care about the way their relationship changes over the course of the movie.  As for Chanéac, she's phenomenal.  Dren can't communicate through speech so the actress not only has to rely heavily on body language to convey her emotions, but has to do so with a body that isn't totally human.  The humanity in Dren is essential not only to the character but to the entire film and Splice wouldn't work without Chanéac's remarkable performance.

Splice is a movie that's sure to divide audiences.  I ask that if you go see it (and you should go see it), that you try to engage the film even when it makes you so uncomfortable that you want to run away into ironic detachment.  Sci-fi horror at its finest is supposed to not only stimulate our minds, but take us to disturbing places in order to do so.  Splice may not be a perfect movie, but it's a damn fine one.

Splice Ending Explained: The Twisted Conclusion To Vincenzo Natali's Movie

Warning: spoilers for Splice are in play. If you haven’t seen Vincenzo Natali’s twisted sci-fi thriller, head back out of this story if you don’t want the surprises to be ruined for you.

While it’s an 11-year-old movie at this point, director Vincenzo Natali’s Splice is a film that’s known for its rather twisted ending . People have loved to talk about the conclusion of this 2009 sci-fi thriller for some time, and the film’s recent inclusion on the Netflix streaming library has sparked those talks yet again. But believe it or not, this modern reinterpretation of Frankenstein has an ending that’s anchored in some deeper thought.

Rather than just deploying its twisted ending for funsies, Vincenzo Natali’s creation parable gives us all we need to know in a very sneaky manner, throughout the entire movie. Looking back at the clues provided throughout Splice , we’re going to take apart the shocking conclusion of the film, and put it all together to show the chilling picture it was setting the audience up for the whole time. Last chance to back out before spoilers, as we’re going to start with a recap to the ending of Splice .

What Happens At The End Of Splice

Clive Nicoli ( Adrien Brody ) and Elsa Kast ( Sarah Polley ) are confronted by Clive’s brother, Gavin (Brandon McGibbon,) as well as their boss, William Barlow (David Hewett.) The reason for this confrontation is the fact that they’ve been running an illegal experiment to synthesize a miracle protein that’d be the building block to untold genetic miracles. Unfortunately, that experiment has a name, and an attitude, and it’s presumed to have just died. The creature, aptly named Dren (Delphine Chanéac,) turns out to be very much alive, and starts to pick off each of these participants in a brand new form.

Previously known to be a female, Dren has now changed sex, and is a male with a newfound purpose: it wants to breed with Elsa. Killing Gavin and William, Dren pins Elsa to the ground and proceeds to rape her. After Clive dies trying to save his partner, Elsa kills Dren once and for all, and is eventually shown to be carrying its child in Splice’s epilogue. Rather than terminate the pregnancy, Elsa takes a healthy sum from her employer, Newstead Pharmaceuticals, to keep the child; as Dren’s DNA is rich in scientific wonders.

Why Is Splice’s Ending So Twisted

The ending to Splice is something that’s absolutely chilling to behold, as the sexual development of Dren goes from a consensual flirtation and consummation with Clive to the violation of Elsa, in a very short span of time. A sheltered being that’s partially human, Dren has a very limited viewpoint to the world; which is skewed by the fact that Elsa starts to maim, torture, and scold the child she fought so hard to keep alive. Things start to get uncomfortable when Dren and Clive have their tryst, but there’s a component that makes Dren and Elsa’s eventual fate all the more twisted.

Early on in Splice , we’re told that the human genetic profile used to make Dren’s hybrid species is from a “Jane Doe” with a clean medical history. It’s later revealed that it’s not just a random person’s DNA inside the resulting creature, it’s Elsa’s. She uses this fact to try and bond with her then daughter, as she tells Dren that part of her is inside Dren, and conversely part of her child is within her. Something that’s thrown back in her face when the male Dren tells Elsa that the one thing he wants is “inside…you.”

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The Clues Splice Provides That Anchor That Twist

Throughout the entirety of Splice , the experiment that’s supposed to put Clive and Elsa on the map is through a pair of vermiform creatures named Fred and Ginger. Through the creation of these two initially lovely creatures, the protein known as CD356 is generated for pharmaceutical usage and research. These creatures are also the other half of the hybrid structure for Dren’s DNA, which is combined with Elsa’s DNA to create the total package we see in the film.

However, as we learn through Fred and Ginger’s story progression, their pairing ends rather violently at a Newstead Pharmaceutical shareholder’s presentation. Surprise, life found a way to turn Ginger into a male, and our intrepid scientists didn’t see this. Meanwhile, Dren is described as having everything Fred and Ginger had, and more, reinforcing that she’s partially made from their DNA as well. So all the mistakes that Clive and Elsa made previously were only amplified by adding an unpredictable human element into the mix.

How Vincenzo Natali Prepared The World For Splice’s Ending Without Even Spoiling The Film

As if those clues weren’t enough to prepare the audience, Vincenzo Natali himself pretty much set the table way back in 2007, shortly before his long term passion project went into production. Describing Splice to the now defunct horror news site Shock Till You Drop , Natali gave the world all of the warning it needed when heading into this particular film:

Splice is very much about our genetic future and the way science is catching up with much of the fiction out there. [This] is a serious film and an emotional one. And there's sex... Very, very unconventional sex. The centerpiece of the movie is a creature which goes through a dramatic evolutionary process. The goal is to create something shocking but also very subtle and completely believable.

Without even dropping the meaty details of Dren’s evolution, and just hinting at the “unconventional sex” that Splice would hold in its core, Natali was able to provide everyone with enough preparation to decide if this film was or was not for them. Though even with fair warning, the conclusion is still a chilling thing to behold, especially when piecing together all the clues previously given.

The Ultimate Meaning Of Splice’s Twisted Conclusion

There’s a lot at work in Splice’s twisted conclusion. Above all else, there’s a Frankenstein -esque message of how just because we can create new and exciting lifeforms doesn’t mean we should. That’s only hammered home by the fact that Clive and Elsa are presumably named after Colin Clive and Elsa Lanchester, actors were both a part of Universal’s Frankenstein franchise. But the greater message that pops up in the film is that parenting is as much of an experiment with a hybrid organism child as it is with a regular human kid.

In creating Dren, Elsa felt that she could have a child and be in control of the result, as the unpredictability of parenting is what’s always made her reluctant to have a child. But in trying to avoid the mistakes of her own abusive past, Elsa only ended up making them again. Only this time, the resentful child took its vengeance out in a much more horrifying way. We may never know the consequences of Splice’s foreboding ending, but it’s almost assured that the future is going to lead to even more unpredictable results, as the child of Elsa and Dren seems destined to follow in their bloody footsteps.

The resurgence of Splice is bound to have people talking yet again about just why this infamous ending is a disturbing masterpiece of shock; and maybe even lead to a conversation about how the world lost out when Vincenzo Natali didn’t get to make his version of Swamp Thing. Looking at the details layered in the film’s story, Natali didn’t just surprise the audience without any rhyme or reason. This twisted conclusion has a basis in the events that took place prior to the fateful showdown at the family farm, and if Clive and Elsa were paying attention, they might have been able to prevent them from happening. But they didn’t, and the impressionable ending of Splice now sits for all to behold on Netflix’s streaming library.

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

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Splice (2009)

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Superstar genetic engineers Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) specialize in splicing DNA from different animals to create incredible new hybrids. Now they want to use human DNA in a hybrid that could revolutionize science and medicine. But when the pharmaceutical company that funds their research forbids it, Clive and Elsa secretly take their boldest experimentation underground–risking their careers by pushing the boundaries of science to serve their own curiosity and ambition. The result is Dren, an amazing, strangely beautiful creature of uncommon intelligence and an array of unexpected physical developments. At first, Dren exceeds their wildest dreams. But as she grows and learns at an accelerated rate, her existence threatens to become their worst nightmare. “Splice” stars Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody (“The Pianist,” “Hollywoodland,” “King Kong”); Sarah Polley (“Dawn of the Dead,” “The Secret Life of Words”), also a Best Screenplay Oscar® nominee for “Away From Her”; and newcomer Delphine Chaneac (“The Pink Panther”) in the role of the creature Dren. “Splice” is directed by Vincenzo Natali (“Paris je t’aime,” “Cube”) from a screenplay by Natali & Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor, story by Vincenzo Natali & Antoinette Terry Bryant. The film is produced by Steven Hoban and executive produced by Joel Silver and Sidonie Dumas. Also serving as executive producers are Guillermo del Toro, Susan Montford, Don Murphy, Christophe Riandee and Yves Chevalier. The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Tetsuo Nagata (Cesar Award winner for “La mome” and “La chambre des officiers”); editor Michele Conroy (Directors Guild of Canada Award winner for “Nothing”); production designer Todd Cherniawsky (art director, “Avatar”); and costume designer Alex Kavanagh (the “Saw” films). The music is by Cyrille Aufort. Rated R by the MPAA for disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language.

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Splice Ending, Explained

What happens when science crosses the moral boundaries of humanity? What happens when humans play God? Like the classic fable of Frankenstein, ‘Splice’ raises similar morality questions. At its surface, the movie is simply about the scientific endeavors of two experts who experiment with human-animal hybrids. But as the film progresses, the decision of these two scientists turns out to be far more consequential than they had anticipated.

Although, at this point, achieving what the scientists in the film get out of their experiment still seems a little over-the-top. But compared to most other monster horror films , ‘Splice’ hits close to home. And that’s the reason why most hardcore sci-fi fans will have several questions surrounding its terrifying yet intriguing scientific jargon. Meanwhile, others will be drawn more towards how it explores its characters and their dwindling sense of morality. I’m no science expert, but further down I’ll be breaking down the movie’s monster(s) based on my own observations, and of course, I’ll also be explaining its twisted ending.

Plot Summary

Clive Nicoli ( Adrien Brody ) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) create two genetically engineered lifeforms named Fred and Ginger by splicing animal DNA. Their work is very well appreciated at the company N.E.R.D. (Nucleic Exchange Research and Development) because of how it could eventually help the world cure several chronic diseases. When the two lifeforms mate with each other, Clive and Elsa think of how far they could go with their experiments and decide to create a human-animal hybrid. But since this motive would be morally questionable, their dreams of revolutionizing genetic engineering are lulled by the higher forces of their corporation. Instead, they are asked to use Fred and Ginger for extracting proteins which, in turn, could be used for commercial drug production.

Clive and Elsa relentlessly sideline their work with Fred and Ginger and start secretly working on their human-animal hybrid project. But what starts off as a mere test, eventually leads to the formation of a whole new life form. Clive remains apprehensive about what they’ve done but Elsa convinces him to let the creature live. The zany-looking lifeform ages rapidly. It even shows mental developments very similar to that of humans. Moreover, it seems to have an appetite for anything that contains sucrose, and its learning ability seems to be a bit inferior to humans.

After naming it DREN, which is NERD reversed, Clive and Elsa keep her in the basement of their facility. This is when they also discover that, right after she gets a high fever, she develops the amphibian trait of breathing underwater. After being moved to Elsa’s old home, Dren starts acting like a rebellious human teenager and even reveals that she has retractable wings. As Dren’s behavior worsens, Elsa tries to establish her dominance on her and even cuts off her tail stinger, which she later uses for synthesizing the protein they were previously looking for. But right after this, everything suddenly takes a twisted turn when Clive tries to have sex with Dren and Elsa reveals that she combined her DNA with Dren. This revelation goes way back to Elsa’s childhood where her mother would abuse her. As a result of this abuse, Elsa only wanted a child who she could control. with a child who is merely the consequence of an experiment, she could very well do that.

In the final moments of the film, Dren suddenly dies and Elsa and Clive bury her in the woods. In the meantime, William Barlow from NERD discovers their little secret after he finds human DNA in the protein that Elsa had shared with him. That’s when Dren, now metamorphosed into a male, returns and starts ruthlessly killing everyone. Dren’s male instinct takes over and he even rapes Elsa. In the end, amid all the action that ensues, Clive gets killed by Dren and then Elsa reluctantly murders Dren. In the closing moments, Elsa seems to be pregnant with Dren’s child while her superior at NERD convinces her to keep the baby. She even offers Elsa a large sum of money for doing so as the bodily compounds in Dren’s DNA could very well be useful for the company.

How Does Dren turn into a male?

Absolutely no revelations are made about the animal DNA that was used for creating Dren. But from her physical traits, we know that she has the ability to breathe underwater. Her amphibian traits and the structure of her feet suggest that she might have the DNA of a frog. When it comes to her retractable wings and her stinger at the end of her tail, she might even have gotten these traits from the DNA of a wasp. A wasp seems more likely as her stinger never gets detached from her body when she stings someone.

Other than that, the fact that she has a tail and three fingers in her hand can be traced down several species, among which, the tail simply seems to be a trait of early humans. Moreover, Dren also seems to have high levels of pheromones which explains why Clive feels so drawn to her. Her metamorphosis into a male could possibly be an outcome of the presence of clownfish DNA in her. Clownfish, wrasses, moray eels, and a few other fish species are able to change their sex with time, including their reproductive functions. This also explains how Ginger’s sex suddenly changes later on in the movie.

Who is the real monster?

The biggest moralistic question at the end of the movie is: who is the real monster? In ‘Frankenstein’, the real monster isn’t Frankenstein, but the doctor who created him. Similarly, in the movie, Dren was simply driven by her primary animalistic instincts. Her level of intelligence was relatively inferior, so she clearly did not have the ability to differentiate between right or wrong. And since she spent her entire life as a mere specimen for the two scientists, she never knew what real kindness looked like.

On the other hand, Clive and Elsa, who were simply driven by their desperation to make a great scientific discovery, kept Dren trapped in a barn, ignored her carnivorous instincts, denied her the freedom she deserved, and ruthlessly experimented on her. Even in the ending scene, although Elsa seems quite traumatized, she still chooses to keep Dren’s baby just because her boss promises her a huge sum of money. So, who is the real monster here? Well, the answer seems pretty obvious.

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Splice (Canada/France/United States, 2009)

The trailer for Splice might lead a viewer to expect a low-budget retread of Species crossed with Aliens . However, although the film does indeed pilfer a scene directly from the latter movie, the trailer misrepresents its source. Splice is as much a psychological thriller and drama about bio-ethics as it is a horror movie. Like the vastly superior The Fly , it uses gore sparingly; delivering shocks to the audience is a secondary consideration. Despite its relative bravery in choosing not to embrace the Grand Guignol, Splice is a little too hit-or-miss to truly work. There's a lot going on in the movie - some of which is rich, compelling material - but director Vincenzo Natali's scattershot approach to his subject matter leaves the viewer left with a frustrating sense that interesting paths were bypassed in service of a narrative that offers few surprises and concludes with a cornball, jarring sequence that belongs in another movie - perhaps the one being advertised by the aforementioned trailer.

The curtain rises on a small group of scientists feverishly working in a laboratory that seems decidedly behind-the-times technologically. They are led by Clive (Adrien Brody) and his girlfriend, Elsa (Sarah Polley), the masterminds behind a genetic splicing project that has pharmaceutical implications. Clive and Elsa have plans to go beyond the creation of a pair of slug-like creatures that have excited their corporate sponsors - they want to do things with human DNA. This possibility is quickly shot down by their boss (David Hewlett), but that doesn't stop the headstrong Elsa from moving ahead, followed meekly by Clive. Soon, using a high-tech womb, the scientists have given "birth" to Dren (Delphine Chaneac), a hybrid of human and various other creatures who walks on two legs (although they look more like the limbs of kangaroos than people), sprouts wings, breathes under water, and can communicate using Scrabble letters. She's also sexy and sexual, as Clive comes to learn when Dren develops a crush on him. The creature's final, most surprising ability is left undiscovered until the movie's final fifteen minutes when, unfortunately, the filmmakers decide to undermine their story by revealing it.

My best guess is that director Natali and his two co-writers intend for this to be as much a cautionary tale and a meditation on bio-ethics as they want it to be a cross-breed horror/science fiction tale. There are some problems, though. First, their approach is naïve in the extreme; they address questions that have been debated for decades in more enlightened forums. Most of the concepts they attack here are recycled. Issues of this sort have been discussed and debated as far back as when Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein . To an extent, Splice is all about man's hubris and how he copes when his abilities outstrip his morality. Basic questions bubble to the top. How deep does a creator's responsibility run to its creation? What does it mean to have sex with such a creation: incest, infidelity, or something otherwise creepy? If nothing else, Splice provides a unique take on the Elektra Complex.

The movie would work better if the characters came across as organic rather than appendages of a screenplay. There are numerous leaps of logic - instances when the protagonists act in a fashion that only movie characters would. Their cavalier attitude toward leaving Dren to her own devices is inexplicable. She is a unique creation - emotionally fragile with unknown physical limitations (not to mention how much money she could be worth to the right buyer) - yet they leave her alone in a barn. It's almost as if the movie is determined to italicize how incredibly stupid and inept these supposedly brilliant scientists are. They can create life but are unprepared to cope with the result of their creation. Maybe that's a metaphor for modern-day parenting, or maybe I'm reading too much into Natali's underwritten script.

The special effects that bring Dren to life are less than impressive. At best, she looks like something out of an R-rated episode of Star Trek . The breasts would seem to be the actress' own, but everything from the waist down is the product of CGI, and it shows. Based on her work here, it's impossible to assess Delphine Chaneac's aptitude in front of a camera. The same cannot be said of either Adrien Brody or Sarah Polley. Both actors have done exceptional work in the past (he won an Oscar; she has provided equally amazing performances, albeit in smaller productions); this is not their finest hour. One can only hope they were handsomely paid. They're not terrible, but they don't add anything to Splice beyond name recognition than that which could have been provided by a pair of unknowns.

Splice might have been more enjoyable as an unabashed B-movie. The production is watchable, but the experience of sitting through it offers equal parts frustration and satisfaction. It's easy enough to appreciate the movie for its differences while at the same time acknowledging that not all those differences work. Splice is ambitious, which is always preferable to the opposite, but it never delves deeply into the cavalcade of ideas it touches. Instead of taking a real chance, the finale devolves into a generic genre ending (although maybe this is intended to provide an origin story for the Jersey Devil). Splice isn't a disaster and it will probably fool a percentage of its audience into thinking it's saying something new or offering a previously unexplored narrative approach, but neither is the case. The movie contains the embryo of a worthwhile motion picture, but the full potential for development is never fulfilled.

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Film review: splice (2009).

The Black Saint 07/26/2011 Uncategorized

SYNOPSIS: Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named “Dren”, the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators – only to have that bond turn deadly. REVIEW:

Director Vincenzo Natali’s (Cube) new Sci-Fi/Horror opus “Splice” opens today & although the Saint has already seen it about a month ago (I have some dark connections people), I saved my review for today cuz’ I know you guys were waiting for it….

The film stars Adrian Brody (Fuck his Oscar..Dig that nose)!! & Sarah “Dawn Of The Dead” Polley as two scientists who also happen to be lovers who also happen to be named Elsa & Clive. If I gotta explain that to you creeps then stop reading this now! Did I mention they are genetic scientists? Sorry about that… They have completed what some thought was impossible, Created life.

A new kind of life mind you but life nevertheless. What they have created are 2 sentient “Blobs” of protoplasm that they name “Fred” & “Ginger” (I’m not explaining that one either people)! They are both very “Cronenbergian” in their look. Remember the giant maggot from the nightmare sequence in Cronenberg’s “The Fly”? Well then you have an idea of how they look. When they are introduced to each other, a sort of “Getting to know you” ritual takes place & it actually is quite beautiful to witness. At least as beautiful as these ugly suckers can get. But Clive & Elsa have convinced their corporate backers that they have made a breakthrough & are ready to display the creatures to interested investors…

I’m not going to spoil what happens at the big unveiling (The Saint believes that those who like to post “spoilers” in their reviews should be left with him for 15 delicious minutes of torture to shut em’ up) but I believe it’s safe to say it doesn’t go well for either duo. At this point in this review I should point out that I was not blown away by what was happening on screen but I was interested in what Natali’s next move would be & to me that is the mark of a good movie. Are you curious about what’s next? Great! That’s what movies of this genre should try to adhere to…Keep their audiences curious about what’s around the next corner.

Well, Suffice it to say that once we turn that corner Elsa decides that since the experiment is pretty much over, why can’t she try one last quick idea before the corporation closes down their shop? She injects human DNA into one of the extra eggs they had created but not fertilized yet. Clive is aghast at her actions but is reassured by Elsa that it will probably die immediately. Unfortunately like the Saint always says “You can’t trust a woman” cuz’ that little fertilized bitch not only doesn’t die but grows at an incredible rate. In a couple of days they find themselves with a full sized “Eggsack” that’s ready to hatch. And what comes out when it does? The Saint would call what I’m about to write a “Spoiler” but it’s been in all of the commercials already. What they get is a sort of combination of a Lizard, Frog, Bird, but most importantly..human creature.

I’m not going to say much more about the plot except to mention a few salient points. There are two “WTF” scenes in the movie that had the audience groaning in disgust & laughing at the same time, You’ll know what they are when they come up. The movie is not especially gory either but when it decides to ratchet up the blood quotient it does so nicely. And to be “frank” (betcha’ don’t get that one either huh?) I didn’t like the ending too much. I figured it out about halfway through as should any fan of this type of movie.

All that being said though, “Splice” is a really atmospheric sci-fi spookshow. There are those of you who saw the trailer & said “It’s Species”. I did as well, But although there are similarities this ain’t like no kind of “Species” you’ve ever seen believe that! “Splice” is far more intelligent & has something to say about how far man should go when he feels like playing God. I’m not preachin’ to y’all but God is God for a reason.

Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant & Doug Taylor’s screenplay from a story by Natali & Bryant is never boring. As I said earlier you think you’ve seen it before but that next corner is coming & you don’t know what’s waiting there….. All of the actors are great in their roles. Sarah Polley even got her teeth fixed for this one. That disappointed me a bit. I thought her fangs were sexy….And as fine an actor as Adrien Brody is & as great as he is in this movie, I couldn’t take my eyes off of his f*cking nose for more that 3 seconds at a time. The f*cking thing is so big & his nostrils so wide…the movie could’ve been about his nose is what I’m getting at. OK? Special shout out must go to one Delphine Chaneac as “Dren”, the name the creature is given. She must be a magnificent lookin’ woman on her own cuz’ she ain’t all that bad lookin’ in the movie. The practical & CGI effects are seamlessly woven together to give her performance believability & it is a believable performance. She shines brightly all the way through the movie. I might be in love…lust anyway.

All in all you should all go see this movie, especially this opening weekend. Give it a big opening so Hollywood can give us more intelligent scares every once in a while. It would be a shame to have this movie get steamrolled by “Bigger” flicks this weekend (“Marmaduke”, I ain’t talking bout’ you). As a matter of fact now that I’ve had some time to dwell on it a little more, Maybe it’s not just a sci-fi/horror movie. Maybe you could say it’s about parenthood as well…..

Splice (2009)

Tags Adrien Brody Antoinette Terry Bryant Brandon McGibbon Delphine Chanéac Sarah Polley Simona Maicanescu Splice Vincenzo Natali

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• Entertainment
• Pedro Almodóvar’s <i>The Room Next Door</i> Finds Joy Even as It Stares Down Death 

Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door Finds Joy Even as It Stares Down Death 

F or those who have been following his career from the start , the idea of Pedro Almodóvar’s growing older—and increasingly using his films to reflect on illness and death, or at least just the inevitable slowdown that comes for most of us—is a bitter pill. None of us relishes thinking about our own mortality. But sometimes it feels worse to think about losing an artist we love, especially one as vital and ageless as Almodóvar. One of his finest, most moving works , 2019’s Pain and Glory , reckoned with the nuisances of aging, as well as the trauma of being an artist in crisis. But the director’s first English-language movie, The Room Next Door —playing in competition here at the Venice Film Festival —delves even further into the murky waters of our feelings about death. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as Ingrid and Martha, old friends who bonded in New York in the 1980s but who have been out of touch for a long time. They reconnect when Ingrid learns that Martha is being treated for cancer, and their rekindled friendship veers into complicated territory.

The Room Next Door is an adaptation, written by Almodóvar himself, of Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through, and at first the movie’s tone feels a little strange, untethered to any easily identifiable genre. It’s a story about friendship, clearly, but also about a woman facing a solitary and difficult choice. The dialogue sometimes feels flat and wooden. At one point Martha reminds Ingrid of the lover they’d once shared, though technically, he’d drifted toward Ingrid after he and Martha had broken up. “He was a passionate and enthusiastic lover, and I hope he was for you too,” Martha says, and though she means it, the line hits with a thud. And even if Almodóvar goes for a laugh here or there, overall the tone of The Room Next Door is a bit somber—almost like a black comedy, but not quite.

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And yet, by the end, something almost mystical has happened: the movie’s final moments usher in a kind of twilight, a state of grace that you don't see coming. Ingrid, a successful writer, first hears of Martha’s illness at a signing event for her most recent book. Though she hasn’t seen Martha in years, she dutifully visits her at the hospital where she’s being treated. They catch up quickly: Martha, who worked for years as a war correspondent, has a daughter, Michelle, born when she was still a teenager. Michelle has accused Martha of being a bad mother, and is particularly resentful that she has withheld information about Michelle’s father. Martha denies none of it. Still, she wishes she and Michelle were closer, and her grave illness—she has stage three cervical cancer—puts a new spin on things. She’s hoping the experimental treatment she’s been receiving will work; she’s devastated when she learns that it isn’t.

And so she procures for herself— on the Dark Web , she tells Ingrid, almost in a whisper—an illegal pill that will put an end to all of it. She has worked out all the details: she’ll leave a note for the police, explaining that she alone is responsible for her fate. And she doesn’t want a stranger discovering her body. When she decides the time is right, what she wants, she says, is to know that a friend is in “the room next door.” She has decided Ingrid will be that friend, though Ingrid, who has a quivering, electric, nervous quality beneath her veneer of self-confidence, at first wants no part of it.

Ingrid has re-entered Martha’s life in a whirlwind of good intentions. But does she really want to help Martha die ? She’s not so sure. (She has also, unbeknownst to Martha, reconnected platonically with that old shared boyfriend; his name is Damian, and he’s played, with a kind of droll swagger, by John Turturro .) Ingrid and Martha’s rekindled friendship seems shaky at first. Martha has decided that she doesn’t want to die in her own smartly appointed Fifth Avenue apartment. So she books a tony modern country house somewhere near Woodstock—it has amazing views of nature that only money can buy—and she and Ingrid pack their bags and drive up. Almost as soon as they arrive, Martha panics. She’s forgotten the precious euthanasia pill; she insists that she and Ingrid drive back to Manhattan immediately to get it. Ingrid barely hides her annoyance; how did she get into this situation, anyway? Briefly, the movie tap-dances into screwball-comedy territory. It would all be very funny, if Martha weren’t suffering so much.

But The Room Next Door is on its way to place of tenderness and accord—we just can’t see it yet. At one point, Martha rages against her illness, but also against the cheap bromides people use when they talk about cancer, often referring to treating it as a “battle,” a test of strength that’s also somehow a measure of virtue. “If you lose, well, maybe you just didn’t fight hard enough,” she says bitterly. No wonder she wants to write the ending to her own story: “I think I deserve a good death."

Swinton’s Martha is frail but still, somehow, has the vitality of a pale blond moon; Moore , with her burgundy-red hair and intense, searching eyes, brings a rush of color into her life. They talk about books, art, movies: Martha has been thinking about the closing lines of James Joyce’s The Dead, so they spend an evening watching John Huston’s gorgeous 1987 version on the rental's DVD player. They make conversation about little things: a recent book that interests them both, Roger Lewis’ Erotic Vagrancy, about the partnership of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton ; the reproduction of Edward Hopper’s People in the Sun that hangs in the rented house’s hallway. Their idle conversations are a kind of casual nourishment.

It's a pleasure to watch these two actors together. Martha and Ingrid riff against and annoy each another until suddenly, they find their groove, and the movie does too. Shot by Eduard Grau, the film has a rich, handsome look, and the production and costume design are characteristically Almodóvarian in their jubilance. The sets include stunningly orchestrated combinations of pickle green and tomato red; there are artfully shabby velvet couches and walls casually sponged with cobalt-blue paint. (The production designer is Inbal Weinberg; the costumes are by Bina Daigeler.) It’s all marvelous to look at, but this kind of visual splendor might evoke some guilt, too. Is it wrong to be ogling Martha’s fabulous, mega-chunky color-blocked knit pullover when you know, as she does, that death is just one little pill away?

But as the story wheels forward, it becomes clear that the joy Almodóvar takes in colors and patterns isn’t beside the point; it is the point. He’s created a kind of cocoon world for these two women, as they embark together on a bumpy adventure. And that’s how he beckons us into their story. Lime and lilac, scarlet and saffron: he knows what colors work together, which combinations will surprise us or offer a jolt of delight. The colors of The Room Next Door are its secret message, a language of pleasure and beauty that reminds us how great it is to be alive. If it’s possible to make a joyful movie about death, Almodóvar has just done it.

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‘Wolfs’ Review: George Clooney and Brad Pitt Are Rival Fixers in a Winning Action Comedy Spiked With Movie-Star Chemistry

The two actors go at each other in Jon Watts's likable throwaway caper, which plays like an exercise in movie-star nostalgia.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

• ‘The Room Next Door’ Review: Tilda Swinton Gives a Monumental Performance as a Woman Confronting Death in Pedro Almodóvar’s First English-Language Drama 23 hours ago
• ‘Wolfs’ Review: George Clooney and Brad Pitt Are Rival Fixers in a Winning Action Comedy Spiked With Movie-Star Chemistry 2 days ago
• ‘The Brutalist’ Review: Director Brady Corbet Breaks Through in His Third Feature, an Engrossing Epic Starring Adrien Brody as a Visionary Architect 2 days ago

The movie-stars-are-over era has been overstated. If audiences are now drawn to movies not for stars but for franchise concepts, I’m not sure how to fit the career of Timothée Chalamet into that; Emma Stone and Zendaya would also like a word. That said, when you watch George Clooney and Brad Pitt in “ Wolfs ,” a clever, airy, winningly light-fingered and debonair action comedy about two rival fixers who have to learn to work together, you’d be forgiven for describing the sensation you feel as movie-star nostalgia.

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“Wolfs” opens in a deluxe penthouse hotel suite in New York, where Margaret (Amy Ryan), a district attorney, is in a distraught panic. There’s a young man, seemingly dead, lying next to the bed in his underwear, with smashed glass all around him. What happened? She picked him up in the hotel bar, they came to the room, and he was jumping up and down on the bed when he accidentally fell and smashed through a glass table. File it under “shit happens.” To avoid a big mess, Margaret calls a number she has had in her contacts but has never used. It’s the number of a fixer, played by Clooney, who immediately starts telling her what to do on the phone, exuding the dry authority of … Michael Clayton.

Neither of the two men is ever named. Clooney’s character, referred to in the credits simply as “Margaret’s man,” is a figure of Swiss-watch precision and time-tested methods, all driven by the conviction that no one else can do what he does. But the arrival of Pitt, known only as “Pam’s man,” throws a monkey wrench into that. Clooney looks at Pitt as if he were a pretender, a mere amateur in the fixer game, but, in fact, both are experts at … well, fixing.

The spark plug of “Wolfs,” as written and directed by Jon Watts (who directed all three of the Tom Holland “Spider-Man” films), is the nonstop stream of hostility and one-upmanship that passes between Clooney and Pitt like something out of an acid screwball comedy. It’s not just that the two characters don’t like each other. Each is invested in his own superiority — the special finesse of his skills. And so their back-and-forth isn’t just about the putdowns. It’s a kind of lethal contest to see who has the most fixer zen.

Clooney and Pitt had this kind of chemistry before, in “Ocean’s Eleven,” where it was in the very detachment of their banter that they found a bond. In “Wolfs,” Clooney and Pitt revel in the crack timing, in the I-truly-do-not-like-you obscene banter, that makes even the most casual insult take wing. As the movie goes on, these two will learn to work together, but the film’s anti-grammatical title is saying that each one is a lone wolf. They have no desire to mesh like wolves . The joke, of course, is that from their stylish leather jackets to their secret Mr. Big to their reading glasses, they’re kind of the same man.

Clooney’s character knows a trick or two about how to hoist a body onto a hotel cart, and for a while, as the two take the elevator down to the parking garage, where they stow the body in the trunk of Clooney’s car, the movie is all gambits and procedure, sort of like an improvised “Ocean’s Duet.” But it pivots and turns into a different sort of movie (I feel compelled to issue a spoiler alert, though this happens fairly early on) after the corpse…refuses to lie still.

“Wolfs” turns into one of those buddy movies with a flaked-out wild card of a third wheel. Austin Abrams, from “Euphoria” and “The Walking Dead,” plays the aforementioned dude in his underwear, known only as “kid.” He turns out to be a likably jabbering space case, like Timothée Chalamet infused with the spirit of the young Sam Rockwell. (At one point he has to wear a dress as a shirt, which is very Chalamet.) The key complication is that the kid was carrying four bricks of heroin in his backpack worth $250,000. How did he get them? He was doing a friend a favor, but the bottom line is that the fixers need to find out where those drug parcels came from and return them.

Coming out of the first showing of “Wolfs” at the Venice Film Festival, a friend asked me if I tend to take a movie like this one, which will probably be streamed on Apple much more than it will be seen in movie theaters, and rate it on a made-for-streaming curve. The answer is no, though it’s a good question, and you certainly could rate it both ways. Next to the vast majority of made-for-streaming fodder, “Wolfs” looks the essence of a classy, witty, stylish entertainment. It looks downright old-fashioned (in a good way). But as a movie , which will indeed play in theaters, it is, in the end, a well-made throwaway, no more and no less. The buddy movie is always, on some level, a platonic love story, but in this case by the time Clooney and Pitt locate their bond, they’ve come close to erasing the premise of the movie: that the key to a fixer is that he can’t afford to have a heart. These two never lose their cool, but by the end you feel like they’ve put on sheep’s clothing.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Out of competition), Sept. 1, 2024. MPA rating: R. Running time: 108 MIN.

• Production: A Columbia Pictures, Apple release of an Apple Original Films, Plan B, Freshman Year, Smokehouse Pictures production. Producers: Jon Watts, Dianne McGunigle, Grant Heslov, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner. Executive producer: Michael Beugg.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Jon Watts. Camera: Larkin Seiple. Editor: Andrew Weisblum. Music: Theodore Shapiro.
• With: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Pooma Jagannathan, Richard Kind, Zlatko Burić.

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• What Is Cinema?

George Clooney and Brad Pitt Work Better Together in Wolfs

It’s been 23 years since George Clooney and Brad Pitt first teamed up to do a caper, forming one of the more indelible movie pairings of the new century. They made three Ocean’s movies together, briefly shared the screen in Burn After Reading , and then went their separate ways.

But they couldn’t stay apart forever. Thus Wolfs , a new crime comedy that premiered here at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday. Written and directed by Jon Watts —who made the last three Spider-Man movies and, more relevantly, the clever low-budget thriller Cop Car —the film is an amiable lark, more of a saunter than a dash through wintry, nighttime New York City. As a pair of rival underworld fixers , Clooney and Pitt invert their Ocean’s dynamic. They’re strangers to one another, and initially hostile in the ring-a-ding banter way of comedies like this; we never think they’re going to start shooting at each other.

They meet in a luxe hotel suite after both being called for the same job: a panicking woman ( Amy Ryan ) is standing over the body of a nearly nude young man lying on the bedroom floor. She needs it cleaned up and to make a discreet exit. It’s an amusing, lively scene that sets the stage for a movie in which people can be hurt, but nothing is going to get too dark. Which is the right tone for a Clooney/Pitt team up; they’ve always worked best when they’re not all that serious.

Both men, unnamed throughout the film, want to be the guy in charge, a bit that gets a little stale in all its repetition but is still sold by leading-man glow. Anyway, they’re soon bonded together in a manner familiar in Hollywood plotting: a pesky youngster who has suddenly come under their care. He’s the presumed dead guy on the floor, a seeming innocent who has found himself caught up in a city-wide drug war. He explains this mostly in a spluttering, rapid-fire monologue delivered with verve by Austin Abrams , who ably holds his own against two of the biggest movie stars on the planet. The kid’s presence nicely complicates the two fixers’ rapport, and creates a surprising, morbid suspense: to make the getaway entirely clean, the kid might have to go.

But first the threesome has to go on a little quest, a minor odyssey through various corners of the city. Which, it must be said, is something of the fourth main character in the film. Watts is a local, and he films his town with affection and fresh perspective. He’s found lots of interesting locations—an outer-borough banquet hall, the forlorn Brighton Beach boardwalk, neon-lit Chinatown—and shot them lushly. A soft and steady snow falls throughout the film, adding a sense of peace and hush to offset the garrulous antics. A testament to the specific graces of on-location filming, Wolfs presents a New York that is at once recognizable and novel.

The script could use a bit more of that idiosyncrasy. While there are plenty of amusing quips and running gags, some of Pitt and Clooney’s repartee feels like recycled material from the Ocean -verse, a kind of repetitious back-and-forth that mistakes tempo for wit. There are also a few narrative contrivances that glare in an otherwise sleek, smart production—one in particular involving the aforementioned banquet hall and a Croatian wedding dance. Maybe Watts is lovingly referring back to the broad comedies of his youth, but Wolfs is otherwise too cool for such cliché.

For the most part, though, Wolfs meets the brief. It’s a confident, engaging Saturday-night movie, of the sort that has become dismayingly rare. How heartening to see a director return from the realm of superheroes (where he was responsible for some of the better entries) and make a humbler, more streamlined film for grownups. All he had to do was get two global superstars to get the project across the financing finish line.

It’s a shame, then, that Apple backed away from the proper theatrical release originally planned for the film. Wolfs is the kind of movie that probably could get people out of their houses, a satisfying complement to dinner and drinks. The movie is not trying to make any grand statements or reinvent any wheels; it is only trying to entertain. This used to be a good enough reason to leave the couch. If Wolfs is playing at a theater near you, consider making the investment. Tell the Hollywood powers that be that you’re willing to help them fix the terrible mess they’ve made.

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Richard Lawson

Chief critic.