Splinter
(2008)
Director:
Toby Wilkins
Starring: Shea Whigham, Paulo Costanzo
Run Time: 82 mins
Certificate: 18
Plot Outline: A couple out on a camping trip realise
that things aren't working out, decide to call it quits and head for a hotel
room. On their way to the nearest motel, they are hijacked by an escape convict
and his sick girlfriend. They take the couple hostage in their car and drive
off, hitting an animal which seems to be infected with some disease and has
splinters sticking out of it. At the nearest gas station, they find one of the
employees also has the same disease and has become some sort of deadly creature.
The four of them become trapped inside the gas station as the creature attempts
to infect them as well.
The Review: A quaint little independent horror outing,
Splinter is one of those great films that does exactly what it sets out to do
without setting the world on fire and garnering lots of media attention. It's not a remake. It's not a sequel. It's
not a spoof. It doesn't try to be pretentious. It's the kind of film that
mainstream horror cinema is crying out for instead of the never ending recycled
run of sequels, remakes and American versions of Asian horrors. Splinter
has a decent concept, a small cast, a low budget, some creative talent behind
the camera and above all, everyone involved looks like they actually wanted to
make a good film for the love of the genre, not just to make a quick buck. With
a cracking combination of ideas too, everything adds up to provide us with one
of the unsung gems of the 00s.
With elements of The Thing, Night of the Living Dead and Cabin
Fever amongst others all thrown in for good measure, Splinter is one
of the most entertaining horror films I've seen for some time.
The script is tight. It's your
typical scenario with characters barricading themselves inside from some outside
threat and the gas station and adjoining convenience store may not make for the
best of settings but it serves it's purpose quite well and despite most of the
film being set there, the location doesn't get stale. It's a decent location for
creating a sense of isolation too - this is in the middle of nowhere so the
characters are going to have to face the threat on their own. It's also pacey enough to keep you interested and with a
reasonably short running time of 82 minutes, just about every scene has a
purpose and there's little waste. The characters are interesting and at least with such a small
cast (there's only six people in the entire film), they get fleshed out quite
well. These characters aren't stupid and react to the rapidly degenerating
situation as normal people would do. They make rational decisions and use their
intelligence and establish the facts of the situation to make logical choices on
what to do. Besides which there's not an annoying teenager in sight. The bad assed criminal (played wonderfully by Shea Whigham) is a
great character, portraying menace and violence at first but you eventually get
round to rooting for him and the other characters. In fact all of the main
actors play their roles to perfection and the arcs that their characters go
through from the start to the end are quite surprising. The script helps them
immensely but no one hams it up, looks to go over-the-top or just phone it in.
They're all acting as if this is real.
The film definitely earns plus points for not resorting to
CGI for the weird creatures that come to life courtesy of the parasite. This is
a make-up effects affair and they look top notch - it just shows you what a low
budget and high creative flair can do in the right hands. The shots of the
monster are quickly edited so that you can't dwell upon it for too long to see
obvious flaws and
coupled with it's jerky, disjointed movements, you get a threat that is unlike
anything else you'll have seen recently. The actual parasite is some bizarre
little thing covered in splinters which it uses to infect it's victim, taking
over their bodies from the inside. Bones are broken. Flesh eaten alive. Bodies
are twisted into disgusting shapes. Seeing someone slowly succumb to this
horrible death can be grimacing at times given that the bone crunching sounds
are loud and in your face. You don't just hear things snap, you see them snap!
No explanation is given for the creature and the only clue to it's origins is
given away right at the start as the characters drive past an experimental oil
field. Given the black, oily-nature of the parasite, it's clear to see where it
came from. But we don't really need to know that and neither do the characters.
They just need to worry about how they are going to escape or kill it. The
creature also has this uncanny method of attaching lots of infected bodies to
itself so what you see moving around are various body parts from it's victims,
not to mention the odd animal or two. I can't recall too many bizarre creatures
that do something as gross as that but it works splendidly.
Final Verdict: I have hardly got a bad word to say
about this in all honesty. It's not perfect but Splinter is a highly
entertaining indie flick with enough scares, gore and suspense to satisfy horror
fans. If you're sick of the never ending drivel that comes out of Hollywood,
check out Toby Wilkins' excellent and highly memorable monster flick.
Rating:
