Splice
Instead of having their own baby, a pair of married genetic engineers create an animal-human creature.
Directed by Vincenzo Natali
(R)
***
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Splice is a “pleasurably shivery, sometimes delightfully icky horror movie about love and monsters in the age of genetic engineering,” said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are a pair of married genetic engineers who, instead of having their own baby, create an animal-human creature, chillingly played by France’s Delphine Chanéac. Director Vincenzo Natali welcomes her into the world with a “thickening air of dread.” Taking cues from Frankenstein films, The Fly, and Rosemary’s Baby, he has created a “disturbing, thoughtful mutant of a movie,” said Keith Phipps in The A.V. Club. The real horror here stems from the psychological dynamic between the couple and their test-tube baby. Exploring issues surrounding reproduction, biotechnology, and the nature-versus-nurture debate, Natali formulates “grotesque caricatures of real-life parenting discomforts.” Yet Splice is too much of an “unholy mess” to convincingly explore all the themes it raises, said Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News. The incoherent script “is silly when it should be spooky, cold when it should boil over, and dumb when it should be smart.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
5 ways to help the environment while on vacation
The Week Recommends An afternoon of planting trees could be the best part of your trip
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
Doctors are taking on dental duties in low-income areas
Under the radar Physicians are biting into the dentistry industry
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Instagram hopes that blurring nudity in messages will make teens safer
The Explainer The option will be turned on by default for users under 18
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published