‘Splinter’s one of those sad cases that never seemed to hit a good enough standard for a mass theatrical release. But I think it deserves a lot more confidence from the distributors who have now given it a DVD release date for early next year.
‘Splinter’ is the tale of a couple heading out into the wilderness for a bit of camping and to experience some outdoors-iness. Polly (played by Jill Wagner) and her inept near-biologist partner Seth (played by Paulo Costanzo) soon find their car hijacked and themselves riding along with hostage takers Farell, a recently escaped convict and his girlfriend Lacey, a mentalist. They soon find themselves trapped in an isolated gas station as the car overheats and they are soon become surrounded by a strange new parasite that uses its hosts (i.e. us!) as mobility in securing it’s next meaty feast.
The concept is moderately original in some aspects but for the majority feels like a non-Antarctic sequel to ‘The Thing’. In fact if we were to compare it’s potential influences more it feels like ‘The Thing’ meets ‘The Ruins’, with it’s theoretical science of host organisms, and natural splintery woodland-life. But then to be honest I originally thought the movie may have been about disgruntled hedgehogs so it was much improved. Oh and did I mention that Seth, an expert in just this kind of thing, just happens to be involved with his conjecture and hypothesis’!
Parasitic creatures’ aside the movie is reasonably pleasing. The acting is above what you’d expect for this type of movie even though an obvious lesser budget is on show here. The prickly parasite seems to turn its victims into jerky possessed zombie-like creatures much reminiscent of something from John Carpenters’ ‘The Thing’, and the blood scrounger brutally affects it’s host by bending limbs in the wrong direction with atrocious snapping which often makes you squirm modestly.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Brit director Toby Wilkins (‘Devil’s Trade’, and the upcoming ‘The Grudge 3’ sequel) helms this spiky little horror-fest with respectable aptitude. The effects are first-rate for a picture with such distribution hang-ups. Nevertheless a lot of the camerawork itself especially in the moments of terror are just as jerky and sometimes non-comprehendible and overly flashy as the creatures themselves. However, if ‘The Ruins’ is good enough for theatres then so is ‘Splinter’!
