Splice
I write this the Monday after Splice premiered in the United States to only 7 million dollars in box office sales. What a fucking shame. This only lends justification to executives who will only green light shitty horror films aimed at an immature audience. What immature audience you ask? Well, people who made My Bloody Valentine 3-D a 100 million dollar success, that’s who. Immature doesn’t mean young – it means fucking stupid. Stupid people think that movie is good, and smart people think Splice is good. Simple as that.
I hate being pompous, but when I saw Box Office Mojo’s numbers for Splice I became jaded. Splice is smart, twisted, and fucking brilliant. It even sold out a bit at the end to give the audience a few scares and some violence.
The film is directed by Vincenzo Natali the Canadian director of Cube, another smart sci-fi film. What I don’t get is why fans don’t come out and support these types of movies. People who like sci-fi films like this don’t need to have the movie marketed to them. They’re nerds and weirdos who are already surfing the net for the next crazy film. So why did this one not work out? 7 million in their big opening weekend means this film will likely fail and it doesn’t deserve to. It is smart, well acted by Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody, and technically sound. It involves a cool mutant that has been spliced together with human DNA and a cocktail of other genetic material. The mutant even looks kind of hot. There is freaky sex, gross out moments, and good special effects.
So what went wrong? Marketing? Laziness on the audiences part? Did Shrek steal some of the core audience? Or are American audiences incompetent and only go to see science-fiction with lucrative marketing tie-ins, as well as techno-lusting three dimensions
Release date: June 2010
Collin says: B+
You’ll say: B+
