Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
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.
Splice earns genuine marks for novelty — its bio-horror premise is executed with unusual commitment to ethical discomfort, pushing the Frankenstein myth into genuinely transgressive territory (the sexual dynamics, parental dysfunction) that few studio horror films dare to explore. The plot holds together reasonably well through its first two acts, grounded in plausible scientific anxiety and character psychology, though it grows increasingly erratic. Acting from Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody is competent and earnest, elevating material that could easily have collapsed. Cinematography is functional genre work — atmospheric but unremarkable. The ending is a significant weak point: the third-act gender-swap twist and rushed denouement feel exploitative rather than earned, undermining the film's more thoughtful earlier provocations and landing closer to schlock than the serious horror it aspired to be.