Thursday 9 April 2009

Splinter

Wearing its influences very much on its bloody sleeve, this low-budget monster movie borrows from the very best — Night Of The Living Dead and John Carpenter’s The Thing — and yet emerges as something altogether fresh and frightening. Biology PhD major Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and his spunky girlfriend Polly (Scarlett Johannson-lookalike Jill Wagner) find their anniversary camping trip interrupted by escaped convict Farrell (Shea Whigham) and his junkie girlfriend who hijack their car and hold them hostage.

Worse is still to come as they stop at an isolated gas station and are trapped inside by a parasitic organism that infects its victims via nasty black splinters before mutating into a hideous (though barely glimpsed) creature made up of its previous victims’ body parts. Adroitly balancing characterisation and gore, this sensational debut from FX veteran Toby Wilkins — a Brit no less — wrings maximum suspense from the spare, deceptively simple set up. Terrific stuff.

5 comments:

Gerard said...

Tops. I'm dead in the mood for something like this lately and shall seek it out...

Mark Salisbury said...

I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's really very good.

Finally going to see Let The Right One In this week. And Star Trek too.

Gerard said...

Excellent, I'll definitely get myself a copy (just came out on R1, yeah?).

And enjoy LTROI! Personally, favourite film since Sweeney. LOVE it. Even better than I'd hoped. Unfortunately also picked up the R1 bluray with the godawful reworked subs. Rats. Are you getting Mary and Max over there, by the by? I went and saw it again this afternoon - it's so great. Hilarious and genuinely affecting.

I'm curious about Star Trek. I've never seen a whole ST film or an episode of any of the TV series', so I'm wondering how much I'll get into the new flick. Will definitely be catching it though!

Mark Salisbury said...

I was a big fan of the original Trek TV show as a kid, and saw the first few movies, but I never got into Next Generation or any of the other spin offs.

I hadn't heard of Mary and Max until you mentioned it. But consider me now extremely keen. Will look into whether it has a UK release date.

Gerard said...

I hope it does, and soon. The more I reflect on it, the more I realise it's one of my favourite things I've seen this year. And Hoffman, especially, gives a wonderful reading - you can barely tell it's him. There's actually some really interesting Australian stuff on its way this year, it's quite promising. Did you ever get to see The Square over there? Loved it - Aussie neo-noir. And look into Samson & Delilah - I'm getting along to a preview on Thursday (it opens here early May) and looks fantastic. I've just realised I have zero concept as to the international release patterns of what - on my end - is local fare... (and as a quick FYI: Mary and Max and The Square :P).

Enjoy ST though - look forward to checking out your thoughts. I was quite impressed by that last trailer...