Splice 2009

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It begins with such promise, a kinky modernist twist on a classical sci-fi morality tale. That it degenerates into conventional, genre horror is all the more disappointing. Read more

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: Despite an A-list star and a high-tech plot, the film itself feels like a hybrid of silly science tingler and moral philosophy with a straight-to-video sheen-which is likely where their larger profit margins lie. Read more

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: [It's] witty, aware of its own craziness, and disarmingly insightful about the psychology of its characters. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The film, much of which takes place in laboratories or at the couple's isolated farmhouse, doesn't deliver "the usual." I was fine with that -- grateful, in fact. A little queasy in the stomach, but grateful. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The creature effects are terrific, but the human protagonists aren't nearly so interesting, and the don't-mess-with-nature message is too hoary to be made interesting with this feeble setup. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: ... mining horror out of moral quandary rather than mindless slaughter, Splice occasionally achieves a terrible beauty. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: While it's far from perfect, it's a timely and well-considered thriller about the scarier aspects of genetic engineering. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Shooting with a cool reserve and a steely-blue color palette, Natali keeps the film unsettling by using icky creature effects, but just as often by offering up grotesque caricatures of real-life parenting discomforts... Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Morphing as often as the character central to its story, Splice is an unruly mix of science, morality, family dysfunction, horror and finger-down-the-throat gross-out ridiculousness. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: If it's discouraging -- or at least disorienting -- to see that Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley have signed on to a gnarly work of science-fiction horror, lighten up. They have good taste in schlock. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The movie carves out its own psychological terrain, pondering the emotional storms of both childhood and parenthood as relations in the little family grow ever more perverse. Read more

Cary Darling, Dallas Morning News: An engrossing, if flawed, techno thriller that never quite goes where expected, and that's what makes it such a pleasant surprise. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: What makes Splice morally compelling isn't the bioethics quandaries it raises so much as the way it delves into parenthood. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Daring, disturbing and deliciously twisted. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The outstanding creature effects by Howard Berger only get more astonishing as Splice splits into an eerie horror picture, then divides again into something out of Rosemary's Baby. Read more

Michael Ordona, Los Angeles Times: Splice is a hybrid that works. It's a smart, slickly paced, well-acted science-fiction cautionary tale-horror movie-psychological drama. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: It wants to tour the scarred human psyche, yet the cobbled-together screenplay is silly when it should be spooky, cold when it should boil over and dumb when it should be smart. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Brody and Polley's performances keep the film grounded in a semblance of reality even when it threatens to go over the top near the end, and director Natali infuses the proceedings with a consistent sense of nail-biting dread. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The movie doesn't work, but the sets and CGI effects are fascinating, and the actors carry on like they're in some kind of meaningful futuristic experience of lasting value. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Splices together the mad-scientist story with a satire of modern marriage and parenting. While the results are mad, brazenly unethical, and occasionally funny, the implications are deeply upsetting. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Despite its relative bravery in choosing not to embrace the Grand Guignol, Splice is a little too hit-or-miss to truly work. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The script blends human psychology with scientific speculation and has genuine interest until it goes on autopilot with one of the chase scenes Hollywood now permits few films to end without. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Before the film devolves into cliche, director and co-writer Vincenzo Natali creates a potent and provocative thriller about gender politics and human impulses that can't be reduced to a science. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Splice went down smooth, with its sleek surfaces, terrific special effects and disturbing sexiness. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: However somber it gets, it's never truly thought-provoking, and however outrageous it gets, it's still always 20 minutes behind the audience. It's just too dumb to be serious and too slow to be entertaining. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film's deliberately provocative premise is worked out in broad, lurid comic-book strokes, consciously calculated to shock the easily shockable and titillate the peculiar. Read more

Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The climax is a pileup of sorts as the movie suddenly becomes an audience-pandering monster-in-the-woods creature feature. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A good horror flick always does metaphoric battle with our interior demons, and Splice summons them in impressive numbers. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The special effects and creature design, as good as they are, don't exceed the acting by Polley, Brody and Chaneac, who make it all seem entirely plausible and emotionally real. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: The movie is ridiculously over the top, inelegant and so defiantly 
crazy
 that it works, reminding you how fun gore and creatures that go bump 
(and
 grind) in the night can be. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: This Cronenbergian exploration of the perils of inter-species gene-splicing wrestles with some topical and disturbing ideas, but never quite pins them down. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: If you've seen Species, you know where this don't-mess-with-Mother-Nature horror show is going, though director-cowriter Vincenzo Natali has a few interesting twists up his sleeve. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Though a stylish thriller with an initially palpable sense of menace and kinky tension, the story takes such ridiculous turns that it ends up undercutting its initial promise. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Benefiting significantly from the casting of Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, director Vincenzo Natali's outlandish sci-fier sustains a grotesque and funny fascination throughout its slightly protracted runtime. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: The detailed imagining of Dren's life cycle and Splice's one-upping make the movie mortifyingly fascinating, and its spell lasts right up until the junk heap of a grand finale. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A thoroughly repulsive science fiction-horror flick that slicks up its B-movie tawdriness with high-gloss production values and two otherwise classy stars. Read more