Splinter (Review)

Watch a double-bill with the equally shocking "Paper-Cut".

Watch a double-bill with the equally shocking “Paper-Cut”.

This is an entertaining little film that takes one notable and original feature, and shows that you can build an effective horror movie around a reasonably original idea.

There are from memory 6 characters in Splinter so needless to say there is not a massive body count, and like the recently reviewed Trick R Treat this film shows that a good horror film need only start strong, do its job and finish, to be effective. This movie clocks in around 80 minutes, Trick R Treat a tight 82, both are worth your time.

The first character comes and goes in only a couple minutes with the now obligatory opening death sequence, which is workmanlike yet at least sets a tone without giving too much away about the menace that confronts our cast.

Four of the characters are two separate couples who come across each other, when I say they come across each other one couple car-jacks the other. The Jack-ees are Seth and Polly (Polly is wayyy out of Seth’s league by the way), and the jackers are Dennis and Lacey, with Dennis by far the more menacing and driven of the two.

Amid the tension that must be created when you are on either side of a carjacking (I would argue a stressful time for both criminal and victim) the situation kicks up a notch when the car catches a flat tyre after running over what appears to be a small animal. When investigated the mangled remains of whatever it was still manage to lash out at the car occupants, and the bleeding heart skank Lacey has an abrupt about face and switches from being concerned about the wellbeing of the animal to immediate panic.

A couple ks down the road it becomes evident that the car incurred a little more damage than first thought and the car breaks down, thankfully near a servo which acts as the setting for the remainder of the film.

Seth is given fuel duties, and Dennis and Polly head into the servo to find some coolant to get the car back on the road, Lacey heads into the restrooms to apparently take a hit of something, even though Dennis tells her to remain clear headed.

SKANK DOWN!!

And no it isn’t drug related, I can’t be much more specific without giving the main strength of the movie away, but I will say that the ailment is sorta contagious.

Once “infected” the host being becomes hungry for living tissue, though not in a zombie way, or even a ghoul or vampire way, the explanation that the writers came up with is plausible enough and allows some major leaps of faith which up to a point you go along with.

The acting is actually pretty good in this despite the ultra low budget beginnings, only the actress playing the skank left me a little annoyed at times, but that could be because she was doing a good job playing an annoying skank, I didn’t think about it too much at the time. Also by setting the movie in literally one indoor location the film-makers must have shaved costs to a bare minimum. You can really see why so many young up and coming film-makers choose horror as their introduction to feature films.

As Seth, Polly and Dennis hunker down in the locked servo and plot the various things that they might do to either neutralise the threat or escape, the line between assailant and victims blurs, as they all realise that they must have a level of trust between each other in order to survive. At certain times Seth is an idiot, Polly is an idiot, and Dennis is an idiot, but more in the “shit I’m desperate, I’ll try anything” way, not the “Gee I’m a mindless moron cinema teenager who deserves a flogging” way.

As happens in these movies a police officer shows up pointing a gun and yelling, and despite the pleadings of all three desperados manages to become simply another statistic.

Eventually the three survivors hole up in a cold room within the servo, waiting for either rescuers or the attack of the oogly boogly. Desperate measures are called for an definitely taken, in the one scene that made me genuinely cringe. They come up with a last ditch plan to escape that will either end up with them all being killed, or allow them to escape safely.

Will it work? We’ll find out after these messages.

Final Rating – 7 / 10. Pretty inventive but basically a nice little shocker revolving around one concept. One cringe inducing scene and some pretty weird calisthenics from the infected.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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