First Clip And Buzz For Guillermo Del Toro-Produced Creature Feature Splice
I first saw photos fromSplicein February of this year and was immediately ready to see it.CubedirectorVincenzo Natalihas broughtSarah PolleyandAdrien Brodyinto a world of genetic creature development that seems to have a lot of potential. The initial stills (some of which come from the clip below) showed a weird little creature that becomes something much larger and more dangerous. See the clip and read a bit of buzz from the Sitges Fest ‘09 after the break.
The basic plot rundown is below, and you may read that or skip if you wish to remain less potentially spoiled. (There’snothing truly spoileryin either my words here or that synopsis, but if you just want to get a taste, skip right to the clip, which doesn’t give too much away.)
It’s easy to see how this could combine elements ofAlien,SpeciesandMimic, but if it all works then I’ll take that. Basically, Polley and Brody play a husband and wife research team that grow fleshy little things by combining animal DNA; the idea is to extract valuable proteins and enzymes from the creations. But Polley’s character wants to add human DNA into the mix, after which things get weird.
Twitchcalled the film “a genre mash of science fiction and a young parenting drama,” and said “The center-piece of the picture, the combination of ‘girl-in-suit,’ make-up, and Greg Nicotero prosthetics takes the uncanny valley, razes it to the ground and rebuilds its central creature into something simply wonderful” but warns that “fans of balls out monster movies will be a bit baffled by the films deliberate pacing.” Fair enough. I’ll take the pacing, and in fact I’ll celebrate it. Give me more thoughtful, conceptually freakish monster movies any day.
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.
We may see the film under the titleHybrid, and we may not see it at all — this could be one to watch for in your import DVD and On Demand browsing.
