Splinter Review

The other night I saw a low budget horror film that didn’t feel low budget at all.  This proved to me that there are viable ways to make something cool without being cheesy or overly fake when it comes to special effects.  There is so many times where I see a bad low budget horror film and wish they could have just squeezed a few more dollars out of whichever investor they could to make a proper movie.  Now, many times in low budget horror films, special effects are the last thing that inevitably sucks because the acting is so atrocious that an unlimited amount of money couldn’t save it. 

Anyway, I saw the movie Splinter the other night and thought it was great.  It had everything I was looking for without looking for it…if you can understand what I am saying.  I mean, when I watch a movie I had never really heard of before, I go in with low standards, but it has to at least keep my attention and intrigue me or I will hit stop and eject that bitch from the ol’ blu-ray player.

The plot goes a little something like this:  A young couple is celebrating their anniversary (not marital, just their dating anniversary) and decide they are going camping in the wilderness.  Right now, you are probably thinking…”oh great, another slasher film where some dumb teenagers are stalked and brutally killer by a deranged psychopath”…nope, not it at all.  The two love birds are kidnapped by an escaped convict and his junkie girlfriend while heading to what we think is the Mexican Border. 

On the way, they encounter some car trouble in the means of a flat tire / blowout.  Eventually they discover that they are being stalked, not buy a deranged psychopathic killer…but a deranged psychopathic…something.  This “thing” is not human and it is a nasty fucking creature that has them trapped, fighting for survival and working together to beat this “monster.”

The reason this was so good in my eyes was because the director / producers / special effects team didn’t blow everything by giving us a ridiculous looking or cheesy monster.  The majority of the scenes in which the beast is in view, the camera is moving constantly, people are running, and things are askew.  We never really get a full view of the creature, just parts here & there.  That is great.  Some people may not like the camera zooming back and forth sporadically, but it keeps you wondering what the “thing” looks like without spoiling everything with a campy creature that looks like it was made for under a hundred bucks.

The scenes in which you see dead bodies are nice as well.  The make-up director and special effects guy/gal was superb.  There is a scene in which a somewhat dead body is found in a gas station restroom and it was magnificent.  The movements in each victim were great and…actually…you never hear someone say something like that do you?  Nope.

The acting was pretty good, it wasn’t anything to brag about but it was good.  The main male protagonist was funny in the movie Road Trip, and in this one he plays a pussy biology major…which is pretty convenient since they are dealing with a biological threat…kind of lame but whatever. 

The things that work for this film were the circumstances of the characters, the outstanding directing, and the bang for your buck special effects.  There are some issues with the film that are less than desirable, but overall it was a cool movie and a lot of fun to watch.  I would suggest this to anyone who wants to watch a horror film in the mood for something slightly different who are sick of all the reboots or remakes of every horror film from the late seventies and eighties.