Tuesday 25 October 2011

Splinter

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Year:2008
Country of origin:USA
Director:Toby Wilkins
Genre:When mould attacks
Starring:Jill Wagner, Paulo Costanzo, Shea Whigham, Rachel Kerbs
Rating:4/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1031280/
Tagline:It will get under your skin.
Favourite line:"It's okay, it's okay, we're cutting your arm off."

Nasty, effective shocker that really delivers.

The plot:
On a camping trip, a nauseatingly perfect couple decide that nature has gotten the better of them and head for a Motel. Seeing a young woman at the side of the road, they stop to see if she needs help, only to be taken hostage by the woman's seemingly psychotic boyfriend.
Forced to drive, the car hits something in the road and develops a puncture.
Repairs affected, they continue, only for the radiator to start playing up, so they stop at a garage. Heading for the loo, the female accomplice discovers something horrific: a man, only twisted and bent out of shape, lacerated, with sharp, spine-like bristles jutting from his body.
Sensing her, it lunges.
Fleeing, she doesn't get too far before being cut down, forcing the three remaining to lock themselves inside the garage shop, lain siege by the victims of the Splinter parasite.....

Modern horror movies rarely deliver the goods, but this is a notable exception. The set-up is neat, with tension built, though not too prolonged.
The monster itself is unusual, with shades of Carpenter's The Thing, along with the Cronenberg body horror we all know and love.
If you were being cynical, you could accuse it of ripping off various genre pieces - Evil Dead 2 (out of control arm), Aliens (thing scuttling along the floor), The Mist (trapped in a shop with gribbly type things outside) - but to do that would make you an astonishingly miserable arse.
Frightening, disturbing, splatterific, not to mention well scripted and very well made, I really, really liked this.

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