Splinter | DVD Review

Throw together two couples with absolutely nothing in common, have their car overheat, and hole them up in an isolated gas station whose lone attendant has recently been infected by a mysterious beast/parasite out for more “food”. It sounds like a common set-up in today’s realm of survivalist horror films, but Splinter is actually a surprisingly smart and refreshing take on the monster movie.

A young couple, Seth (Paulo Costanzo, Road Trip) and Polly (Jill Wagner, TV’s “Blade: The Series“), are having a romantic camping weekend when they are violently car jacked by escaped convict Dennis (Shea Whigham, Tigerland) and his junkie girlfriend Lacey (newcomer Rachel Kerbs). No sooner are the four of them in the car than they run over some kind of animal and get a flat tire. With a spare tire and leaking engine coolant, they turn in to the closest gas station to assess their situation. And this is when all hell breaks loose, as they are quickly attacked by the infected attendant and must think and act quickly in order to survive. First time feature director Toby Wilkins, who also co-wrote the script, comes from a background in practical visual effects, so there’s enough blood and gore for horror hounds (very little of which is CG, thankfully), but this is also a well-written film with solid character development, touching dramatic moments, and some tension-releasing light comedy as well. It may sound like overload, but it somehow all fits together rather nicely. And the casting is strong as well, with Costanzo’s comedic background as the biologist trying to figure out the what makes the monster tick complimenting Whigham’s misunderstood Dennis and Wagner’s earthy tough girl Polly.

But oh, the blood! Oh, the gore! There’s a reason this low budget gem won 6 awards – including best picture and best special effects – at the 2008 Screamfest in L.A. The practical effects are cringe-inducing in the best possible way, from the spine-tingling way the beast uses its host to try and gain access to the barricaded gas station store (don’t say you weren’t warned!) to the police officer who is unfortunate enough to have caught up to Dennis and is completely oblivious to what is transpiring. There’s also a gruesome impromptu arm-amputation-by-box cutter too, just in case the audience isn’t squirming enough in their seats already. And let’s not forget the actual monster, which is actually the horribly mutated remains of the parasite’s victims. This effect could have gone either way, but the creature’s design, coupled with the contortionist wearing the outfit and the deft camerawork and editing, make for a truly scary and horrific monster.

If you’ve got access to a home theater 5.1 surround sound system, you can’t go wrong with Splinter. The sound is EXCELLENT: the parasite splinters doing their thing, skin being pierced and sliced, bones breaking, it’s all presented in wonderfully gruesome, 3-D sound. The image is crystal clear as well, and the lighting in the store comes across very well on the small screen. While the listing of special features may seem like a lot, the 8 featurettes combined add up to about 20 minutes in length.
The Splinter Creature: this interesting mini-doc explores the creature’s development and shows the gymnast who wore the suit as he trained for his role. Hard to believe a body can move like that!

Creature Concept Art Gallery: is pretty standard fare, showing images of the creature design’s evolution.
The Wizard: is a (very) brief look at FX technician Pat “The Wizard” Henderson, who took his military training in explosives and applied it in his civilian life.
Building the Gas Station: shows us how the production design crew took a small concrete shell of a building and turned it into a gas station that looks real enough to use.
Shooting Digitally: in which Wilkins explains how he’s a film guy who was reluctant to use digital photography until now, but that he enjoyed employing digital cameras on this shoot.
Oklahoma Weather: apparently, it rained the whole time they shot the film!
How to Make a Splinter Pumpkin: the lovely Jill Wagner shows us all how to make a Splinter Halloween pumpkin in this promotional spot for the film that most probably aired in October.
HDNet: A Look at Splinter: is exactly what it says it is: a brief look at the film and some background information on it.
Commentary with Director and Cast: Wilkins, Whigham, Costanzo, and Wagner treat us to a fantastic commentary track that never gets boring. They mostly talk about the performances and how they interacted together for specific scenes, but it’s funny to hear them mention on five or six different occasions that whatever scene is onscreen at the moment is their “least-favorite use of CG in the film”, or argue over who got the best line in the film.
Commentary with Director and Crew: in the second commentary track, Wilkins gets togeter with director of photography Nelson Cragg and editor David Michael Maurer to discuss the technical aspects of Splinter. Normally, technical commentaries can be a drag, but this one proves fascinating, as we learn some of the tricks they used to get the film made on the cheap, so to speak. And rarely does the speech turn into techno-babble. They manage to hold the audience’s interest, mainly because they are so enthusiastic about their own film.

Providing a great balance between the full-on blood-and-guts horror of the 80s and the tongue-in-cheek humor of more recent films in the genre, Splinter is that rare jewel of a film that is as entertaining as it is scary. Not bad for a micro-budget monster movie made by a guy who used to blow things up for a living, eh? This is a must-own DVD for monster fans.

Movie rating – 3.5

Disc Rating – 3.5