Splinter

Seth Belzer and Polly Watt (Paulo Costanzo and Jill Wagner), are a young, charming couple celebrating their anniversary and vacationing in the ancient forests of Oklahoma where the intellectual Seth spends most of his time blabbing about the age of trees and the incredibly gorgeous Polly discusses making love under the stars. Anyhow, they are car jacked by 2 escaped convicts, Dennis (Shea Whigham) and his rather charmless (character not the actress), drug addicted girlfriend Lacey (Rachel Kerbs). When they experience an unexpected flat tire, they go to a nearby gas station that appears to be abandoned and where they soon discover a ferocious parasitic prickly life-form that is hell bent in devouring them. Trapped within the locked gas station, they are forced to play a game of "Survivor" and must find a way to outplay, outwit and outlast the ever evolving predator or they too will become its prey.Directed by Toby Wilkins ("The Grudge 3"), "Splinter" is a not-so-original monster movie but technically well-made and provides just enough suspense and gore to elevate this above others in the genre. Be warned despite this not being an annoying "found footage" feature, there is a lot of quick, jolting, shaky camera work and this may become irritating and give you a bit of a headache and the thorny fiend is shown a lot, but we never really get a good look at it; depending on the viewer, this is a either a positive or a negative. For me, it is a positive. There is nothing more annoying than showing your less than perfect monster too much. Unless they are spectacular to behold like the refined, glistening xenomorphs in the "Alien" franchise, other, less polished looking monsters deserve to be given some mystery. Too much screen time takes away from their mystique and at times, it unmasks its flaws. We do see several aspects of its gruesome, constantly changing appearance (it is a doozy) and its grisly, slimy work is in constant display. At times, the film did remind me of 2 remakes, John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982) and Chuck Russell's "The Blob" (1988), however this picture moves at a faster, swifter pace. Another big positive for me is that the film does not rely too heavily on CGI. Most of the effects, make-up look like they were done old-school and are very effective. This is evidence enough that good practical effects and gore can still be used successfully in modern horror when done right.The performances are good. Characters range from terribly unlikable (the 2 convicts) to likeable (the 2 sweethearts). They are all well acted despite some scene being terribly over-the-top and some of the dialogue a bit ridiculous, but then again, this is a monster movie, so toss logic out the window. The gore is great and although it is here in abundance, it is not overdone. For those looking to waste a good 82 minutes on a slightly above average monster movie, this is a good option. Just grab your popcorn, sit back and enjoy. "Splinter" isn't exactly ground-breaking, but it is a fast-paced, well-crafted creature features that delivers the gooey goods.The DVD includes several extras, mostly of which I have not seen yet. Call me lazy but unless I am watching my all-time favorite movies, I usually do not pay attention to these extras - commentaries, documentaries, etc. But that's just me. For those that crave this sort of thing, dig in as this DVD features a nice assortment of bonus materials. There are commentaries from the cast, crew, the Director; a featurette "The Splinter Creature" (interesting but brief), a Creature Concept Art Gallery, and it even has instructions (provided by the sexy Jill Wagner) on how to make a Splinter pumpkin and more. For horror film fans, the film is worth owning with or without all of these extra's.*** ½ (out of 5)

Okay, films like this can often go south very, very quickly. Thankfully, this one actually stayed on track and delivered the goods on the whole.The acting was decent enough to be acceptable. The characters were well defined, and you really did not like Seth as the film unfolds...until he actually begins to "man up". The actor did a good job making you find the character worthless as the story opens up and moves forward. But he gets his redemption, too.The bad guy was very well played, actually. The actor defined him, and inhabited the character very believably, interestingly enough. Actors often love to play bad guys because they can be so colourful. There's a lot of room to define the character and the malevolence level you want to inject.The girl was played smart and she was pretty well defined as a character as well. You did wonder what she saw in the dweeb. But after this experience, the dweeb actually showed promise as a worthwhile guy to be with. And of course she would find him more attractive as a result. Well, love is blind, right.But I digress...Overall a great story. Stayed focused on the reason the film exists. It is, after all, a survival story. And it delivers on that.Because of the foul language, particularly early on, we knocked a star off. Look, some language is understandable, but when it is being spewed out every other word, in every sentence, it just becomes unlistenable. Yes, I know that some people actually talk like this, but that doesn't mean I want to hear it in dialogue in a film. You really begin to see how offensive it is to hear it so much in someone's speech.Anyway, apart from that, we actually enjoyed the whole storyline because it told the story well and didn't throw in weird plot twists and things that made no sense.Look, in stories like this, you also have to just let go and enjoy the ride, ignoring any implausible things that may crop up...as long as there aren't too many of such things thrown in. Then it just shows bad writing and execution. That didn't happen here. Kudos!

Fight the Good Fight!!

Enjoyable and suspenseful with genuine jumps and scares. The camera is a bit shaky at first but it evens out. It tends to go really shaky during the action scenes. I liked the characters and all were played very well. A glimpse into the human side of stereotyped people. It was entertaining and creepy and does what it says on the tin!

Awesome movie.This Region B/2 UK version works with a Region A/1 player. I was a bit iffy buying this at first so I did some research and found someone mention that it works with Region A/1 players. I decided to take a risk because it costs much less than the American version and I like the cover art better. I'm writing this here to confirm that it does work!

I enjoyed this. My copy worked in my player, and I had a fun night with a good dose of body horror.

Described as a low budget horror by many reviewers. It is, but does offer plenty that many Hollywoodesque big budget, big star productions do not.Very tense, well acted by the three main actors and the three supporting actors with bit parts and just a little smattering of creature effects. It's all about the slowly unfolding tension, the claustrophobic setting in a room not much bigger than the average kitchen diner and the frailties and strengths of the main characters.Shea Whigham (who plays the character of Steve Buscemi's sheriff brother in Boardwalk Empire) is outstanding as a partly psychotic robber who seeks redemption for his acts of violence.Very atmospheric throughout thanks to director Toby Wilkins and a limited but effective script by the writers.I'm not a big horror fan but this is certainly well worth a watch for the excellent and different story line and the foreboding atmosphere of the film.

There's something way out back by a gas station, a splinter that invades the body, cracks your bones and kills you, then uses your body as a tool. sounds great eh? So a couple out on the road get pulled over by some thieves a man and a drug induced woman. But something's up, this isn't just going to be a normal hostage situation. They arrive at the infected gas station, and this is where the majority of this film takes place as they take refuge inside against the 'alien' being.Bunch of characters here, the hostages first: The woman is more kick ass so to speak and strong willed, even the baddie calls her a firecracker- her boyfriend is wimpish but knows his science which will come in handy later on in the film. The stand out though is the baddie who seems to have all the best lines played well by Shea Whigham. Now against this alien splinter thing the three become united to stop it- even though at one point bad guy smashes the butt of his gun against woman's head.Splinter is a classic play by numbers horror- we've seen it all before- at times it comes across like a bad man's THE THING, but still has its very own charm. It's certainly not a bad movie and production values are half way decent. The major problem is the director Toby Wilkins who shoots the horror scenes like he's making the latest Eminem video, please no shaky cam, it doesn't do the effect you think it will!By the finale our main characters start making dumb choices, but at under 80 minutes Splinter gets the job done. Certainly no classic but decent all the same, albeit with tried and tested faults.

This single disc DVD comes with some basic bonus documentary/explanation type features, amongst these is a short demo on how to make a splinter pumpkin as well as another showing the weather during film-making. Otherwise it's a standard DVD albeit with a good picture quality and a sound level that's louder than most. Despite the limited cast and enclosed film set location the film never bores.The story basically revolves around two dissimilar couples who are thrown together through circumstances and find themselves isolated in a gas [petrol] station where they are forced to co-operate in order to survive. There's plenty of gore to be found and the splinter creature gives a few jumpy moments.The film lies somewhere between The Thing meets The Mist meets most zombie type movies, only change the zombies into mutating organisms. If these films appeal to you and you like the gore in movies like SAW then this is probably for you and well worth a try.