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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Splice

EMAILPRINTWarner Bros. Pictures

Splice reviews
66
4.9 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 57 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Horror  |  Sci-fi  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Vincenzo Natali
Antoinette Terry Bryant
Doug Taylor

Directed by: Vincenzo Natali

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 4, 2010

Running Time: 104 minutes, Color

Origin: Canada | France | USA

Summary

RATING: R for disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language

Starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, and Delphine Chaneac

A dark vision of the world of genetic engineering in which two young scientists become superstars by splicing different animal DNA to create fantastical new creatures. Ignoring legal and ethical boundaries, the scientists, who are romantically involved, introduce human DNA into their experiment and risk the dawn of a terrifying new era. (Copperheart Entertainment)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A cheeky, great-looking, thoughtfully loopy creature feature about the lure and dangers of cutting-edge gene splicing.

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91

St. Petersburg Times Steve Persall

It's a refreshing change from run-of-the-kill horror. Nothing in Splice feels done merely for the moment -- it's to creep you out later.

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90

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The film takes itself frivolously when that's appropriate--some of it is charmingly silly--and seriously when, as is often the case, all sorts of good surprises are unleashed.

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90

Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona

In its mix are ethical quandaries in biotechnology, nature versus nurture and an adorable-sexy-disturbing monster. So there's that. But it wins best in show by focusing on one of the weirder relationship triangles in recent memory.

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90

Time Mary Pols

The movie is ridiculously over the top, inelegant and so defiantly 
crazy
that it works, reminding you how fun gore and creatures that go bump 
(and
 grind) in the night can be. It's a sci-fi horror film, but no actual 
comedy
has made me laugh as much this year as Splice.


Read Full Review >
90

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. Natali, whose earlier films include “Cube,” hasn’t reinvented the horror genre. But with Splice he has done the next best thing with an intelligent movie that, in between its small boos and an occasional hair-raising jolt, explores chewy issues like bioethics, abortion, corporate-sponsored science, commitment problems between lovers and even Freudian-worthy family dynamics.

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90

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Dark, sleek, funny and creepily infectious, the genetic-engineering horror-comedy Splice is a dynamic comeback vehicle for Canadian genre director Vincenzo Natali, who made a splash a few years ago with "Cube."

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85

Movieline Michelle Orange

Heady, creaturely, and looking for trouble, Splice is also a sovereign creation: Conceived and midwived by Vincenzo Natali (Cube), it suggests the pure-bred Canadian love child of James Cameron and Margaret Atwood (I see David Cronenberg presiding over the baptism).

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85

NPR Jeannette Catsoulis

The film's greatest accomplishment is its ability to change tone at least three times without losing the audience.

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83

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Played with black humor that never gets in the way of the horror, Natali’s film cleverly exploits Dren’s uncanny semi-humanity.

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75

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The movie begins to run out of gas as it racks up a body count, but even the mad-scientist and I-created-a-monster clichés are contorted satisfyingly enough.

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75

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Unsettling, intelligent, and way-out-there.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Disappointing then, that the movie introduces such an extraordinary living being and focuses mostly on those around her. All the same, it’s well done, and intriguing.

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75

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The sexual component to Splice pushes the story in provocatively eerie directions.

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75

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Smart, scary -- and at times very funny -- horror movie.

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75

Premiere John DeVore

The flick is driven not by special effects or outrageously gory acts of violence, but by its characters. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley reinvent the crazy scientists playing God, turning in performances that are charming one minute, petulant the next, and ultimately, compellingly hubristic.

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75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Despite acting under the computer-generated encumbrances of that monkey tail and those centaur legs, Delphine Chanéac does something remarkable with Dren – she makes her a disturbingly sexy thing.

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75

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Played as a child by Abigail Chu and as an adult by Delphine Chanéac, Dren morphs into a special-effects miracle, sexy and scary in equal doses.

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70

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Echoes of James Whale’s Frankenstein movies reverberate through this creepy Canadian sci-fi tale, whose innocent, confused beast is alternately terrifying and pathetic.

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70

The Hollywood Reporter John Defore

Writer/director Vincenzo Natali takes his tale in some truly icky directions, not quite making it into Cronenbergland but going far enough to elicit solid 'ewww' laughs from the crowd.

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70

Variety Justin Chang

Vincenzo Natali's outlandish sci-fier sustains a grotesque and funny fascination throughout its slightly protracted runtime.

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70

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

Splice is a queerly funny movie, attuned to the absurd.

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67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Splice is a twisted little genetic updating that's not half as electrifying as Shelley's novel twist on the whole man/God/creation situation (and the perils thereof).

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67

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Horror fans should still seek the film out for Dren -- one of the most striking abominations to hit the big screen in a while.

Read Full Review >
63

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Splice is as much a psychological thriller and drama about bio-ethics as it is a horror movie. Like the vastly superior "The Fly," it uses gore sparingly; delivering shocks to the audience is a secondary consideration.

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63

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Kevin C. Johnson

Moves along well until the characters and situations become too ridiculous to be believed.

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60

Time Out New York Keith Uhlich

If you’ve seen "Species," you know where this don’t-mess-with-Mother-Nature horror show is going, though director-cowriter Vincenzo Natali has a few interesting twists up his sleeve.

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50

Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore

It begins with such promise, a kinky modernist twist on a classical sci-fi morality tale. That it degenerates into conventional, genre horror is all the more disappointing.

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50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

By the time the film's climactic 15 minutes rolled around, viewers at a preview were laughing as if they were watching "Knocked Up." For a horror picture, such a reaction is the equivalent of a stake through the heart.

Read Full Review >
50

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's good to see Polley back on screen, after her successful turn behind the camera directing 2006's "Away From Her." She brings a measure of intelligence to the one-dimensional role.

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50

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

For all its surface seriousness, Splice is a regulation monster movie. So however somber it gets, it's never truly thought-provoking, and however outrageous it gets, it's still always 20 minutes behind the audience. It's just too dumb to be serious and too slow to be entertaining. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/03/MVKJ1DOO26.DTL#ixzz0pqYvhKuF

Read Full Review >
40

Boxoffice Magazine Amy Nicholson

Despite Brody and Polley's reasonable efforts, they can't compensate for a script that undermines its curiosity about humanity.

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40

Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz

An unruly mix of science, morality, family dysfunction, horror and finger-down-the-throat gross-out ridiculousness.

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0

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The yuck factor spins off the charts in Splice, a thoroughly repulsive science fiction-horror flick that slicks up its B-movie tawdriness with high-gloss production values and two otherwise classy stars.

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0

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Splice is an unholy mess because it fuses together the worst parts of every bad medical-monster thriller, and then boldly cranks up the ridiculous.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 4.9 (out of 10) based on 57 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kevy B gave it a4:
Yeah, the Metacritic score is so off! While little of this is truly bad (except for the creature-lovin'), it's all truly predictable, so you find yourself glancing at your watch waiting for the scenes you know are coming to finally get here. Which might be forgivable if this horror film had any scares to it. Aren't horror films supposed to be scary AND unpredictable?

James S. gave it a3:
This movie failed on so many levels. It started out faily strong and compelling, but fell apart once the plot started bobbing and weaving. I wanted it to be a good movie. it was like seeing your favourite team get slaughtered. The acting was well done I thought, but the direction and the way the story unfolded failed miserably. Slightly entertaining, but unless you're bored out of your mind and have a 20 spot to burn steer clear of this one.

dan g gave it a2:
As i left this movie half-way thru, i'm giving it half the rating i probably would if i'd stuck it out. i figure i left just before the alien smooching scene. i mean, if i want a good alient smooching scene i can always ask the ex to send over vids or her and her shall we say friends. people acting in movies like this, understandably, do it for the bucks (not withstanding that there's a harsh name for it).

Rick W gave it a3:
Just plain horrible. People were laughing in the movie at some of the more ridiculous moments. God, how could anyone like this move?

Jason gave it a9:
I really liked this movie. It was a mash-up of a lot of good concepts from previous movies that work well...I see that many of the negative reviews were from people who obviously don't get the idea behind "black humor." Yes, parts of it are supposed to be intentionally funny, and this does not mean it's a bad movie; horror and comedy can mix (intentionally) believe it or not. Save your money on Saw 5 (or whatever they're on now) and see this instead. Thought-provoking with real-world implications on where science is taking us.

Marco B gave it a3:
I've haven't seen such a fundamentally flawed movie in ages. Brody and Polley have absolutely no screen chemistry together. I didn't believe them as a couple for even a second so when their creation invariably threatens their romance, I could not care less. Moreover, the Brody and Polley characters are supposed to be cutting edge scientists but they seem clueless about the imminent danger even though the warning signs are so obvious that a 7 yr old in the audience would be able to pick them out.

Darleen O gave it a0:
Absolutely nothing works in this movie. It's unredeemably bad, so bad that I am shocked that anyone gave it a good review.

Read more user comments >

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