Whenever you hear a film actor utter the words, “We’ve changed the rules…we’ve crossed the line…,” you know you’re in for an evening’s worth of good, clean entertainment.
This new film starring Adrian Brody (“The Pianist”) and Sarah Polley (“The Sweet Hereafter”), and directed by Vincenzo Natali (“Cypher”), is an update of an idea that’s been kicking around for centuries. The notion of cross-species transformation is at least as old as ancient Greek myths. It was also explored in the earliest extant novel composed in Latin, The Golden Ass of Apuleius (158 AD).
More recently, Mary Shelley developed the plot line of a scientist synthetically engineering a beast-person in Frankenstein (1818). And H.G. Wells, always keen to illustrate the Law of Unintended Consequences, utilized a similar plot device in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896).
Of course, with the possible exception of H.G. Wells, who might have been familiar with the work Gregor Mendel, these writers were working in the dark with respect to genetic engineering. Not so, the makers of “Splice” The essential idea behind the film is now commonplace. Fortunately, CGI techniques have finally caught up with the demands of sci-fi stories on film, and we’re now able to see an example of what a genetic experiment gone wrong really looks like. In this case, it’s both creepy and sexy. Although, come to think of it, that could be a description of Pamela Anderson, or any other celebrity with an addiction to cosmetic enhancements.
From the press kit:
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
