1. And so it begins...

The Movie: Splinter


So here we go....movie number 1. I was excited as hell to get this little endeavour on the way finally. My Netflix movies came in last night (Friday night) but it was the first Red Sox Vs Yankees game of 2009. Being an avid Red Sox fan, I decided that it took precedence over this movie.

Anyhow! Let's talk indy horror, which is the category to which this little diddy owes its allegiance.

Hollywood as a whole is doing a terrible, TERRIBLE thing to the horror genre these days. Unoriginality in it's remakes and utter lack of ideas have caused the horror fan drinking hole to run dry...and there are plenty of thirsty gore hounds out there!

This has caused us to reach out and try and find solace in the only thing we can besides the classics...the indy's. The Indy horror world seems to be the final frontier for the horror film and from what I've seen, it's a bleak and barren place.

We've all been in blockbuster and seen horror movie upon horror movie on the never ending shelves and thought "Who the hell watches this shit"? Unfortunately indy horror has very little going for it.

But alas...there is hope!

Here and there we get some gems that slip out under the radar and get mixed in with the heap of garbage we see at the video store but if you dig deep enough you will find good stuff. My best example is a small and relatively unknown Canadian flick called Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer. This was an example of awesome hack and slash, 80's style, creature driven and comedy seasoned film. As much as I love that movie though...I'm not here to write about that one. I've seen it...damn!

There have been other gems out of the indy horror world and I must say, Splinter is one of those Gems.

While not overly original and groundbreaking, Splinter is definitely something we haven't seen in awhile. The story in short consists of a Criminal on the run, his addict girlfriend and the two young lovers they've taken hostage. While making a run for the border,the SUV they are driving, overheats. They stop at a rural gas station where they stumble on something they didn't expect.

Some sort of parasitic organism has come to town on business apparently and is looking to kill some free time by mingling with the locals. But like most attempts to mix with a crowd you're unfamiliar with...there's some unexpected variables. Like for instance....one of the characters being a Biologist.

Lucky for our antagonists, they have an expert on hand to help them battle a strange organism that man has never seen. How about the definition of convenience? Especially when you need to try and push some plot points.

Luckily...these are the only issues with this film that I had. The originality came in the creature that acts as our protagonist. I don't know what to call the thing...the splinter? The splinter guy? Splintosaurus Rex? I don't know....but if you put a guitar in it's hands, it would rock the joint. The creature sort of reminds me of a creature from The Thing (My favorite) mixed with the main bad guy from Slither and finally garnished with some Zombie like traits. Take the prior ingredients and mix them in a pot with some decent makeup FX and you got yourself a kick ass, original and tasty creature feature bad guy!

It's strong points were mostly technical for me. Well shot, well lit and the makeup was near boner inspiring

So after all of that...I feel like there isn't much else to say without giving something away. Splinter will in no way be an Oscar winner nor find itself in the annals of horror history but it was original enough to be interesting and relatively well made.

Check out Splinter if you got the time or you're looking for some fun popcorn film to watch with some friends. It seems to me that this one is something you'll have to make your own judgement on.

I give this lil nugget a 3 1/2 out of 5.

Til next time. Keep it metal!

Dave