Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on April 10, 2009, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
Making a low-budget horror feature that neither succumbs to nor strains to transcend its financial restrictions is harder than it appears, but the people behind Splinter make it look easy. Modest but not unambitious and put together with care on every level, it’s smart, scary and altogether satisfying creature feature of the type we don’t see enough of these days.
Director Toby Wilkins and screenwriters Kai Barry and Ian Shorr do have a bit of fun with genre expectations in the early scenes, as young lovers Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly (Jill Wagner) set out for a camping trip in a rural area that we know is the hunting turf of a small, vicious creature that mauls a gas station attendant in the opening scene. The couple, however, is defeated by their tent, and they seem to be heading back to the safety of civilization when they’re waylaid and carjacked by ex-con Dennis (Shea Whigham) and his severely wired junkie girlfriend Lacey (Rachel Kerbs). In short order, the quartet become stranded at that very same, remote gas station after nightfall, and come under siege by the parasitic critter, which takes over the bodies of its hosts and painfully disfigures and contorts them as it adapts to its new territory.
It’s a simple situation, well-developed over a swift 82-minute running time in consistently logical ways (where both situations and character are concerned). As Lacey succumbs to the attacker and the remaining trio try to figure their way out of the situation, there’s unforced, nicely judged and well-acted character development; initially weak-seeming Seth demonstrates strength in his smarts, while Polly toughs up and Dennis begins to elicit sympathy in ways that dodge cliché. Their “co-stars,” the assorted severed and assembled bodies and parts animated by the infectious creature, are brought to life via striking physical and makeup FX by the Quantum Creation team—no cheesy CGI here. While their attacks are conveyed with a bit too much jerky-cam, Wilkins’ direction is otherwise smooth and accomplished, and visually polished too in concert with Nelson Cragg’s sharp, naturalistic cinematography. Splinter may tread familiar basic ground, but it does so confidently, avoiding convention in its details and with an unerring eye on its goal: to deliver jumps and jolts while keeping us involved with its people.
Splinter is slick enough to compete with the majors, but didn’t get enough of a chance during its brief theatrical run last year, so its well-appointed DVD release by Magnolia Pictures under the Magnet banner is most welcome. Presenting the movie in a very fine 2.35:1 transfer with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio that highlights Elia Cmiral’s atmospheric score along with every flesh-rending, bone-breaking sound effect, the disc is well-stocked with bonus features. Chief among them are a pair of commentary tracks, one by Wilkins and the three stars and the other by the director, Cragg and editor David Michael Maurer, which rarely repeat each other.
Some technical info does find its way into the Wilkins/actor track, but for the most part it remains focused on, and delivers plenty of interesting discussion about, the performances—both human and creature. Costanzo even notes how making the latter convincing was crucial for the actors’ reactions to them to be plausible, tells a great story about his first scene with Whigham and reveals that he actually did have to snag a radio handset with an unbent coat hanger in a crucial moment. All the contributors, in fact, have a lot to say, and their chat is a must-listen. Equally worthwhile is the director/DP/editor talk, which addresses everything from the decision to shoot widescreen and the use of dual cameras, the importance of shallow focus in the gas station interiors and the very few scenes that were cut (along with an unfilmed FX gag). Amusingly, copious praise for Quantum’s FX alternates with justification of the shaky camerawork to make them more believable—but it’s hard not be impressed when Wilkins reveals that he also took that visual approach to make the shooting of the climactic action go faster, and captured it in just four hours!
The disc also includes a collection of featurettes, none running over five minutes but each exploring an intriguing element or quirk of the Splinter production. There’s the expected creature coverage, offering not just concept art and on-set prosthetic application footage but video of gymnast Jamie Henderson, who helped give the patchwork terror its twisted movement. On the creative side, we see how a concrete shell was turned into the functional-looking service station, and the advantages of digital photography are explored; on the jocular side, FX pyrotechnician Pat Henderson, a.k.a. “The Wizard,” explains how he applied his Green Beret training in “blowing things up” to this project, and Wagner demonstrates how to make a “Splinter Pumpkin.” There’s even a segment devoted to the weather on the Oklahoma locations, which at times drenched the Splinter team in flooding rains and provided spectacular lightning-and-thunderstorms—which resemble something out of a far more formula-bound fright film than Splinter is.
