Screamfest is running from October 10th through October 18th in Hollywood’s historic Manns Chinese Theater, I was lucky enough to catch an advance screening of Toby Wilkins’ feature debut: Splinter, a horror film that plays out like Carpenter’s “Thing” mixed with “The Mist” and a little bit of “Kalifornia”.
While out on a camping trip, Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly (Jill Wagner) get car jacked by an escaped convict and his drugged out girlfriend played by Seah Whighham and Rachel Kerbs. The young couple is taken hostage but it’s not long before all 4 of them find themselves trapped in an abandoned gas station fighting for their lives against a strange creature made up entirely of spiny thorns, or Splinters, that has the ability to inhabit and control its prey as it eats them from the inside. All it requires is a single prick from one of its countless spines to infect someone and eventually spawn a whole new creature.
The film runs a lean 82 minutes but this works in its favor as there is never a dull moment. The story sprints from one scare to the next, while the characters grow ever more frantic. In fact the whole film is extremely economical, from its small cast, to its single set and this creates an intense intimacy with the characters, and their isolation.
The dialog is also very economical, Wilkins and crew is less interested in giving drawn out exposition as to why this creature exists than in setting up the next crisis for the characters to escape. Character background also relies largely on implication and suggestion rather than wordy discussions.
Once the characters lock themselves inside the gas station Wilkins goes about building on the paranoia, claustrophobia and threat outside to continuously ratchet up the tension. Even as tenuous alliances are formed, the audience is never quite sure if the immediate threat is the monster outside or the people inside ready to double-cross each other in and attempt to escape.
Wilkins employs traditional scare tactics, like slowly building suspense to jump scares to great effect. But he also introduces some fresh innovations. In fact the way the creature moves is really unique and the effect is truly creepy. In many scenes you can see how it is rewiring the victims’ bodies and using them as puppets with little to no regard for how human bones and joints normally work. Wilkins uses this infection process to effectively mine a visceral terror long before the creature attacks.
The creature effects by Ozzy Alverez, are top notch, and use a minimum of CGI. It really is a relief to see this kind of monster realized in actual practical makeup and puppet effects. Viewers are treated to everything from the beginnings of infection, to small fist sized creature spawn, all the way through the final gigantic creature, stitched together from pieces of all its victims. There is enough gore (both human and creature) to achieve the right emotional effects with out ever feeling over done or excessive. My only complaint is the use of shaky handheld camera near during final climax is a little distracting and seems to be compensating for budget limitations.
The cast deliver solid performances all round, and the chemistry between the 4 leads is electrifying. As mentioned before the movie is not loaded with extraneous dialog, yet the cast create rich characters and convincing relationships with Body Language, sometimes communicating volumes with just looks. When the situation starts getting really strange, the cast remain grounded and convincing. It’s easy to care about these people, and that makes their peril that much more effective.
Splinter is a modest film with modest goals: Scare the pants off the audience with a monster film inspired by old school 70’s and 80’s classics. And in that goal it is completely successful.
Splinter plays at the Los Angeles Horror Festival: Screamfest on 10/15 at 7:00PM, before opening in Theaters on October 31st.
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