THE MOVIE

Adrien Brody stars in Splice.

Like most of director Vincenzo Natali's films Splice is a little known science fiction movie. Vincenzo Natali is the director of cult classics such as Cube and Cypher, but Splice is a different kind of science fiction film.

Splice centres on genetic engineers Clive Nicoli (played by Adrian Brody) and Elsa Kast (played by Sarah Polley) who aim to achieve fame by splicing together the DNA of different animals to create new hybrid animals for medical use. In their quest for fame they decide to use human DNA but they are then forbidden by the pharmaceutical company that funds their work, N.E.R.D (which stands for Nucleic Exchange Research and Development). N.E.R.D 'reorganises' Clive and Elsa's department so that they have to extract proteins from the creatures they have already created.

Looks like something bad has happened.

Fearing they will spend the rest of their life researching these proteins they decide to conduct their own secret experiments and create a creature, they call Dren (nerd backwards). The rest of Splice focuses on Dren and the difference Dren makes to the couple's relationship but most importantly the couples desire to keep Dren secret.

Splice is a fantastic commentary on 'what could happen' in the future should mankind not set, and adhere to, boundaries. It's a good film that will well and truly stay with you after it is finished. The ending is wholly predictable and the science fiction roots of the film die off midway through the movie so it almost becomes an action film but overall Splice is a very enjoyable movie and something we've never seen before.

Eating something... bad.

VIDEO
The video transfer of Splice is solid, if not spectacular. During the 1920x1080p AVC MPEG-4 encoded film my PlayStation 3 hovered around 16-18Mbps. The colours are strong but the movie does have some noticeable grain (not that that is a bad thing - Dave) which means the image also retains the finer details within the image. There is plenty to like about this film, and the video transfer won't let the disc down.

AUDIO
Sonically Splice contains a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track which sounds great. The rear speakers get a heck of workout and those who have a decent speaker system will well and truly have an opportunity to test them out. The soundtrack is complimentary to the film without being obtrusive. Thhis disc only contains English subtitles.

Creature design in Splice is impressive.

EXTRAS
The Splice Blu-Ray contains a few extra features, which should satisfy most people's thirst for special features.

Interview with Director (24:58/HD): This featurette contains a 25 minute interview with a director, which is quite interesting, of particular note is when Vincenzo speaks about what actually inspired Splice.

Splice is available now on Blu-Ray.

Featurette: A Director's Playground (32:10/HD): This contains a raw look at Splice and unlike the American release this is presented in 1080i (rather than SD), which is fantastic.

Behind The Scenes (33:15/HD): This featurette goes behind the scenes during the making of this film and is rather interesting.

Trailer (1:56/HD): A trailer for the film.

OVERALL
Splice is a solid low budget science fiction film that's well and truly worth checking out.

Review By: Luke Van Leuveren

THE MOVIE	8/10
THE VIDEO	7/10
THE AUDIO	8/10
THE EXTRAS	6/10
OVERALL	7/10