Les Films Séville In 1999, the first human chromosome was sequenced in full thanks to the Human Genome Project. It was a climactic accomplishment for genetic engineering, but it could’ve easily been seen as a Pandora’s box. The years before and after saw one milestone after another: the cloning of Dolly the sheep, the first approved drug that focused on gene therapy, and, in 2010, the creation of the first synthetic life form. 2010 was also the year Splice was released to a wide audience, and although it was far from a blockbuster hit, it tapped into many of the anxieties that come with having a front row seat to a new frontier.If anything, it may have tapped into them a little too well. Splice is brilliant in its barrage of discomfort, rarely allowing its viewers a bit of respite, much less any awe-inspiring “Eureka!” moments. Instead, it's a descent into horror that plays on our fears of the uncontrollable and rips at the bounds of what we conceive to be humanity.Directed by Vincenzo Natali, who’d erupted into the science-fiction scene a little over a decade earlier with the merciless, low-budget Cube, Splice deals with a pair of scientists (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) who seek to create the first animal-human hybrid. Receiving backlash for their efforts, they decide to continue in secret, and the results are oddly beautiful but consistently concerning. Named “Dren,” the hybrid proves to be fractious, not just in personality, but physically. Dren surprises her “parents” by being amphibious, carnivorous, able to sprout wings, and eventually able to change her sex. Violent professional setbacks force the scientists into seclusion, and from there, trapped with their unhinged project/child, things quickly spiral into ruin. Natali had originally planned to make Splice after the success of Cube, but he found special effects technology to be lacking. His wait for advancements paid off — Dren, a mix of a live actor, prosthetics, and CGI, is the film’s highlight. Like the initial portrayal of the monster in 1931’s Frankenstein, a film Splice shares strands of DNA with, she’s both childlike and capable of alarming rage. A precious moment in a child’s life. | Les Films Séville Natali frames her growth in steps, from toddler-esque learning to her culmination as an unmanageable sexual being, and each comes with its own portent of doom. Brody and Polley are forced to not only be her handlers and doctors, but also her clumsy parents, and the sense that they’re in over their heads lingers throughout. Even Dren learning to put words together comes with a hint that whatever path they’re on is a dark one. It’s like if Parenthood was about Steve Martin raising a Xenomorph.If there’s any director Natali seems to be channeling, it’s David Cronenberg, who was unafraid to challenge his audience’s expectations. Splice is almost confrontationally lurid, even when harnessing B-movie thrills. Towards the end, Dren uses pheromones to coerce her “father” into sex Later, her sex changed, she rapes her “mother.” The first encounter forces the scientists into a tense argument not just about Dren, but their own aspirations for actual child-rearing. It’s a disturbing scenario that Natali goes about with shocking frankness. Other sci-fi films might display this as a chance for people to embrace their normal “humanity” and emerge “stronger.” Not Splice.Dren isn’t quite going to fit in at day camp. | Les Films SévilleLike Dren’s growth, however, the screenplay (co-written by Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, and Doug Taylor) proceeds in rapid, angry fits. There is little subtlety, and as their monstrous progeny develops, Brody and Polley are either forced to react in play-by-play-esque terror, or dive headfirst into whatever new ethical nightmare has emerged. Splice can feel frenzied, as if it’s being pulled along by its concept rather than any narrative structure. Those looking for something more thoughtful or contemplative might be disappointed, as Splice all the quiet of a claw hammer to the skull.As such, Splice wasn’t really measured enough to be a vision of the future. Instead, much like Cube, it’s a fever dream of the present, a carnival funhouse mirror for whatever fears you might have about modern science. Whether you worry that it will somehow upend the status quo or produce monsters that could spell our end, it’s all there in Splice. In it, progress isn’t contained in a test tube. It leaps from our hands, sprouts wings, and soars away.