After making Cube director Vincenzo Natali wanted to make Splice as his next film but budget and effects restraints forced him to wait until he felt the time was right.
Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) work for a company called N.E.R.D. (Nucleic Exchange Research and Development) that wants them to create creatures that they want to use for medical purposes. Clive and Elsa have created a couple of weird creatures called Fred and Ginger which they hope to mate and use create all sorts of proteins for medicine but it’s not enough for them. They want to create a hybrid using human DNA.
Their bosses tell them no deal but they secretly proceed anyway. The creature they created Elsa names Dren (nerd spelled backwards). Dren starts growing at an accelerated rate. Soon they have to move her out of the lab and into the woods to keep her a secret. Then things start getting out of hand.
This is a pretty good and creepy mad science horror movie. Both Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley are excellent as scientists willing to push the boundaries of science to create what they want. The movie has co-produced by Dark Castle Entertainment along with Telefilm Canada and it and to date it appears that Splice is the only film that Dark Castle has released that hasn’t been rated rotten on Rotten Tomatoes.