Directed by Toby Wilkins (The Grudge 3 ’09), Splinter stars Jill Wagner as Polly Watt and Paulo Costanzo as Seth Belzer. Also stars Rachel Kerbs as Lacey Belisle, Shea Whigham as Dennis Farell and Laurel Whitsett as Sheriff Terri Frankel.
A couple, Polly and Seth, are taken hostage in their car by two criminals, Lacey and Dennis, and Polly is forced at gunpoint to act as a driver for the pair. During the journey Polly hits ‘something’ in the road which punctures one of the car’s tyres and damages the car forcing them to pull in at a gas station which at first seems deserted. They are attacked and find themselves trapped there by a strange parasite which takes its victims as hosts.
Splinter is an original and highly entertaining take on ‘parasite’ films such as Shivers ’75 and The Thing ’82. Much of the film is set in the gas station I mentioned but did Night of the Living Dead ’68 or The Evil Dead ’81 suffer from being set largely in a single location, nope, and neither does Splinter. Horror fans should love this; it’s got great effects, top-notch gore actually, decent characters and it sucks you into the plight of the characters, never boring. I know I like a film when I’m thinking, ‘I wonder how this is going to end’, not, ‘when is this going to end?’, and this gripped me throughout.
Cheap Blu-ray. Bang! Hope there’s a sequel.
