Wonderful character development!

hyped garbage

Absolutely the worst movie.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Likable characters (even the bad guy, in the end) and an intense plot add up to some good entertainment for me. I did have to pause it a few times and take a break because it was so in-your-face intense. Some folks did not like the shaky-cam effects, and normally, I would be right in there with them. If overused, it is nauseating and irritating to the extreme! In this movie, I think it was used effectively to show the chaotic, happened-in-a-nanosecond experience that occurs in real life violent events. Unfortunately, I've personally experienced some of these in my life, and can testify that they look just like that when you are experiencing them.Give it a watch if you are a horror fan. I don't think you will be disappointed, but YMMV. :-)Much appreciation to the IMDb website crew for the recommendation, because I would not have heard of it or viewed it without that. Thanks!

I'm going to keep this brief...ish. This film isn't for everyone, you've got to have a strong stomach going in and know what you're in for, which is an hour and 22 minutes of relentless action, chills, suspense, and gruesome body horror. The plot is simple, but effective... a roadside carjacking turns into "Assault on Precinct 13" meets "The Thing", as the three main characters take refuge from a terrifying creature they encounter by chance inside of a seemingly abandoned gas station. The rest I won't spoil for you.The filmmaking on display here is top-notch (by both Hollywood and indie-film standards). The cinematography is gritty and expertly executed, utilizing a hand-held, high contrast look with a lot of long lenses that lend to an almost documentarian, voyeuresque aesthetic. That, coupled with sincere, grounded performances from the entire cast works to evoke a very real, sober, and urgent tone for the film. You can really tell everyone was on the same page here, behind the camera and in front. The character work/performances served up are truly commendable, with a standout performance by Shea Whigham. This isn't one of those clichéd horror flicks with dumb characters doing dumb things... to the film's credit, it's a helluva lot smarter than that, and so are its characters. The creature/gore/practical FX are also very well done, by any standards. The filmmakers are smart enough to show you just enough of the "creature" to freak you out, letting your mind fill in the gaps of what you think you just saw. But while they hold back a bit (wisely) with showing the creature itself, you can count on everything else happening in full, bone-crunching detail. As mentioned before... not for the squeamish.All said, I highly recommend this film to almost any horror fan, especially those of you that love 80s/90s creature features and practical FX. If there are any complaints its simply that this film will not be accessible to anyone outside the genre, but that's hardly a complaint. "Splinter" is essentially the first truly worthy successor to John Carpenter's "The Thing", and almost definitely the best balls-to-the-wall "Scary thing out there, and we're in here" flick of the last 10 years, if not more. Check it out, you won't regret it.

Splinter is a fun little bio-horror pastiche that has a cool monster with a slightly original angle. Overall, it plays out like a Stephen King story that pays homage to a number of well known horror films like The Mist, Evil Dead 2, and The Thing.We start out with Dennis (Shea Wigham, who is probably best known for playing Eli in Boardwalk Empire) and Lacey- a couple of meth heads on the lamb.On their way to Mexico, they stop to carjack a young couple- Polly and Seth- whom they take hostage.Shortly after this occurs, though, they run over a mysterious biological organism that pops their tire and mangles their radiator.They are forced to pull into a gas station, only to find that it is unattended. Turns out they are not alone, though. While trying to go to the bathroom, Lacey is attacked and killed by what looks like a mauled and decaying store clerk...cover in spines.Luckily for them, Seth is studying his PHD in biology, and is able to deduce that it is some sort of mold-like organism that parasitically infects and consumes it's host, while forming a mycelial network that seeks out food via infrared light.Much like in The Mist, the group becomes trapped in a store, from which they must battle the dark forces lurking outside, with only the resources contained within it. Albeit, without the whole socio-political dynamic going on.The monsters are kind of like zombies, but because of their parasitic, fungal nature, they form networks between infected parts, which essentially leads to all the infected dead bodies being incorporated into one awkwardly massive beast...that's just out to feed.If, say, someone's arm gets lopped off (while infected)...it becomes animate, and seeks either to satiate itself or join up with the greater entity. Inevitably, this leads to a well-done homage to the Evil Dead 2 hand gag.As more characters succumb to this parasitic invasion, and bodies pile up...the larger and more absurdly deformed the monster becomes. It actually ends up looking quite similar to the creature from The Thing.While by no means original, this film can be valued for being an entertaining pastiche, if anything. Though there are some cool special effects in the film, some parts are relatively unconvincing. That being said, the runaway hand/arm scenes are very well done. I also liked how they made the parasite a fungal entity, and was entertained by the spikey-beasts who would just bash themselves senselessly against the glass. That was pretty wicked. Not a great film, but a mindlessly fun watch.5 out of 10.

Smart little horror this, what it lacks in story originality it more than makes up for elsewhere.Young lovers Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly (Jill Wagner) find their attempts at a romantic camping trip usurped by their inadequacies in the great outdoors. But this soon becomes the very least of their problems, because they are car-jacked by escaped convict Dennis Farell (Shea Whigham) and his drug addict girlfriend Lacey Belisle (Rachel Kerbs). When they run over what they think is an animal of some sort, it signals the start of a terrifying ordeal that will see the group backed into the interior of a gas station and forced to fight for their lives.What follows is a solid hour of suspense, terror, horrifying scenes and rich character dynamics. It's a siege situation with the enemy some sort of porcupine – vegetable – human hybrid, and it's relentless and clever. Director Toby Wilkins doesn't once let the picture sag or suffer from filler, all scenes and character interactions are integral to the plotting. Mercifully free of characters doing the dumb things that are so inherent in this splinter (hrr hrr hrr) of horror, Wilkins' film is consistently effective in what it wants to achieve.The effects are kept to a minimum and the only real complaint is that for every attack by the creature we are subjected to shakycam. If this is to hide the effects work we don't know? And it's always great to have a horror assailant be used sparingly on a visual level, but the shakycam becomes annoying and feels like a bit of a cheat in the final quarter. The small cast offer up some sterling performances, with Whigham standing out as the hateful villain, while Nelson Cragg's photography strips the colours down to primal indie level and the film is better for it.A pleasant surprise and recommended to horror fans after a quick and bloody siege horror that never disappoints. 8/10