Given the current spate of advances in genetic engineering, Splice seems eerily prescient. After all, we have already seen the rapid evolution of cloning. Supermarkets now carry cloned produce, and mammals are routinely and successfully cloned as well. Is it really unreasonable to assume we will see a human-animal hybrid in our lifetime? Who’s to say one doesn’t already exist?
It is hard to believe that director Vincenzo Natali (Cube) first conceived the idea for Splice almost 15 years ago, all because he was intrigued by the shocking image of the Vacanti mouse, that little white mouse that had a human ear growing out of its back. The result is this chilling sci-fi/horror hybrid that is teeming with the ethical and moral implications of genetic research.
Elsa (Sarah Polley, The Sweet Hereafter) and Clive (Adrien Brody, The Pianist) are gifted young genetic bio-engineers, who have successfully spliced the genetic material of different animals into a hybrid. A pharmaceutical company has sponsored them, in the hopes of developing new medications.
Frustrated, Elsa chomps at the bit to add a little human DNA to the next experiment, but the company shoots her down, deeming it too risky, not to mention illegal.
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