Splinter (2008) Review

I’d seen this movie around quite a bit when looking through various streaming services’ horror sections but never really fancied watching it. Then with this month dedicated to monster movies I did a bit of searching for the generic “Greatest Monster Movies Ever” articles. When I searched for modern ones Splinter was often listed quite high, one person even comparing it to The Thing. With that type of compliment I thought why not give it a watch.

Director: Toby Wilkins

Writers: Ian Shorr, Kai Barry

Stars: Shea Whigham, Jill Wagner, Paulo Costanzo

Run Time: 82 minutes

Tagline: It Will Get Under Your Skin

Trivia – (at around 1h 17 mins) At the end of the movie Farrell gives Seth the key to a lock box in a bank in Platt and tells him to go there to get his nest egg to give to the trucker’s wife. The address listed on the tag is 1060 W. Addison. This is the address for Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs in Chicago, IL.

IMDB.com was a bit low on trivia for this one

The film follows Polly (Jill Wagner) and Seth (Paulo Costanzo) a couple on a camping trip and as we know with horror films young couples alone on a trip always run into trouble. The trouble comes in the form of Dennis (Shea Whigham) and Lacey (Rachel Kerbs) who pretend to be distressed on the road making the couple stop the car to see if she is okay.

It was a wrong move as Dennis shoves his gun in their face and forces them to drive him and Lacey wherever they are going to. Along the way they hit an animal and it’s here we see the first hint of the splinter type infection. Although the animal should be dead it still moves with small splinters coming from it’s skin.

The group need to stop for gas but things go wrong here leaving them trapped inside the gas station with various infected creatures trying to get to them. Seth determines that the creatures act on the impulse to absorb blood. Soon despite all Dennis has done wrong including smacking Polly in the face the group begin to bond in their efforts to escape the splinter infected people.

From the time they arrive at the gas station, the film mixes some very tense scenes with some creatively done gore and “creatures” I guess you’d call them. Added to the suspicions and lack of trust they have in their captor at first it makes for an entertaining mix.

Splinter infected severed hand trying to find blood

The Good

• Dennis is a great character and without Shea Whigham‘s performance the film would have been seriously lacking.
• The creatures, make up and effects are all top notch.
• The tense atmosphere inside the gas station is brilliantly done.
• The build up to and the ending I really enjoyed, the film is quite short at 82 minutes but it is perfectly paced.
• I love the gore in this film, it’s not a splatter movie by any means but there’s some great gory scenes throughout.

The Bad

• Outside of Dennis I felt the two other main characters were a bit boring.
• Whilst I really enjoyed the ending I could see how some would find it quite predictable.

Other than that there’s not really any other bad words that can be said about this film. It’s a quick pace, gory and tense film that’s well worth a watch. I can see what they mean when comparing it to The Thing as the infection changes the human body into a monstrosity. In short all horror fans should give this one a watch and not leave it too long like I did.

Overall Rating – 8/10