Well, folks, it’s time for another round of fun courtesy of the folks at Magnolia Pictures, and these guys have a downright malicious streak when it comes to their horror movies.  They’ve been known to put out some really impressive fare–almost like Lions Gate used to back in the day before they took pretty much anything in sight, including some really godawful pieces, but that’s neither here nor there for our purposes.

Today we’re taking a run at Splinter, a movie that shows that one of the hardest places on earth to film a movie may well be at a gas station.  Anyway, Splinter is a monster movie, plain and simple–an escaped convict and his (essentially) apprentice kidnaps a young couple.  But the plans quickly go awry as the foursome finds themselves attacked by a “splinter parasite” with some kind of goofy mind-control capability.  Essentially, it assimilates its host and controls its actions via infection.  When the group must take shelter from the attacking monstrosity, all they can find is an abandoned gas station.  They must find a way to repel the monster and get out alive, neither of which will be easy to do.

You’ll get a chance, real early on, to see what kind of damage a splinter infectee can do, and frankly, it’s a sight to behold.  I love it when movies put you on a fairly even keel with the rest of the storyline right away–too much exposition can really bog things down, but Splinter doesn’t have this problem. It’ll provide what information it does in little bits along the way, and they’re carefully interwoven into the plot itself so as not to break the suspense.

If anything, Splinter suffers from something of a lack of exposition.  I’m not sure just where these “splinter” monsters came from nor how they operate.  Granted, it’s not necessary to know their life story in order to go along with the movie–it’s enough to know that these monsters exist and that they’re really unpleasant.  But still, it might have been nice to at least know if I’m watching a horror flick or some science fiction.

Admittedly, that doesn’t matter so much, as regardless of what genre this actually falls under, it’s still pretty scary and plenty entertaining.  What’s really impressive about this one is how frighteningly immersive it is.  The movie was more than half over by the time I thought to check the clock. Some truly fantastic sequences will be born out of this, and by the time they figure out how to beat the splinters, you’ll get some especially nice surprises besides.  It’s downright ingenious what they come up with.

Despite some really rather minor flaws in terms of exposition, and the fact that fluctuating gas prices must make it a bear to shoot at a gas station, Splinter is a wild, scary romp that will almost certainly leave you breathless.  The sheer immersive capability, coupled with the overall force of the plot, makes Splinter a winner no matter if you’re here for monsters, aliens, or just mold run amok.  Splinter takes home an eight on the Screenhead Ten-Scale, and the most fervent endorsement we can give.