Merriam Webster’s defines chimera, just in case you don’t know, as, among other things “an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution”.

This is an excellent description of the movie Splice, which almost didn’t make it to theaters, but did, and thus, we’re reviewing it today.

Splice follows geneticists Clive and Elsa as they work to build a chimera that produces in its bloodstream a medication for livestock.  After their initial work (something that looks a lot like a cross between a gopher and a garden slug) is a rousing success, they long to turn their attention to the “next level”, adding human DNA.  This is highly controversial, and the corporation Clive and Elsa work for really doesn’t want that kind of publicity.  Plus, the company’s having SERIOUS cash flow issues, so if they want to keep the lights on, they need profit coming in.

Clive and Elsa, of course, couldn’t care less about profit so get their own human DNA and jack it into their test subject, which comes out looking like nothing so much as a giant sperm.  But as the subject grows (at an alarming rate), matures (at an even more alarming rate) and starts randomly popping up with bits and pieces of other organisms (wings, gills, amphibian lungs, a stinger), the experiment spins wildly out of control.

Now, Clive and Elsa are left to deal with their subject, which they’ve named Dren (an anagram of their workplace, one of the movie’s best jokes), before Dren deals with them.

You’ll see that I mentioned jokes.  Yes, Splice has many of them.  In fact, Splice has as many jokes as some entire films devoted to comedy.  It’s also got some tear-jerker scenes of compassion and misplaced tenderness as Clive and Elsa start regarding Dren as their child.

For those of you who thought Splice was going to be a hopped-up monster movie, you’re mistaken.  Or at least, you will be until about the last fifteen, twenty minutes or so when it goes into a really awkward full-bore monster mode.

Splice is a chimera of its own, you see; much like Dren, Splice has taken loads of pieces from other movies–jokes and maternal affection and a big nasty monster running amok–and slung them headlong into a science fiction movie setting.  The result is a wildly unconventional title that’s largely unlike anything you’ve seen before, in many ways, thoroughly original, and in other ways, thoroughly familiar.  It’s the synthesis of all these parts that really makes Splice a unique matter.

The Screenhead Ten Scale hands this unique (if still familiar) science fiction enterprise a nine out of ten–while there’s plenty new and different enough to hold your interest and keep you happy, it’s still rather niche, and it is depending heavily on the familiar to make its component parts.  But still–this one’s definitely worth checking out, even if you’re neither a science fiction or horror buff.

Kenna, I’m looking squarely at you on this one.