Splinter

Story is everything. The straight-to-DVD Splinter impressed me because the filmmakers share this view. Be under no illusions – it is easy to make a film. It’s hard to make a good one.

Splinter’s good - a simple survival horror film, shot near Oklahoma City in 2008. It’s British director Toby Wilkins first feature. In brief: two bank robbers accost a young couple and the four become quickly trapped in a petrol station and attacked by an aggressively self-replicating super-virus.

The small cast (there are six parts) in a single location works brilliantly. Due to the hour and twenty minute runtime, I never felt the film slow down. I was gripped and since the film was so short I never felt any of the characters choices become contrived. Due to the speed of the plot unravelling there was no time to second-guess their actions; a problem with many modern films running over two hours.

The characters were well written. Shea Whingham’s Dennis is an emasculated whelp begging to be put through Fight Club and defiantly not prepared to deal with an dangerous flesh-eating virus, despite a Biology PHD. His girlfriend Polly (Jill Wagner) is likewise a subversion of the characters we usually see in these kinds of films. She is a capable, clever woman (often unrepresented in modern Hollywood cinema) who never breaks down miserably under the ensuing spatter. Lastly the bank robbers flesh out the second half of the cast and are finely performed if slightly snobbishly approached by the USC film school educated writer Ian Shorr. All the actors deliver strong, clear performances.

It’s refreshing to be presented with a story that is not based on a computer game or a remake of another film or a sequel. This lends the filmmaker an invaluable advantage – we’ve utterly no idea what will happen. It’s an approach that makes for exciting viewing. Wilkins’ direction excels when focussed on the power plays and status changes experienced by his characters as they hole up in the petrol station. With a background in effects he is also unafraid of showing the thrashing spine-encrusted monsters infected by the virus - a nice change from the odd slimy close-ups conventional since Alien.

The film was clearly made on a very small budget and the emphasis on the single location and frugal approach to practical effects do betray this. However that’s a small complaint and the film is so unashamed in its speed and directness in unfolding it’s one I happily forgive.

by D.F.I