You may not like Splice. I’m not sure how that’s possible if you’re reading a site called CHUD.com and you’ve been coming here for any amount of time, but it’s possible that Vincenzo Natali’s Splice may not completely work for you. It’s not a perfect film. It’s not the next great thing. It’s not going to redefine the way you look at movies.
But it’s damn good, and even if you find that you don’t like it, I guarantee you’re going to at least be able to admit that it’s interesting and it’s unique and it’s pretty incredible that a studio like Warner Bros gave it a major release.
And that’s why you have to go see it this weekend. This is one bad summer, and it’s just going to keep getting worse. There are reasons for it, including fallout from the writer’s strike, but the reality is that summer 2010 is the end result of box office returns from previous years. The fact that people have flocked to so many terrible movies over the last few years, and in such record numbers, has emboldened Hollywood to try even less.
So now it’s time to embolden them to try a little more. Splice wasn’t made by Warner Bros, but rather picked up by the studio after Sundance. I doubt a movie as weird and quirky and, frankly sick as Splice would ever get through the corporate development system, but what’s important is that the movie is finally coming. And it’s coming to a theater near you. All too often I see people in the comments and the message board say they would love to go see an interesting, artful and unique film in theaters, but it’s not playing in their area.
Splice is playing in your area. It’s a wide release, which means that all but the most remote of you should have little problem finding a theater playing it. Make a trip out of it with your friends, plan dinner and drinks around it. Just get out there and support it with your money.
I’m not promising you’ll like it, even though I liked it quite a bit. I’m just asking you to put your money where your mouth is. You wanted to see summer movies that broke the blockbuster bullshit mold and that played outside of New York and LA… well, here one is. Here’s a movie that’s defiantly weird, that goes places no sane movie would go, that isn’t afraid to embrace some dark humor and to try and creep you out on a deep, human level at the same time. That’s a movie that deserves your support.
So go see Splice. If you didn’t like it, come back here and tell us why. But know that you went out and voted with your ticket, that you sent a message to Warner Bros that you’d prefer them to keep taking chances, to keep trying new things, to not always be safe. Know that you sent a message to the studios that they don’t have to make horrible movies like Killers or Marmaduke or Gulliver’s Travels, that you won’t wait to see the interesting films at home.
And if you don’t go, I don’t want to hear you complaining the next time there’s a shitty remake or a shitty sequel or a shitty movie based on a shitty toyline or cartoon. It’s time to put up or shut up, and I think we should all happily walk up to the box office window and put up this weekend. I know I will be.