Splinter (2008) poster
2008 · horror · thriller · crime · sci-fi

Splinter

Directed by Toby Wilkins1h 22m2008
ElsewhereIMDb6.144kRT74%Metacritic58
  • heavy
  • kinetic
  • extreme
  • inventive
  • cold
Movie DNA

Heavy, breathless, extreme horror / thriller, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

When their plans for a nature trip go awry, Polly and boyfriend Seth decide to check into a motel. On their way, they're carjacked and kidnapped by low-rent crooks Dennis and Lacey, who take the victims and their SUV to a nearby gas station. Along the way, they encounter an increasingly terrifying horde of parasites, and if any of them intend to survive, they'll have to outsmart the deadly organisms.

Our read · Splinter (2008) reads as a heavy, breathless, inventive horror · thriller · crime entry — extreme in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Splinter

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want lean creature-feature horror that starts fast and never pretends to be artier than it is.

ends unsettlingyou’ll be fine aftergrabs you earlygrips by minute 8attention 4/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upbody horrorgraphic violencegorejump scaresdrug use

Skip it tonightSkip if body horror or arm-amputation scenes will ruin your whole evening.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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