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''Splinter'' is a 2008 American
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...
directed by Toby Wilkins and starring
Shea Whigham Franklin Shea Whigham Jr. (born January 5, 1969) is an American actor best known for portraying Elias "Eli" Thompson in the drama series '' Boardwalk Empire''. He also appeared in the first season of '' True Detective'' and the third season of ...
,
Paulo Costanzo Paulo Costanzo (born September 21, 1978) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (Ax) in the TV series ''Animorphs'', the roles of Rubin Carver in the comedy film ''Road Trip'', Alexander Cabot in '' Josie an ...
, and
Jill Wagner Jill Suzanne Wagner (born ) is an American actress and television personality. She was the on-field host for the ABC game show ''Wipeout'' from 2008 to 2014. Since then, Wagner has starred in several made-for-television films for the Hallmark ...
. It was filmed near
Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, an ...
, Oklahoma. It had a limited theatrical release on October 31, 2008.
HDNet Movies HDNet Movies is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned and operated by HDNet LLC, operating as a subsidiary of AXS TV LLC. Launched by founder Mark Cuban in January 2003 as a spin-off of HDNet (now AXS TV), the network fe ...
aired the film two days prior to its theatrical release.


Plot

At a sleepy gas station, the pump attendant is attacked by a splinter-infected animal. The attendant's body contorts. A young couple, Seth Belzer and Polly Watt, drive for a romantic camping trip in the forests of Oklahoma, but their plans are shattered when they are car-jacked by an escaped convict, Dennis Farell, and his drug-addict girlfriend, Lacey Belisle. The group gets a flat tire when they run over a splinter-infected animal on the road. They find shelter at the now-abandoned gas station. Lacey discovers the horribly-infected pump attendant, writhing in the bathroom. She is attacked and is killed by the monster, but her corpse slowly reanimates and becomes a new creature, which attacks the remaining survivors. While fighting her, Seth, Polly and Dennis discover that severed pieces of the infected victims are capable of attacking on their own. Sheriff Terri Frankel arrives and attempts to arrest Dennis, but is ripped in half by Lacey's corpse. The creature takes the top half of the officer's body and bonds with it, becoming a larger creature. The trio hide in the walk-in refrigerator when a piece of the creature's arm attacks them. It is discovered that Dennis has been infected, as his left arm violently twists on its own. Seth and Polly amputate his arm to prevent the infection from spreading. Dennis explains that he had been pricked by a splinter from the dead creature they encountered on the road. Seth discovers that the creatures themselves are a
fungus A fungus (plural, : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of Eukaryote, eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and Mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified ...
taking control of the corpses they infect and consuming the blood in the body, using the currently zombified host to seek out fresh and new hosts. Because of this, they hunt based on temperature and attack the warmest thing they can find. By lowering his body temperature with bags of ice, Seth sneaks past the creature to the police car, while Polly and Farell distract it with fireworks. Seth discovers that, without the keys, the car and the police radio inside are useless. His body temperature rises again, forcing Dennis to leave the gas station to lure the creature away from him. The creature enters the gas station, and Dennis and Polly hide in the freezer. The discarded fireworks ignite the trail of flammable liquid, and the gas station catches on fire. Seth retrieves a shotgun from the police car and helps Polly and Dennis escape. Dennis is infected after helping to keep the creature at bay while Seth and Polly escape. He shoots one of the gas pumps with the shotgun, and the creature is engulfed in flames, killing it. Dennis, still infected, gives Seth and Polly a key to a bank account, telling them to give it to the wife of a man he shot, who later died. Dennis shoots directly into the propane tanks, incinerating himself, the station, and any remaining infected corpses. Seth and Polly wander into the distance as other infected creature corpses lie dormant in the woods.


Cast

*
Jill Wagner Jill Suzanne Wagner (born ) is an American actress and television personality. She was the on-field host for the ABC game show ''Wipeout'' from 2008 to 2014. Since then, Wagner has starred in several made-for-television films for the Hallmark ...
as Polly Watt *
Paulo Costanzo Paulo Costanzo (born September 21, 1978) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (Ax) in the TV series ''Animorphs'', the roles of Rubin Carver in the comedy film ''Road Trip'', Alexander Cabot in '' Josie an ...
as Seth Belzer *
Shea Whigham Franklin Shea Whigham Jr. (born January 5, 1969) is an American actor best known for portraying Elias "Eli" Thompson in the drama series '' Boardwalk Empire''. He also appeared in the first season of '' True Detective'' and the third season of ...
as Dennis Farell * Rachel Kerbs as Lacey Belisle * Laurel Whitsett as Sheriff Terri Frankell * Charles Baker as Blake Sherman Jr.


Production

Wilkins said the original script was a "classic siege movie" that interested him. The monster in this script was more generic, but he realized that an idea he and a friend had been developing about a parasitic creature would fit in well. Wilkins found the concept of a creature that takes over its host to be scarier than one that simply kills it. Like ''
28 Days Later ''28 Days Later'' is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It stars Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly conta ...
'' and '' The Thing'', he wanted his characters to briefly fight against the infection before losing their personality. Wilkins also wanted to introduced horror from the creature's ignorance of how human bodies work and its resulting abuse of the host's skeleton. To choreograph the jerky movements by the infected people, Wilkins used multiple performers, including a gymnast, mime, and stuntperson. Most of the effects are practical. Shooting took place in Oklahoma City.


Reception

On
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, ''Splinter'' received an approval rating of 74% rating based on 35 reviews and an average rating of 6.3/10. Its consensus reads, "Never taking itself too seriously, ''Splinter'' scores as a fast-paced, fun thriller with more than enough scares." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Claudia Puig from ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...
'' gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "This is classic Halloween fun with plenty of thrills and chills, surprisingly believable performances and healthy doses of humor." Chuck Wilson from ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' wrote, "Buoyed by solid ensemble work, some yuckily effective special effects, and a script that subverts genre convention by having its characters do smart things instead of stupid ones (mostly), ''Splinter'' earns our respect while delivering 82 minutes of lean, mean fun." Marc Savlov of ''
The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' awarded the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, stating that the film "would have made a far more effective short than the feature-length drag it is." ''Splinter'' won six awards at the
Screamfest Horror Film Festival Screamfest Horror Film Festival is a horror film festival founded by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in August 2001. It runs over ten days during the month of October and is hosted at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles, Cal ...
: Best Editing, Best Score, Best Special Effects, Best Make-Up, Best Directing and Best Picture. It was a nominee for Best Horror Film at the 35th Annual
Saturn Award The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films bel ...
s, but it lost to '' Hellboy II: The Golden Army''. It was also nominated in
Spike TV Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Media Networks. The network's headquarters are located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles. The channel was ...
's 2009
Scream Awards The Scream Awards was an award show dedicated to the horror fiction, horror, Science fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy genres of feature films. Originally only having ''Scream Queen'' and ''Heroic Performance'' awards for actors, the personnel awards h ...
for Most Memorable Mutilation for the arm removal scene, but lost to ''
Saw V ''Saw V'' is a 2008 horror film directed by David Hackl, in his directorial debut, from a screenplay by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. It is the fifth installment in the ''Saw'' film series and sequel to 2007's '' Saw IV''. The film stars T ...
's'' Pendulum Trap.


References


External links

* * * {{Amg title, 413148, Splinter 2008 films 2008 horror films 2000s monster movies American monster movies American natural horror films Fictional parasites and parasitoids Films scored by Elia Cmíral Films shot in Oklahoma Films set in Oklahoma Syfy original films Films directed by Toby Wilkins 2000s English-language films 2000s American films