Splinter

Ouch!, said the porcupine.


Splinter is the kind of fun movie I'd love to watch on those times that my mind is just asking to be retired for a little while, an entertaining no-brainer. The narrative is quite simple, without the fragmented complexities of Japanese horror films or the non-sequential psychadelic feel of Korean horror, this is American horror entertainment in its purest form. The beauty and affect of spectacle!

Perhaps it was because of this level of non-expectation that I was able to find the film entertaining. I had no prior idea of what the film was about. I haven't heard of any buzz about the film or even any critical reviews, so my experience with it was perhaps one of the few purest ones I've had with viewing a film. Amazing really what being left with only you and the film, without all the other what-he-said or what-they-thought to mess up and color the whole journey, would do to your appreciation of a film.

If I had known what kind of film would be shown in class when we watched Splinter, I would've decided the minute I enetered the CSR that my time would be wasted, that this shallow American gore spectacle would be one of the worst shown in class. Surprisingly though, it wasn't. For a rare moment, as I watched the events unfold in the film and bear witness as the body count rise (rather, the halved body-count rise) I actually understood why American audiences loved gore. (This realization of course would both be reinforced and questioned by the later gorier film The Midnight Meat Train.) I felt the sheer fun of seeing a body torn in half, of that half being integrated to another (rather similar to a lego man-figure being torn apart to switch pants/tops/heads/hands with another lego man-figure), and the newly formed creature going on to search for more parts to absorb. In hindsight, it was my mind being caught unaware, without the shield of automatic critical analysis and nuancing in my head, that I was opened up to this new revelatory experience.

If I will pursue this newfound interest in gore-filled horror is one that I have yet to decide on, but at least now the 'yes' is a possibility.