We're biochemists. We can handle this.
For my first film at the AMC Showplace 12 West (formerly the Kerasotes Showplace 12 West), I went with the science fiction/horror hybrid Splice, which shares more than a little of its DNA with the 1995 science fiction/horror film Species, but that's not such a crime, is it? Co-written and directed by Vincenzo Natali (previously best known for making 1997's Cube), the film stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as hotshot genetic engineers (they've even been interviewed by Wired and everything) who have been able to create new life forms by splicing together the DNA of different animals and decide to push the boundaries of science by adding human DNA to the mix. The result is a bizarre, ever-evolving creature that grows at an accelerated rate and periodically sprouts previously unseen appendages while at the same time it comes to look more and more human (and, rather disconcertingly, more and more attractive).
"What's the worst that can happen?" is a mantra that gets repeated by Brody and Polley several times over the course of the film and it comes to represent something of a challenge to God or Mother Nature or whoever's laws they're blithely fooling with. Then again, there's also their bottom line-driven boss (David Hewlett, who's been in each of Natali's films since Cube) and Brody's terminally curious brother (Brandon McGibbon) to deal with, so by the time their creation reaches maturity (and is embodied by French actress Delphine Chanéac) it's pretty much a given that they won't be able to keep it under wraps for long. Happily, Natali doesn't allow his film to be subsumed by creature-on-the-loose clichés (one thing that sets it apart from the likes of Species), but it remains to be seen whether modern audiences are ready to be refreshed in this fashion.