The upcoming Splice is a film set to subvert audience expectations.
Though marketed as big budget horror schlock from Hollywood, it’s actually a rather thoughtful and unpredictable Canadian film from Cube director Vincenzo Natali that can be only be classified as a horror movie for lack of any other applicable genre.
The film stars the almost irritatingly talented Sarah Polley in a brief break from her burgeoning career as a director. The Sweet Hereafter star recently spoke with Metro about her new and difficult to classify movie.
“I don’t know what it is actually,” laughed Polley. “Its somewhere between a horror movie and a science fiction movie and a drama and a comedy, a real melting pot of genres. I think that’s what makes it appealing to somebody like me who wouldn’t traditionally seek out a science fiction or horror movie.”
Polley and Adrien Brody star as a pair of married scientists who have successfully created the first genetically engineered creature combing both human and animal DNA.
Shunned by the company funding their research, the couple begin raising the creature as their child and the film transforms from a monster movie into a bizarre commentary on the fears of parenthood.
“I think what’s interesting about the film is that the humans are infinitely more monstrous than the creature at a certain point. We’ve always had monster movies to talk about ourselves, and I think Splice is in that tradition in a strange way.”
Polley is quick to acknowledge that she’s not particularly enamoured with monster movies, but this film offers much more than empty scares and it was the many layers of the project that intrigued her.
“I want to be in films that have something to say or are innovative or push the envelope in some way, and I feel like that can fit into any kind of film,” explained Polley.
While Splice gets audiences talking this summer, Polley will be starting work on her next directorial outing, Take This Waltz starring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Sarah Silverman.
She described the film as “a romantic drama about a woman dealing with the honeymoon period in relationships and her attraction to that newness.”
Polley is committed to transitioning out of acting and into directing. “It’s definitely where I feel like I’m headed,” she confirmed.
