LITERAL REMAINS

Seth and Polly plan to celebrate their anniversary by taking a weekend camping trip and making love under the stars.  Seth is not the outdoors type and after breaking the tent poles (part accident/part not), the happy couple decide to head to the nearest motel, the sleazier the better (we’ve all been there).

Enter Dennis and Lacey.  Dennis is an escaped con trying to get to his stashed loot so he and his true love Lacey can get to Mexico so Lacey can kick drugs.  Sadly their truck breaks down, but luckily Seth and Polly stop to help.  Yep, it’s a love bird car jacking only hampered by the ill turn of Polly hitting some kind of animal.  The quills, or splinters, or whatever, from whatever they hit damages their ride and forces the two couples to stop at a lonely little gas station, where they find the attendant horribly mauled…by something.

I like to watch movies I’ve never heard of, or low-rent, grade B flicks, or independent films in the hope that I can stumble upon another Dog Soldiers.  Splinter is not Dog Soldiers, but holy hell it’s right up there with it.  This is a really good movie.  It’s the cast that sells this thing; just watching the dynamics of the relationships change is more thrilling than the monster itself.

Splinter is sort of the illegitimate heir of John Carpenter’s The Thing.  It’s not perfect, but it deserves to be seen, especially if you’re fed up with the current state of horror at the cineplex.

4.5 out of 5

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