When a young couple (Paulo Costanzo and Jill Wagner) is carjacked by an escaped convict (Shea Whigham) and his girlfriend, you’d think things couldn’t get any worse, right?  However, when the two couples have to make an emergency pit-stop at an isolated Gas Station, their night goes from bad to worse.

CRITIQUE

Splinter is one of those films that I really never expected to like. Essentially, it is nothing more than The Ruins meets Night of the Living Dead.

In Splinter, a small group of people find themselves trapped inside a remote location (a gas station) while vicious plant-controlled creatures roam around outside, seeking prey. It is hard for me to imagine this film being any good – fun maybe, but not worth mentioning. 

But director/co-writer Toby Wilkins and writers Ian Shorr and Kai Berry make Splinter into something different.  For starters, the characters actually think through their situation, trying to not only figure out what is hunting them, but also how to escape before things get even worse. And what’s even better is that, unlike in most horror films, when someone comes up with a bad idea someone else calls them on it. 

The film makes good use of practical effects and tries to keep the use of CG to a minimum. While the film does have its fair share of cheap scares, the film is more along the lines of a fun B-grade monster movie. It’s not meant to be necessarily scary, just fun and goofy with a decent amount of blood and gore.

THE VIDEO

Splinter is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks good. While there are a few moments of detectible grain, the transfer still looks really good.

THE AUDIO

Splinter is presented in both Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and 2.0. Both mixes sound good, with the 5.1 making good use of the surround and adding a nice level of atmosphere to the film.

THE EXTRAS

Two Commentary tracks: one with the Director and Cast, the other with the Director and Crew. Both give about the same amount of information, although the cast track deals more with actor’s motivations while the crew track is more technical.

HDNet: A Look at Splinter: A short behind the scenes featurette. Nothing too remarkable.

The Splinter Creature: A look at the creature design and suit.

The Wizard: A look at the pyrotechnics.

Building the Gas Station: A brief look at how much work went into making the Gas Station.

Shooting Digitally: A nice look at how easier it was for the filmmakers to go with digital rather than film.

Oklahoma Weather: A look at the problems the crew faced while shooting in Oklahoma.

How to make a Splinter pumpkin: An arts and crafts segment showing you how to make an “infected” pumpkin.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Splinter is a fun monster flick. It’s not all that frightening, nor is it really meant to be.  But with the myriad of terrible direct-to-video horror films there are, it’s nice to find one that is not fun by being “so-bad-it’s-good” but by actually being a well produced little film.