Splinter

So this movie is a kind of an independent horror film. It's working with a lower budget.

But first off the acting is not just adequate, it's great.

The characters are believable and well cast.

Splinter makes great use of it's low budget. With good acting, some gnarly gore and good creature design. It's the best it can be on a low budget. And it is good.

Is it amazing? No. But it doesn't have any glaring flaws. A nice movie for a friday night.

It's a great indie sci-fi/creature feature movie. With a solid script and no glaring flaws.

I thought about giving it a 6/10 because it's not earth-shattering but I think it deserves a 7/10 for how solid and well executed it is.

In the end it is a smart little creature feature that makes the most of it's budget.

Plot wise, this is a pretty typical zombie/infection style story - but the type of infection is a really great twist. I'll keep it that vague just so that you can enjoy it as blind as possible. Acting is decent, and while it's definitely a low budget movie, most of the effects look pretty good (there's some shots that are pretty rough though).

The problem is with the "action" scenes. I can handle some shaky cam, but the shaky cam in this movie is some of the worst I've ever seen - you can't follow anything. In one scene, a character gets killed but I literally couldn't tell until the other characters were reacting to it after it happened. I have to assume that the shaky cam is done to hide the lower budget effects, but it's bad enough that I'd rather see low budget effects.

Overall I do think that the movie is worth a watch because it's a really fascinating spin on the zombie/infection type of story - just know that the shaky cam is VERY bad.

"Splinter" was really a rather nice surprise for a horror movie. There haven't been that many horror movies in recent years that have managed to actually impress me, as most have seemingly been cast from the same mould. "Splinter", however, took me right back to the late 1990's where horror movies were great.

The story is somewhat of a mix between Carpenter's "The Thing" and "Cabin Fever". There is this unknown strange mutated creature prowling the woods, where people are isolated and miles from help. The story's two main characters are out camping when suddenly taken hostage by two fugitives and from thereon things take a turn for the worse. When you are struck with the splinters from the creature, you become infected yourself, and it is just a matter of time when you will turn.

Pretty simple and straight forward storyline that was easy to follow. There weren't any huge surprises or plot twists in the movie, but "Splinter" didn't' suffer from lacking that, the movie worked out quite well at its plot course and the progress the movie made. Predictable, sure, but entertaining.

Despite the cast being held at a relative small number, mainly four characters, with the occasional supporting character thrown into the midst, the movie did work out quite well. Because it is building heavily on fear, paranoia and thrills.

The creature effects were actually quite good, and when you saw body parts twisting in unnatural directions, accompanied by bones breaking, you can't help but curl your toes, or enjoy the whole scene (if you are a gorehound like I am).

"Splinter" is pretty good entertainment and will take you back to the good old horror movies of the 1990's. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and I am sure that you will too if you are a fan of horror movies in general. Just don't expect any inventive new-thinking or radical plot twists, because they just ain't there.

In all honesty, I actually thought it would be rubbish. However, to my surprise it was quite good. Okay it is not perfect, some of the effects are mediocre, the sound is murky and the editing in scenes could have been tighter, there are times when it is rather shaky. That said, Splinter could have been so much worse than how it turned out. The story is loose, well paced and benefits from a good and well-thought-out idea, the monster is appropriately effective and the direction, script, performances and characters(the antagonist especially is very interesting and original, which was really refreshing in itself) are all good. All in all, I thought it would be really bad, but it was actually much better than expected. 7/10 Bethany Cox

So, it's apparently a good idea to have so many cuts and so much camera waving that we don't get to see a kill? This editing "style" is so spastic that it might as well be an episode of Monday Night RAW. If I can't see what's happening, what is the point of a visual format? Two stars because the concept IS interesting. The execution just isn't very good. Also, the people playing the camping couple are bad actors, especially the nerd boyfriend.