Splinter (2008)

Ouch! Smart little horror this, what it lacks in story originality it more than makes up for elsewhere. Young lovers Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly (Jill Wagner) find their attempts at a romantic camping trip usurped by their inadequacies in the great outdoors. But this soon becomes the very least of their problems, because they are car-jacked by escaped convict Dennis Farell (Shea Whigham) and his drug addict girlfriend Lacey Belisle (Rachel Kerbs). When they run over what they think is an animal of some sort, it signals the start of a terrifying ordeal that will see the group backed into the interior of a gas station and forced to fight for their lives. What follows is a solid hour of suspense, terror, horrifying scenes and rich character dynamics. It’s a siege situation with the enemy some sort of porcupine – vegetable – human hybrid, and it’s relentless and clever. Director Toby Wilkins doesn’t once let the picture sag or suffer from filler, all scenes and character interactions are integral to the plotting. Mercifully free of characters doing the dumb things that are so inherent in this splinter (hrr hrr hrr) of horror, Wilkins’ film is consistently effective in what it wants to achieve. The effects are kept to a minimum and the only real complaint is that for every attack by the creature we are subjected to shakycam. If this is to hide the effects work we don’t know? And it’s always great to have a horror assailant be used sparingly on a visual level, but the shakycam becomes annoying and feels like a bit of a cheat in the final quarter. The small cast offer up some sterling performances, with Whigham standing out as the hateful villain, while Nelson Cragg’s photography strips the colours down to primal indie level and the film is better for it. A pleasant surprise and recommended to horror fans after a quick and bloody siege horror that never disappoints. 7.5/10