Face-Off: Species vs. Splice

When their benefactors at Nucleic Exchange Research and Development balk at their idea of adding human DNA into their animal gene splicing experiments, a pair of scientists decide to go ahead with the plan on their own time. As unnerving and ill-advised as the idea of having a human/animal hybrid hanging around a lab is, they do have noble intentions going in, planning to search for cures and treatments for genetically influenced diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer.

The female creature called Dren is a mixture of DNA from a variety of sources that aren’t stated outright. She grows at an accelerated rate, has incredible speed and strength, sprouts wings, has triple-jointed legs, amphibious lungs, and a stinger tail. She always has the mentality of a child, but this only serves to make her more dangerous when she gets angry and throws a fit. She can overpower any human and kills things out of spite. You can sympathize with Dren, but she’s ultimately too dangerous to be around. She’s a creature that doesn’t fit into this world.

Dren is created by Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast, scientists in a long-term relationship. Clive wants to take things to the next level and start a family, but Elsa has severe mommy issues that make her reluctant. When Dren comes into her life, Elsa’s dysfunctional maternal instincts kick in and she starts treating the creature (which has her DNA) like a daughter. Meanwhile Clive is disturbed that the experiment is going so far, but he can’t stop Elsa and slowly comes to care for Dren as well. Maybe too much.

You can’t talk about SPLICE without talking about its sex scenes. Sex is not the primary focus like it was in SPECIES, but it certainly comes up. The first instance is initiated by a sexually mature female Dren, who seduces Clive – and he goes for it. Wings and a stinger tail aren’t a turn-off for him, even if he helped raise this creature from infancy. The second instance is even more disturbing. Dren eventually mutates into a male form and ends up raping Elsa. There is nothing good about the sex in this movie.

There is a specific objective behind the scientific pursuits in this film, and as such it is clear that this experiment was a major failure. Clive and Elsa do not accomplish the research and breakthroughs they had in mind when they embarked on creating Dren. Instead of cures for diseases, the results they find are nightmarish scenarios, crumbling relationships, multiple murders, and an interspecies rape. There is hope that the research could still be done on another creature after the events of this film, but that comes at a terrible price.