Customer Reviews

Spliced

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"Spliced" looks, feels, and smells like yet another self-referential low budget horror film chasing the heels of the immensely popular "Scream" trilogy. There is nothing inherently wrong about this sort of imitation; many good movies routinely rehash successful projects. Occasionally, one of these rip-offs works to great effect. In the case of this movie, some things work while others fail. Filmed in Canada on a budget smaller than my monthly car payment, "Spliced" boasts one big name (Ron Silver), a boy band star (Drew Lachey), and little in the way of gore or effective scares. C'est la vie, I guess, since "Spliced" went directly to jail (read: the video store) without passing go. What I couldn't figure out as I watched the movie was why the producers and director decided to rip-off Craven's "Scream" so many years after that film came out. I thought the market for these sorts of pictures faded years ago.

"Spliced" introduces us to Mary (Liane Balaban), a willowy young cutie with a lot of psychological problems. She loves horror films so much that she watches them whenever she can get her hands on them. Unfortunately, Mary gets a charge out of viewing increasingly extreme movies, but there's a catch. Every time she watches a new horror film, Mary sleepwalks that very night. Her parents are completely fed up with her antics to the point that her father tells his daughter that she must give up her horror film hobby. Who can blame the guy? He doesn't want to see his offspring plowed under a car in the middle of the night or hurt in any equally grotesque way. Mary has other ideas. When she hears about an extreme film called "The Wisher" opening up at the local theater, she feels she must attend. Ignoring her parents' warnings, our young heroine sneaks out with friends and goes to the screening. Bad mistake. At some point in the film, Mary becomes affected with violent nausea and must flee from the theater. She finds out later that her father died in a car crash on the way to the theater to stop her from watching the movie. Overcome with a deep sense of guilt about the whole affair, Mary sinks further into a self-loathing so overpowering that neither her friends nor the school shrink Campbell (Ron Silver) can assuage it.

More problems ensue when Mary learns anything she wishes for becomes reality, just like in the movie "The Wisher." When Mary makes an offhand comment about not wanting to go to school one day, the building burns down. Even worse, she tells one friend to "just shut up," which translates into said friend having her tongue removed in a particularly vicious manner several minutes later. Mary's horror over these incidents is extreme, especially since she has little idea why any of these events are occurring. She starts to worry that a guy she likes named Brad (Drew Lachey) might have something to do with the sinister wish fulfillment. At the same time, Mary learns a lot of secrets about the movie "The Wisher," information that further heightens her state of alarm. Apparently, "The Wisher" grossed so much money and became so popular with audiences because the makers of the picture inserted subliminal messages into certain scenes. Mary learns about all of this through research on the Internet, through a projectionist friend she knows, and from a geeky guy who has a thing for her. Predictably, it turns out the primary villain from "The Wisher" has materialized in town, and is the one fulfilling Mary's wishes. Obviously, "Spliced" wouldn't be complete without the requisite final showdown between the young heroine and the masked villain from the film. It's a twist and turn extravaganza that's sure not to surprise you too much.

Most of the elements of "Spliced" work well for a low budget film. The acting is acceptable, the script is clichéd but bearable, and the pacing is average. Liane Balaban charms as the lovably wacky Mary, a girl caught up in events way beyond her control. Her histrionics are often hilarious to watch. Ron Silver, conversely, looks like he is slumming through his role as Campbell, the school shrink. I'm sure his role didn't take much preparation, but he could have at least looked the part instead of gliding around in grungy clothes. As for Drew Lachey, well, don't go there. I guess he does a creditable job in the "clueless guy who might be the murderer but is looking for love" role, but he doesn't go beyond the character to make him memorable. I think the film would have worked better if the makers punched up the violence and gore scenes. The kills aren't too bad in "Spliced," but they could have been better. A low budget picture that rips off another film should do something to stand out. As it is, "Spliced" is a moderately entertaining film that won't make anyone's list of the best low budget horror films of the past few years.

The DVD contains several extras, including a commentary track, several truncated filmographies, and trailers for films like "Crazy Little Thing," "Winter Break," and "Killing Emmett Young." Perhaps the best way to describe "Spliced" should focus on its idea of subliminal messages in a horror film. Does this make "Spliced" a message film? Yeah, considering Campbell's comments to Mary at the end of the film explaining how themes and violence in horror movies can cause certain individuals to indulge in brutal acts. It's surprising to hear this in a movie since Hollywood spends millions of dollars a year trying to tell us that movies and television are relatively harmless pursuits. You might want to watch "Spliced" if you can rent it for a small sum.

I'm a huge horror movie fan and I always rent those straight to video horror flicks that I usually end up hating. However, I have finally come upon one that actually works. It's not very scary, but I think the stroyline is well thought out with a surprising twist at the end that I did not see coming. A high school girl sees a horror movie, and she starts saying "I wish so and so would"...then they actually happen. The girl believes it has something to do with the movie, as she keeps seeing someone dressed like the killer in the movie. The acting is pretty decent for a horror flick, and the ladies will get a nice bonus with the stunt casting of Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees fame, who isnt half bad. The actress is the lead is very believable makes for the perfect heroine. While nowhere near the creativity of Scream, Spliced is a perfect late night horror flick that will satisfy.

If you have read my other reviews, you would know that i'm usually pretty harsh on these new horror films because most of them are boring, not scary, and just put out there to fill up video shelves with their great front cover artwork , and that's why i hesitated on buying this film because i expected the worst and surprizingly this wasn't all that bad.

Sure the story is a bit dull, but the actors in this film made it better by actually looking like they enjoyed being in this movie.. i guess maybe they wanted to impress other casting directors for future work! (except for The guy from 98 degrees, you know Jessica Simpson's brother in law - forgot his name..he really needs more acting lessons!)

As for the horror content, though it wasn't very scary, it tried it's best (for example, the killer's face just popping out of nowhere a few times) but they really should have picked a better killer, the broken glass on each finger that look like claws made it too "Freddy Kruger" style.

Summary of the movie in three parts...Beginning was promising..Middle was boring but slowly picked up...Ending was so/so and judging by the ending, there probably will be a sequel unless the film studio didn't generate enough money on this movie (the only reason why sequels are made!)

In conclusion, the main actress who plays "Mary" in the movie was great and she should have a future in this biz, it's just too bad that it won't be with this movie. Strange thing in the end credits, her character and real name were not listed when everyone else in the movie was, what's up with that?

So, rent or buy the movie, it's not a total waste of time and at 86 minutes, your not missing out on things you gotta do around the house which you probably can do later..SO SIT BACK, GRAB A SNACK AND DRINK, AND ENJOY THE MOVIE..IT WON'T KILL YOU!

Be nice if Amazon could take note that this movie is titled THE WISHER outside of America.

Mary is a high school studant who has had a few problems with horror movies. She apparently loves them, they scare her, but it erouses her when that happens. Which is a stupid little thing they added for the hell of it because it doesnt play as a sub-plot later on.Her parents try to keep her from watching any more horror flicks because they give her nightmares and she sleep walks around the streets. (Also doesnt pay off in anyway later on) But Mary disobeys her parents and goes with some friends to see whats supposed to be the hottest movie in America at the time, a horror movie called THE WISHER. Only thing is, Mary ends up being stalked by this charactor of the Wisher and every one thinks shes insane claiming she's seeing this guy in the real world. It seems the Wisher that is stalking Mary is granting her wishes for her. Only not the good ones, only the bad ones involving death and violence. But a rule is if you turn on the wisher, he turns on you. Will mary survive? OY

I gotta say, some parts of this are too predicatable, like the end. But in a way; its not like all the other cheesey b-grade horrors tho either. It is kinda interesting and is one of the better slasher films i've seen for a while. Even if the Wisher is a kind of The Grudge ghost looking goth girl with Freddy Krueger style knifes made of glass.

The movie leaves either some plotholes done wrong, or done on purpose to make way for a sequel. I wont go into detail about my suspicoins about the plot and whats happend or else it will spoil it. So i'll just say, its worth the cost of a rental at least.

There's so many plotholes in SPLICED that sometimes you feel the movie WAS just spliced together. However, in spite of that, if you go along with the central premise, it's not a half-bad slasher flick. Liane Balaban does a nice job as Mary, the somewhat erratic heroine of the film; Ron Silver adds little to the movie, but his reputation; Drew Lachey looking like a shrunken Nick Lachey is cute and does his best. Notice he hasn't made any films since.
SPLICED has some effective scenes and attempts to be a SCREAM, which it most definitely not, but for a straight to video release, it is a moderately engaging film. And I didn't identify the killer, so they must have done a little something right?

OK let's take a couple of horror flicks, steal some ideas, then get a bunch of unknowns to act in it.

Hmmm.... it needs something, oh yes we need a singer from a boy band, how about 98 degrees?

Now we need a monster let's take Freddy Kruger's glove but make them clear plastic claws instead. Now we give it a whole 'Ring' feel. Oh and wait, wait... we need a twist ending like in Scream. Boy this is great.

OK we need a beautiful girl to star in it. Let's get that gorgeous, voluptious blonde who came in for an audition the other day.... She's not available? Who do we got? You're kidding that flat chested brunette who looks like Olive Oil on a bad hair day? Ok but don't pay her as much.

Lights, Camera....Action!

Late Saturday nights is always a time when the old boy Sid has a true need for a nice B flick. Most likely the urge comes from so many great younger years when the three cool cats spent their Sat evenings just having a great time, always sprinkling in a couple flicks. It was simply the best age in life which has and always will stick with us keeping the love for late night B movies going down for the rest of time. Thankfully many channels support our vision by airing movies like the 2002 straight to video release Spliced. Starring Drew Lachey, yeah they couldn't even spring to get Nick, this one had promise but offered almost nothing.

Spliced revolves around a horror movie buff Mary who happens to be an avid sleepwalker. Every evening she wanders out into the middle of the street in front of her house and starts screaming like an annoying a**hole. Because of this her old man refuses to let her watch scary movies since they obviously aren't helping. Despite the warnings she goes to watch a box office smash called "The Wisher" and winds up being supernaturally stalked by the murderous character from the film. The killer is really pathetic and more of a makeshift Freddy Kruger with sharp plastic nails. In no way is this guy scary in any sense looking like the grim reaper from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.

So unfortunately Spliced was a B movie within a B movie that didn't work on any level. Trying to get into it proved to be more then a challenge as it became nearly impossible not to route for the killer to take down the insanely annoying cast of horrible actors. Mary and her winy voice were enough to be 100% on the side of the bad guy. Its really a shame. We remember seeing the cover years back when it was a new release and we kind of pumped to watch it the other night, but it turned out to be a bog let down. It was really pushing to stay in that weak late 90's slasher realm and may have officially ended that era for good.