MovieChat Forums > Splice (2010) Discussion > How Splice Nearly Got Me Banned From My ...

How Splice Nearly Got Me Banned From My Local Theater

posted 15 years ago by flish553
286 replies | jump to latest

I don't want to ruin this movie for anyone, so if you haven't seen it, please don't read any further.

Alright, let's start with the previews. When previews for Splice hit the airwaves, it was promoted as a sci-fi/horror film about scientists who create a new life form, which the clever writers called "science's newest miracle (is) a mistake." After seeing a handful of trailers, I must admit I was intrigued. Maybe this was going to be like Species with more of a plot or character development to it. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
The actors aside (both of whom I adored in other films, Polley in the Dawn of the Dead remake and Brody as the mentally handicapped guy in The Village), I felt a bit awkward when Dren watched the two protagonists have sex on a filthy labratory couch. Then I had trouble getting past the weird feeling in my gut when Adrian Brodie taught Dren how to dance and she was OBVIOUSLY attracted to him. Also, when his dumb-ass decided it was alright to have sex with this creature (not a clone of his girlfriend, a mixture of animals and humans, so a THING), I had to fight the urge to get up and leave the theater. And finally, during the last twenty minutes of the film, when Dren becomes a male and visciously rapes Sarah Polley's character, I decided I wanted my money back.

As I said, I do not blame any of the actors for this movie's faults. I'd just like to know who the hell saw this schlock-fest and thought it was a decent film. I also read something about the DVD release should have alternate endings. Like what? Dren turns back into a female and rapes Andrien Brody? Come on, how on Earth could anyone want to see this disturbing film again?
After it was FINALLY over (and my girlfriend was nearly sick from the rape scene), we headed for the nearby exit. I couldn't stand the feeling I had in my stomach about what I'd just seen and felt I had to say something. I found one of the girls working the concession stand and politely asked her to locate the manager for me. After a minute, a large man in a nice suit walked up and shook my hand, introducing himself as the manager. I explained to him that I did not enjoy the film but I was not going to demand a refund. I simply wanted to know how the hell this movie got the semi-decent ratings it did and how he felt about it? Apparently I said something wrong because the big guy in the nice suit turned bright red and said, "If you'd rather not come back to this theater, you can continue talking about this movie. Otherwise, please refrain from libling a decent film."
By the way, lible is printed, slander is spoken. Dumb-ass.

Basically, I'd just like to know what happened to the science-fiction (or in this case, somewhat science-fact) movies that used to frightening yet not sickening. Something has gone seriously wrong with our mentality as a nation if we feel it's alright to make movies about creating life, then killing it, then getting raped by it, then killing it again. What does anyone learn from watching this kind of movie?
How NOT to make a movie.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jordangirl78 15 years ago

their job is to eject lunatics like you so people that remember to take their meds can enjoy the movies

Thank you for that laugh on a very long afternoon at work!

The 21st century is when everything changes.

[–] pinkskin 14 years ago

I'm enjoying this thread immensely. I love how you drive your point home.

[–] SteelCitysFinest417 13 years ago

by pinkskin (Tue Oct 19 2010 14:59:58)

I'm enjoying this thread immensely. I love how you drive your point home.

Agreed! Between the OP & the people ripping him to shreds, I'm in tears right now

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] townparkradio 15 years ago

That's one crappy manager. A manager's job is to maintain peace and keep customers happy, while ensuring employees are treated with a modicum of respect. His job was to say "Yes sir. No sir. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the film, here's a free pass to see something else." and then later on make fun of you to his dog when he gets home.

Woe betide the spoiled brats in this topic when they grow up and try to act like that in the real world. He's likely a useless prick to his employees as well. Call the corporate headquarters and complain, a few incidents like that gets people cannixed into other positions.. like, in this economy, the Unemployment Office line. Pricks who are promoted beyond their ability are the main cause of businesses failing. Stick the prick's head on a pike fast, before the location suffers and a dozen other folks lose their jobs with him when the location is shut down.

------------
www.townparkradio.com Oldies, Video Game Remixes, and overnight is old time serials.

[–] origin_of_evii 15 years ago

lol that manager owned you dude. and then dren gave your girlfriend a cleveland steamer in her dreams but she never told you about it. so you lost twice.

[–] Walls Of Jericho 15 years ago

That's BS about giving someone a free pass to another movie. Should everyone get a free pass for every movie they didn't like, or just the ones who bitch about it? As someone said, it's like complaining about a meal after you ate the whole plate. When you go the movies, you take the chance that you aren't going to like it. Isn't that a little bit of the fun of it? It's no different than going to a sporting event and your team doesn't win or a concert where the band turns out to suck live. The idiot OP acts like he's never been to a movie that didn't disappoint him. He's probably also embellishing anhyway. Either he didn't say a damn thing or he caused a scene in the lobby. The only spoiled brat here is the OP.

[–] blade025 15 years ago

I agree why should someone get a free pass cause they didn't like the movie...no one forced you to watch it, people just want free *beep* for no reason now a days...if you didn't like the movie than do what everyone else does...leave.

And OP..i'm sure there's more to the story than what you're telling us and why he had a bad reaction to your comment..but meh, i dunno why you would go to the manager and complain about how much a movie sucked..since when does a theatre manager start directing movies...if the screen was blurry or the popcorn sucked than go complain but to complain about how much a movie sucked to him is just stupid.

[–] keithulhu 15 years ago

To the original poster..

First of all, you are a putz for not warning people that you were about to spill the beans about details of the movie. I don't know if you are ignorant of the practice of putting "SPOILERS" in the subject line, or if you are so self righteous as to think just because you thought the film was garbage that you had no obligation to _not_ ruin it for others, or if you are just too self centered to care. Either way, that alone makes you a putz to 99% of the people who read the comments and reviews here.

Second of all, yeah, it sounds as if the manager was as much of a putz as you are. Funny how karma works sometimes, throwing two oblivious putzes together like that without either of them apparently learning anything from the meeting.

Third of all, as someone mentioned way back like five pages ago, this is a movie about human nature and just plain ole nature nature, being red in tooth and claw, etc. Animals rape and abuse each other all the time, we just don't call it that because they are animals and we, arrogantly thinking of ourselves as non-animals, like to think that because animals are incapable of morally informed actions its not really rape and torture when they do it.

So this movie puts something that is human in appearance but animalistic in instinct in our faces doing soem really repugnant animalistic stuff to some humans. Oh, and yeah, the human animals do some really morally repugnant animalistic stuff to the animal animals.

So did it work? For the original poster, obviously not. For me, its been more than an hour and I am still thinking, even writing, about it, so yeah, I guess it worked for me on some level, in my morally repugnant animalistic way. But at least in my writing I am not dropping any unannounced spoilers, not that it matters now, putz.

[–] pinkskin 14 years ago

Very good point!

[–] jhc202 15 years ago

I think the OP missed the point of the movie. Unlike Species it was actually much more true to it's science fiction nature. It was a movie about science ethics and human nature. The movie very strongly argues against manipulation of genes by showing how horrible the results could be and how difficult it would be on an emotional and legal level to distinguish what is human and what is lab-rat. IMO it was lay'd on so thick that it came off almost like a straight propaganda movie against genetic engineering.

The rape-scene and the bestiality were (disturbing as they were) relevant to the subject at hand.. creating life in a lab and then assuming that it doesn't have sexual urges became their downfall. I assumed the accelerated growth of dren would also produce violent hormone levels.. not speaking of the animal parts of it's DNA. Some animals in nature do actually (by our standards) rape each-other. They're not inherently evil beings and neither was Dren supposed to be.. she was part animal and a very frustrated one of such. Consider horny little dogs humping anything that moves.. they're obviously sexually frustrated to the point where it seems like torture. To cut the parts about the sexual urges of the creature would be the same as to ignore them as a part of nature and the DNA she was made from.. therefore it was relevant. The hormone level change offers a reasonable explanation for the sex change.

About your complaint.. it's common knowledge that you can't complain about a movie once you've sat through the whole thing. You wouldn't get anything out of it at all.. so why would you waste the managers time like that? I'm sure he has better things to do than listen to pointless whining. Do you really wanna be one of "those" people that blame managers for stuff they have no control over or worse - be responsible for the movie being taken down on those unreasonable grounds just because you're overly sensitive or didn't particularly like it? Seems a bit arrogant. The movie has a rating.. and you've already stated the connection to Species, so you should really have known what you were going in to. If you'd left halfway through.. you would have gotten your money back.. but please don't waste managers time again.. you'll seem less like a douche that way.

[–] hugopulsar 15 years ago

I wonder what you'd say to the manager (why the manger btw?! makes no sense) if you saw a movie like The Human Centipede (among soo many others)... or maybe you'd censor it...but then again, you'd have to censor hundreds and hundreds of other movies. Or just write a letter to screenplay writers in general telling them what they should write for the big screen, it's the best way perhaps (oh, I'm being sarcastic btw)

[–] saturnjwl 14 years ago

I was really put off by the human centipede. yuck. But anyways, even if I saw it in the theater I wouldn't have asked for my money back. It's not their fault, and furthermore part of the reason I watched it was because I heard it was crazy. How was anyone to know that I would find it so disgusting. How was anyone to know it's a bad movie (the human centipede is, actually, a bad movie... So there's more to it than my own aesthetic.)

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] imhx 15 years ago

I believed everything in your post, except the part about you having a girlfriend.

[–] my_boomstick 15 years ago

Wow. Get a life loser. Hope the theatre bans you for life for being so incredibly stupid. Honestly man, you are the biggest dumb ass in all of IMDB. Good job!

[–] jamesoshea-620-333272 15 years ago

"I'd just like to know who the hell saw this schlock-fest and thought it was a decent film?"

Answer: Roger Ebert.

[–] saturnjwl 14 years ago

Whatever, man. You can't just get your money back every time you see a movie you don't like. Anyways, if I was the manager I probably would have refunded your $, but if I ever go see a movie I'm not into I don't blame the theater. This is science fiction horror.... maybe it's just not your genre. It's your fault you went to a movie you didn't enjoy, not the theater's.

[–] jamasian_man 14 years ago

I believe that manager had every right to rip you a new one. You asked to see him just to say your opinion? Not even demanding a refund or passes? What a waste of time! That's like everyone not liking a bad film and trying to find the director personally and telling them how you felt.

As for the person who said that managers do get control of what films they get, that's a lie. Managers may seem like the higher ups if you are an employee (I am as well), but even they have multiple higher ups.

Everyone comes from head office and managers do not have a lot of power when it comes to showing films. They have to do screenings and give out free popcorn if we have a deal with a certain studio or company. We cannot just refuse to show a film or limit it because that is a form of censorship.

I remember when Last House on the Left came out and everyone was shocked by the rape scene. We put up signs and warned people, yet people walked out and demanded refunds. We gave them passes, but how long a movie stays in theatres is based on how successful it is and not how it affects the audience.