MovieChat Forums > Splice (2010) Discussion > Treating Dren Better (Spoilers)

Treating Dren Better (Spoilers)

posted 13 years ago by AmethystAlicia
31 replies | jump to latest

After watching this movie about a month ago, I still think about it sometimes. I've never seen a movie like this before. What I mostly think about though, is what if Dren had been treated better, especially by Elsa? Would she still have done what she did at the end? Adrian Brody's character treated Dren better than Elsa, IMO, so if Elsa had treated Dren more like a daughter/human being rather than as a pet/experiment, would things had been different?

To be honest, had I been in Elsa's shoes, I probably would've ended up treating Dren like my own child. Not just because I'd be petrified she'd kill me if I pissed her off, but also because since Dren was created with Elsa's DNA (or my DNA since I'm pretending to be in Elsa's shoes here) I'd probably feel some sort of bond with Dren, like parents feel with their own children.

You have to admit, Elsa was pretty cruel to Dren towards the end of the movie. Stripping her of her clothes and tying her up (humiliating and degrading), cutting off her stinger (pain and possibly torture), then just leaving her there like that like an old rag (abandonment).

What do you all think? If Dren had been treated better, would she still have done what she did? Or do you think she would've done it regardless of how she was treated?

[–] GrudgeBoy89 13 years ago

I see Dren more as a wild animal that was kept as a pet. There are a lot of stories about wild animals attacking and killing their owners even if they were raised by them since birth.

In Dren's case, I think she could have turned out better if she had been treated differently. Like when she jumped on Elsa in the barn after killing the cat. A normal wild animal would have killed Elsa, but since Dren is part human, she showed that she can control her animal instinct. She had potential to be more human, but they didn't give her the chance.

[–] gljbradley 13 years ago

Agree with you both. If Dren was treated better, things probably would've turned out differently or even better. Elsa was so busy being ambitious and full of herself that her actions lead to disastrous events.

[–] simian_ninja 13 years ago

I don't think it would have made any difference, she had managed to tame her human side but as we saw with the physical differences with her - her animal and natural instinct was growing. She would have done anything to procreate and continue her own line of DNA.

Thought this was a really interesting film - like a smarter Species or something.

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[–] gljbradley 13 years ago

Absolutely, simian ninja. Still, it would've helped if she would've been able to shown sincere love and express how much of an intelligent creature she was.

[–] Deadpool1381 13 years ago

I think you guys missed the point of the movie. It was supposed to be a metaphor for parenting children. Of course Dren would have turned out better if Elsa had treated her better, but that was the the problem with Elsa. She was treating Dren like she was her child. You have to remember Elsa's background with her mother, which the movie implied that it was very traumatic emotionally. So, the problem is not that Elsa was treating Dren like she was just an experiment, the problem was that she was treating her just as she would her own child, which was exactly how her emotionally disturbed mother treated her.

[–] whitespirit26 10 years ago

Deadpool, how she treated Dren when she cut off her stinger was NOTHING like how she'd treat a child; it was a complete departure from her normal character.

[–] CasseroleWorshipper 13 years ago

What I mostly think about though, is what if Dren had been treated better, especially by Elsa? Would she still have done what she did at the end?

I think so, yes. While she did have human qualities, she was still driven by primal animal instincts, and surely the need to mate and reproduce was a priority.
I don't mean to impose, but I am the Ocean.

[–] charlesadams1 12 years ago

I think there is a whole nother backstory they didn't really go into about Elsa and HER mother and the abuse in that relationship. If they'd showed some of that probably would have added another hour to the movie though and would have bogged things down.

Clearly Elsa was at least partly as crazy as her own mom so she carried the nuts gene and then you put that into an alien body like Dren who could say how that would manifest?

[–] gljbradley 12 years ago

That's a good point, charlesadams. I'm not that intelligent but I think the 'crazy/hostile' gene may in fact have played a role in this.

[–] dirtbunny199 12 years ago

What do you think made Elsa start to mistreat Dren? Is there a certain incident where you can pinpoint the change or is it more subtle in your opinion? Elsa did treat Dren well in the beginning but started to mistreat her long before Clive slept with Dren. Or did I miss something?

[–] gljbradley 12 years ago

Good question, dirtbunny. Well, all I can think of is that Elsa, after a while, perhaps had some sort of glitch within her mind in how she treated Dren as she(Dren) was growing up. I think it was all she knew because that's how her mother treated her. I mean, sure, from when Dren was a little humanoid/hybrid-like baby to child/teen, she treated her fine but how Dren is genetically, biologically, and emotionally, Elsa didn't really know how to be more understanding, patient and take the time to understand how remarkable she was.

Plus, and this is just an observation, in the scene where Dren climbed up on the roof of the barn after Elsa wouldn't let her go outside because she was so cooped up in the barn, Elsa was unsuccessful in making her come back due to her being so rough towards her. But Clive was the one that was able to convince her not to fly off away from them. He tried a different approach which was soothing towards her to which she hugged him. Notice when they cut to Elsa, she seemed rather taken aback and maybe a little hurt because Dren didn't go to her like that. She might have taken that a little personal.

[–] miamisfootballplaya 11 years ago

Dirtbunny,

The first mistreatment began when she realized that she had drawn pictures of Clive. She asked Dren if there were any pictures of her. Her response was to run away and cuddle with her cat. Elsa then came up with an excuse to take the cat away. It was all downhill from there.

[–] gljbradley 11 years ago

Good point.^

[–] Prelude_in_C_maj 12 years ago

Didn't Elsa's mistreatment of Dren only start when Dren deliberately killed the cat and then attacked Elsa?

Up until that point, Elsa was actually very loving to Dren and did indeed treat her as her own child. I think Elsa only started the tough stuff when Dren turned on on her. And I think Dren only turned on her because she saw Elsa and Clive having sex, and having already begun an attraction toward Clive, Dren was resentful of Elsa from that point, hence the spiteful and deliberate cat-stinging when Elsa was trying to give her a gift.

[–] gljbradley 12 years ago

Absolutely not, Prelude. It was before that. Some of the first signs of Elsa mistreating Dren was when they first arrived at the barn. Though, despite Dren briefly running off and eating a rabbit, how Elsa was scolding her was kind of harsh. But it was a few scenes later just before Dren went up on the roof was when Elsa was trying to make Dren eat vegetables when it was clear that now she's into meat, as Clive suggested, and refused to let her go outside. How she went about it was very wrong.

Plus, Elsa, for some stupid reason, took away the cat from her a couple scenes before she'd given it back to Dren and Dren killed it. You don't remember seeing Dren holding the cat and Elsa telling her to give the cat to her? At that time, Dren was craddling the cat when she was obviously lonely in the barn and Elsa took the cat away from her, not caring of her feelings. I think maybe that's why when she brought the cat back, Dren wasn't going to yield toward her because she had hurt her first.

[–] Torrible_2013 11 years ago

Wow, there were very good points raised in this thread and I agree with most of them. I think how Elsa treated Dren was indicative of someone with BPD. Possibly like her mother, Elsa was selfish, demanding and entitled when it came to relationships. A lot of people who were emotionally hurt in their early childhood grew up to rely on pets and toys for emotional security (more predictable than capricious humans). I think it was likewise for Elsa. I think Clive correctly pointed out that she wanted Dren (we know it's not just about science), but not a baby because Dren was something (someone) she could have more control over (genes and otherwise). She treated Dren well initially, but once Dren became more affectionate towards Clive, like most BPD sufferers, she turned spiteful; hence the cat scene.

Again we see her vindictiveness in action, when, once her next act of kindness (bringing a new cat) was reciprocated with spite (killing the cat) and condescension (she demonstrated how she could easily take her life), she showed that she could play tit for tat. I think the callousness she showed towards Dren (the reason why I felt fear for her life wasn't the driving factor in the maiming), the way she so easily dehumanized (she didn't just want to maim her, she wanted to shame her) someone she used to care for, definitely played a part in how Dren eventually turned out.

Throughout the whole movie, we can see genetic (Elsa's mother's genes, her own genes that she spliced into Dren) and environmental influences (how Elsa's mother treated her and how she treated Dren) being played out.

[–] gljbradley 11 years ago

I agree completely, shaneho.

Btw, I think when Elsa saw Dren and Clive getting intimate, I think that let her know that she didn't have control over her anymore and it brought her down a peg.

[–] bigBang8 11 years ago

Forgot the most important part, dren can change from female to male possibly if the need presents, like a defensive thing. Bitch cut her tail that probably specified her as a female, so she had no choice but to go all dude and go crazy.

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[–] lebellue 11 years ago

I don't understand why Elsa didn't at least put Dren to sleep or use a pain killer on her before she cut off her stinger....Maybe she felt she had to do it right away and couldn't take the time to either set it up or obtain these medicines....

But that seems unconscionable and really disturbed me..It seemed sadistic!

[–] gljbradley 11 years ago

I think that was meant to show that Elsa is an ambitious, unreasonable, selfish bitch.