Review: 'Splinter'

Movie about a young couple who get carjacked by a deranged outlaw and then chased by a parasitic creature falls into crummy horror flick category.

from the October 31, 2008 edition

"Splinter" is being promoted as some kind of meta-horror movie but it just seemed like a plain old crummy horror flick to me. British director Toby Wilkins sets up a generic scary situation and then follows it through generically. A young couple en route to a romantic weekend camping getaway outside Oklahoma City run into a bit of bad luck when they get carjacked by a deranged outlaw and his girlfriend. It turns out the outlaw is the least of it. On the loose is a voracious parasitic creature that absorbs the corpses of its victims – or something to that effect. It's all pretty fourth-rate stuff, and the creature, from some angles, resembles a porcupine crossed with the Michelin Tire Man. Grade: C- (Rated R for violence/gore and language.)