At just under an hour long, Tom Ryan’s Splinter is the shortest feature film on this year’s Arrow Video FrightFest line-up. The project falls into what is termed ‘grassroots indie’ filmmaking as Ryan has done his best to create the film with extremely limited resources. This style of film was documented in last year’s FrightFest film The Brilliant Terror and so it’s interesting to see an actual example make the festival cut.
The story begins in Baltimore, Maryland, thirty-seven years ago as a mother sends her only son to live with his aunt and uncle. It’s a sad scene as reasons for the upheaval aren’t shared, though the disappearance of the boy’s father seems to be a factor. Years later, now in the present day, Splinter moves its location to Dover, Delaware. The boy from the beginning, Scott (Jim Thalman), is now a husband and father. He’s hard at work renovating the new family home, a building that he inherited from his estranged and recently departed mother. Scott’s abandonment issues run deep with him being unable to acknowledge the woman as his mother, much to the distress of his wife Teresa (Kristen Muri) and the confusion of his daughter Olivia (Quincy Saadeh). Determined to infuse the house that he was forced from, into a sanctuary of family bliss, Scott wants the decorating work to be perfect. He hits a snag however when he gets a rather nasty splinter…
This being a genre film, the injury obviously has extreme repercussions. In Scott’s case, parts of him start to turn to wood and he begins to experience flashes of ancient and majestic redwoods. These visions are accompanied by the sound of Indigenous American chantings. As the splinter spreads, more of Scott’s body begins to change. The visions become more intense and it soon becomes apparent that the stolen land upon which the house sits is trying to reclaim itself. Part eco-horror, part twist of Stephen King’s Thinner (written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), Splinter has some interesting ideas. With such little time to explore the situation though, Splinter races to its conclusion, and in doing so makes itself and its message clunky.
Given the length and type of story it tells, Splinter can’t help but feel like a lost episode of The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone. The super low-budget nature of the production authentically looks like old-school cable television. A happy coincidence on the surface; by aligning itself so closely with these shows, Splinter makes itself vulnerable. Those familiar with how the stories unfolded on those shows will be equipped with the knowledge of how things might end. Somehow, in spite of its micro-length, it still seems to take a small eternity to arrive there. It’s a classic example of trying to fit too many ideas and content into a short space of time, and our perception of time distorts and not in a favourable way.
Splinter
Summary
An interesting example of film-making at the lowest end of budgets, Splinter has some good ideas, just not the time, budget, nor construction to pull them all off.
Splinter was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2022.
