A low-budget British horror film about a group of friends who foolishly venture deep into the Welsh woods to capture (on video) a legendary local beast that has been killing livestock, and soon find themselves chased by a huffing and puffing big bad wolfman. But this feels more like an episode of Hollyoaks: when faced with actors with little talent, simply have them argue constantly, so these dead-eyed, bland beauties will at least register as living creatures. Of course, the trouble with this is that they quickly become immensely irritating, and you just can't wait for them to get killed off quickly enough.
SPLINTERED starts out as a typical camping kids horror film, then flirts with both the serial killer and werewolf genres. By the end, SPLINTERED offers up enough surprises to rise above your typical slasher or werewolf tale to be something of a mixture of both.
Sophie (Holly Weston) and a group of friends are going on a camping trip in the woods of North Wales. From the very beginning Sophie stands out as an outcast and as we slip in and out of her head throughout the first portions of this film, we see that she is haunted by experiences from her past as well as hallucinations occurring in the present. Though reports of a serial killer in the area are very real, Sophie begins to see hairy beasts roaming around her camp. With her fellow campers doubting her sanity and trying to drown her fears away with drugs and alcohol, Sophie finds herself fighting to be heard and taken seriously by them. Soon, Sophie is split off from the group and finds herself locked in a cell in an abandoned asylum in the middle of the forest. Some kind of beast is keeping her locked away, but is this the hairy werewolf boogeyman that haunts her dreams or something more human and real?
Well, turns out it’s a combination of both. Without giving too much away, SPLINTERED is an effective tale of madness, survival, and abuse. Though Sophie is a clearly troubled person with many symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, she is also experiencing a very real horror in this film. The balance between the past trauma, what is happening in Sophie’s head, and what’s happening in the here and now is well done by director Simeon Halligan, allotting equal time for each. Never are we questioning what reality we are in and the director keeps things well-grounded throughout.
Props should be spun for actress Holly Weston, who is not only gorgeous, but talented as well. She looks a bit like an edgier Emily Blunt as her studded belt contrasts heavily with the outdoor environment suggesting she is more at home at a rave than in the woods. She is able to carry the complex shifts from inner emotional turmoil to real life terrors. Recognition should also be tossed the way of Stephen Walters, who plays the monster of this film. Walters gives it his all, slobbering and quivering in this intense performance embracing the role of a man who is barely keeping the animal within him at bay.
A lot of fun is to be had with SPLINTERED. It’s an accomplished serial killer film as well as a good monster in the woods tale with boatloads of psychological terror and angst heaped on for good measure. Having witnessed my fair share of werewolf and slasher films, SPLINTERED proved to be a refreshing, albeit weird, amalgamation.
