Not Happening in the Woods
Sophie (Holly Weston) is a curious young woman; she has nightmares of her childhood and being attacked by a monster which comes into her bedroom, dragging her out from her hiding place under her bed. But she also sees herself as a reporter of the unexplained and convinces 4 friends to head to Wales to where recently on the news there has been a report of a farmer and his animals being killed by wild animal. Whilst Sophie wants to record footage of the beast her friends have other things on their mind and being typical young people sex is near the top of the agenda. That is until Sophie goes missing and her friends try to find her leading to an old building and estate in the woods.
Sound the sirens because this review contains spoilers and the only way I can try and do justice to what this movie is attempting to be about is to give something major away. Without doing such "Splintered" sounds like another derivative horror movie where young friends head to the woods and they soon discover that they are in deep danger from something strange which picks them off one by one. I won't say what that thing is other than to say this monster is a semi decent twist on what you might expect although some might call it capitalizing on a social issue.
So as to that spoiler and it all starts with an opening which takes us into what I think is one of Sophie's nightmares of being a child and attacked by a monster in her bedroom, it is a highly effective scene which gives us the movies only real attempt at character depth which establishes that Sophie has suffered some sort of trauma in her younger years which affects her now. What that thing is unsurprisingly is abuse and makes Sophie not only a little uncomfortable with getting intimate but has psychological issues of being locked in a room with a bed. Why is any of this important? Well it is what drives her on when it comes to the monster as she sees dealing with this monster as a way of dealing with the monster in her dreams. It is an okay-ish sort of set up although is only a thin layer of difference to what you expect fro a movie which ultimately sounds so derivative.
The trouble is that "Splintered" far too often feels amateurish with people who sound posh trying to talk street which is hilariously bad almost as bad as when one of the characters says something along the lines of "I though you were my soul mate". It isn't all bad and the acting of Holly Weston combined with some solid cinematography gives "Splintered" its better scenes. But unfortunately there is more which is bad about "Splintered" than there is which is good.
What this all boils down to is that "Splintered" is for the most a derivative teens head into the woods type of horror movie but it has some things which are good. The attempt at character depth combined with Holly Weston's acting is when it is at its best but it is not enough to make it a good horror movie with more bad things outweigh those things which are good..
