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So much average

The acting in this movie is really good.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Oh man. My one-word summary for this, if I was forced to give one? FUN. I know, that seems odd, but it was just an exciting movie from top to bottom. The director, Toby Wilkins, really did a good job of keeping the storyline engaging right until the last scene.I'll be honest, when it started I thought the characters seemed a bit stereotypical and the dialogue left something to be desired — it was just so textbook. I am also not crazy about when a movie basically shows you exactly what's going to happen in the first scene. It opened right up with the gas station attendant being killed by an infected creature, and aside from it setting up the fact that the gas station was abandoned, it really didn't need to happen at all — they could have cut that first 5 minutes from the movie and it wouldn't have changed a bit.But really, once you get past the stiffness of the first bit of the movie, it's just a thrill ride. The tension is high from the get-go, both from the hostage situation and the obvious anticipation of something else going terribly wrong. The script wasn't the most original in the world but I felt like the actors did well despite that and did a good job at being natural. I also liked that they were much more even keel and rational than some "victims" can be in movies — there really wasn't much that they did to illicit a "seriously THAT'S YOUR SOLUTION!?" kind of reaction, which I feel like happens often. They were overall very smart and tried to use their wits (and Seth's biology knowledge) to outsmart the situation.Probably my favorite parts of the movie were the infected bodies themselves. The little bit of a hand that skitters its way through the gas station was awesome, and super well done — something that I think could have easily been comical if not, but it was truly creepy. The jerky, staggering motion of the infected people was also freaky as hell, and paired with the almost creaking sound effects they used… awesome.It went a little stereotypical with the convict, Dennis (played by Shea Whigham), hiding his infected wound. There's always gotta be ONE person who hides their infection from the group, and this movie delivered on that. But I liked how they dealt with it. Watching his bones start to crack and re-set as he's taken over was horrifying, and the scene with him getting his arm bone snapped with a cement block was… intense.The hybrid of the infected Lacey and the female cop was so good. Both the gore of watching the two bodies get almost sewn together by the parasite, and the final product — it was reminiscent of some of the creatures from The Thing, like it was trying to look like a normal human but didn't quite know where everything went, so the final product is just this terrifying mashup, all jerky and flailing around. When it finally breaks into the gas station it's just this bumbling mess of horror — super well done.My favorite part might have been when a one-armed Dennis is cocking the shotgun and just going crazy shooting the thing. BADASS. They did a really good job of making your feelings towards him transform from frustration and anger to downright sympathy when you find out what his true motives are.Ultimately an unexpectedly scary and well-done movie!

I'm going to keep this brief...ish. This film isn't for everyone, you've got to have a strong stomach going in and know what you're in for, which is an hour and 22 minutes of relentless action, chills, suspense, and gruesome body horror. The plot is simple, but effective... a roadside carjacking turns into "Assault on Precinct 13" meets "The Thing", as the three main characters take refuge from a terrifying creature they encounter by chance inside of a seemingly abandoned gas station. The rest I won't spoil for you.The filmmaking on display here is top-notch (by both Hollywood and indie-film standards). The cinematography is gritty and expertly executed, utilizing a hand-held, high contrast look with a lot of long lenses that lend to an almost documentarian, voyeuresque aesthetic. That, coupled with sincere, grounded performances from the entire cast works to evoke a very real, sober, and urgent tone for the film. You can really tell everyone was on the same page here, behind the camera and in front. The character work/performances served up are truly commendable, with a standout performance by Shea Whigham. This isn't one of those clichéd horror flicks with dumb characters doing dumb things... to the film's credit, it's a helluva lot smarter than that, and so are its characters. The creature/gore/practical FX are also very well done, by any standards. The filmmakers are smart enough to show you just enough of the "creature" to freak you out, letting your mind fill in the gaps of what you think you just saw. But while they hold back a bit (wisely) with showing the creature itself, you can count on everything else happening in full, bone-crunching detail. As mentioned before... not for the squeamish.All said, I highly recommend this film to almost any horror fan, especially those of you that love 80s/90s creature features and practical FX. If there are any complaints its simply that this film will not be accessible to anyone outside the genre, but that's hardly a complaint. "Splinter" is essentially the first truly worthy successor to John Carpenter's "The Thing", and almost definitely the best balls-to-the-wall "Scary thing out there, and we're in here" flick of the last 10 years, if not more. Check it out, you won't regret it.

A by-the-numbers horror movie, "Splinter" finds a couple battling both an escaped convict and a violent, infectious creature. Most of the film's action takes place in a small gas-station, where blood spills, limbs tear and mouths contort in pain. This gas-station is given some thematic weight; the film's monster is a product of an oil corporation's attempts at experimental extraction.Clichéd, poorly written and unimaginatively directed by Toby Wilkin's, "Splinter" never elevates itself above similar, low budget horror movies. Paulo Costanzo and Shea Whigham star.4/10 – See "Carriers" and "Vanishing on 7th Street".

Bad couple = good casting. Good couple = bad casting.Casting dramatically effects the suspension of disbelief. We do not give film actors the pass that give to stage actors. This is one of those films where the protagonist couple is so unbelievable it makes it difficult to empathize with the characters. It's not as if there is a shortage of actors to choose from. Or a shortage of casting directors. The only reason that we see actors like this in a horror flick, especially given that they're such a great career venue for young talent, is that the casting director has some agenda that is contrary to the film's interest.