If you fuck with mother nature, your going to get fucked right back ...literally in the case of this film.
Fiddling around with 'Mother Nature' is a popular premise for many films and one that stretches right back to the dawn of film itself, so, after all those years, any film that bases itself on such fare should be perfected ...should be challenging and fresh ...er ...at least, that would be my hope. So ...were my hopes fulfilled with this promising little tale of gene splicing?
Genetic engineers Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) hope to achieve fame by successfully splicing together the DNA of different animals to create new hybrid animals for medical use. They have just created the second in a pair of identical hybrids, the new male specimen, Fred, is intended as a mate for the original specimen, a female called Ginger. How ...er ...quaint. Of course though a success initially, what happens is pretty predictable, especially given the DNA strings they were attempting to blend ...I am a little surprised 2 so 'brilliant' scientists never really thought this through.
Anyway, the film doesn't end there, Clive and Elsa want to use human DNA to create a hybrid that could revolutionize science and medicine, but are forbidden by the pharmaceutical company that funds their research, N.E.R.D. (Nucleic Exchange Research and Development), instead mandating that their department be re-organized to focus on finding and extracting certain proteins from the creatures they have already created. Secretly, Clive and Elsa conduct their own experiments, blending human DNA with that of other animals. Now, what could possibly go wrong? Well ...other than everything, but it seems that these two 'brilliant' scientists are anything but.
Although they initially decide not to bring the hybrid to full term, Elsa pushes the issue and persuades Clive to go along with it, in continued secrecy. The hybrid appears deformed and aggressive when it stings Elsa several times after "birth" with a retractable stinger in its tail. Clive and Elsa believe they have killed the hybrid only to find out that within the body was the true hybrid. After anesthetising and examining the creature, they discover that she is aging at an accelerated rate. Clive is still adamant that the creature should be killed, but Elsa convinces him that it is too late, and points out that, since the hybrid is slowly dying anyway, they should take advantage of this unique opportunity to observe its complete life cycle.
The scientists discover the creature is capable of breathing amphibiously and can live underwater too. Elsa eventually names the creature Dren, which is of course NERD backwards, because Elsa refuses to let Clive refer to her as a 'specimen'. Due to Dren's demands on Clive and Elsa's time, they begin to neglect their work, failing to read the logs kept by the other lab technicians on the progress of their original animal hybrids, Fred and Ginger.
At the highly publicised 'unveiling' of the two specimens, instead of mating, as expected, Fred and Ginger violently kill each other, creating a public relations disaster for the NERD company. It is subsequently discovered that Ginger, the female hybrid, has spontaneously changed to a male, but Elsa and Clive had failed to notice because they have been so wrapped up in caring for Dren. Though if either had of thought to ask me at the start of the film I could have pointed it out to them -shrugs-
Elsa forms a motherly bond with Dren, as Dren grows and learns at an accelerated rate. As their lab becomes more and more crowded, and after Dren attacks Clive's brother (a fellow lab technician), they move Dren to Elsa's late mother's farm. The audience learns that Dren has become carnivorous as she attacks and consumes a rabbit near the farm.
As Dren grows into adolescence, she becomes moody and petulant. She becomes bored being locked up in the barn, and wants to go outside, but Elsa and Clive refuse, as letting Dren outside could expose her to other people. Later on that week during a visit to Dren Clive looks at her and he suddenly realises that the human DNA used to make her was not from a 'Jane Doe', as Elsa had told him, but from Elsa herself. Eventually, Dren lashes out, killing a pet cat out of spite and then assaulting Elsa. Elsa reacts by reverting back to the role of scientist. She ties Dren up, refuses to speak to her (referring to her only as 'the specimen' again), and removing the stinger from her tail. She then uses the living tissue from the tail to finally isolate and synthesize the protein they had been searching for.
Soon after, Dren jumps naked on Clive, who initially refuses her sexual overtures. Clive and Dren end up having sex in a scene that, I admit, I did find somewhat interesting given the nature of Dren and it played to a few of my kinks, or at least it would have done had the director been a little more adventurous with the whole thing ...as it was, I found myself feeling as though I was just being teased and began to slowly resent the film for its lack of 'courage'. Sadly, before things can start getting good, they are interrupted by Elsa. Clive follows Elsa back to their apartment, and they have a heated argument, in which Clive confronts her about having used her own DNA to create Dren. He accuses Elsa of never wanting a normal child because she was afraid of losing control, which was why she had insisted on creating a creature in the context of a scientific experiment, where control could be assured. He says that the line between right and wrong has become blurred. The two finally decide to terminate the experiment, and presumably end Dren's life. However, when they return to the farm, they discover that Dren is dying. Some hours later, they bury her behind the barn.
Minutes afterwards, their boss from the lab arrives with Clive's younger brother Gavin. Gavin is aware of Dren's existence and has confirmed Barlow's suspicions that some sort of human hybrid has been created (due to the human DNA he found present in the samples Elsa worked with to synthesize the new protein). Just as Elsa is telling him that Dren is already dead, Dren attacks them, killing their boss and then Gavin. Clive and Elsa realize that, like Ginger, Dren has spontaneously changed sex, and is now male. Dren then attacks Clive, wounding him, then hunts down Elsa and rapes her. This was a scene that had SO much potential, it ticked a lot of boxes for me, gender realignment, medical experimentation, plus by this time I was really begining to 'hate' the character of Elsa as she was singularly the most annoying character in the film. But ...just as before, this scene never really makes its mark and I was left wanting once more.
This time it is Clive who acts as the 'killjoy' and stabs Dren through the chest with a scythe. Dren attacks Clive again, but Elsa hits Dren on the head with a large rock, knocking him to the ground. Just as she raises the rock again to deliver the fatal blow, Dren meets her eye, and she hesitates. In Elsa's moment of hesitation, Dren quickly stabs Clive through the heart with his tail stinger (which has grown back), and Clive is killed. Elsa then slams the rock down on Dren's head, killing him.
In the final scene, Elsa is seen in an office with the head of the NERD pharmaceutical company. The latter tells Elsa that Dren has turned out to be quite valuable, as his body apparently contains countless chemical compounds and genes that have never been seen before. The company, she says, will be filling out patents for years. She refers to the 'very generous' amount of money that Elsa has been offered in exchange for her silence over Dren and for taking the experiment to the 'next stage'. Elsa appears to have already accepted the offer. She stands up and is revealed to be pregnant, saying 'What's the worst that could happen?' Well, I am sure by now we can all predict what this predictable fare would offer, if they ever decided to make a sequal to this.
This should have been a good film ...yet, however 'promising' its premise is ...is sadly lacking and fails to ever break free of the bonds of predictability and disappointment. It promises much but deliversd surprisingly little and as a result, the highly predictable ending ...which shouldn't have surprised anyone given the events earlier in the movie, fails to truly satisfy.
The singular standout part of tis film is Delphine Chaneac who played Dren, with the aid of special effects of course, but her portrayal of this character is let down only by the script and the lack of courage on the part of the director.
If I had just reviewed this film from memory as I had seen it a few months ago, rather than rewatch it, I would probably have given this flick three burning skulls ...unfortunately, I watched it again, and with a more critical eye and found myself mentally picking it apart piece by piece and it didn't make for a pretty sight, so on the rewatch I would have given it just one ...I have, however, decided to split the difference and give it two burning skulls.
It could have been so much more ...it should have been so much more ...and perhaps in the hands of a more competent, well, certainly braver director, it could have been. Its worth a watch but ultimately feels rushed, especially with regard to the final portion of the film, and thusly falls short of its enticing premise.