Splicing Human DNA Leads to 'Terrible, Terrible Things'

[Doctor] That's it.

[Nurse] Heart rate's stable.

(computer beeping)

Splice is about two young, brilliant scientists

played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley.

And what they do is create hybrid organisms

by splicing DNA from different species

for a large pharmaceutical company.

But they're young and they're ambitious.

And what they really wanna do is

add human DNA to the mix,

but the company objects to this.

So they do it in secret.

And then terrible, terrible things result.

You can't let her out.

Specimens need to be contained.

Don't call her that.

What is going on?

Really my interest in making the film was

not so much in I think what is typically done

in these sort of films where the creature

goes on the loose and wreaks havoc in the city.

But in keeping the film enclosed,

keeping hermetic, and making it

much more about the relationships between

the creators and the creation.

Tempting.

Clive?

(tin can bouncing)

I think that's where Splice steps into places

where other films have not tread, or have

been perhaps a little bit afraid to tread

because there is a sexual component to this story.

There's a sexual component to the relationship

between the scientists and the creature that's

about as Freudian as you can get.

You've crossed a line

What did you expect when you made it?

Didn't you have a plan?

The prime directive of any life form is to procreate.

And when you create something like Dren,

that's an aspect of her being

that you're going to have to address.

And I think what's so wonderful about the horror genre

is that it gives you license to got to places that

you could never comfortably go with a normal film.

Like if we made a movie about incest,

that's a film that probably

not many people would wanna see.

But if you make a horror film that on a almost

a subliminal level deals with that theme.

It actually could be wildly popular.

It's become unstable.

This is a disaster no one warns about.

A new species set loose in the world.

Part of the excitement of watching this film,

is not knowing what Dren will ultimately become.

Because she evolves in her life cycle

she evolves in a very radical way.

And, she actually begins as something quite ugly.

A creature or a child that only a mother could love.

But as she grows, she turns into something quite beautiful.

Something that is quite possibly a step up

on the evolutionary ladder.

It's Slippery, it's (screaming)

(water splashing)

What was that?

A mistake.

I mean this film it's on some level is about

well on many levels is about evolution.

It's about how Dren grows up, it's about

how Clive and Elsa as characters grow up.

And in some respects, it's about how we as a species

are growing up or evolving.

And I'm almost certain that given what's going on

with this technology, that we are going to play

a hand in our own evolution.