Critic Reviews
58
Metascore
Mixed or Average
positive
6(46%)
mixed
5(38%)
negative
2(15%)
Showing 13 Critic Reviews
83
A nifty horror movie that doesn't claim to be anything other than a zippy exercise in creature-feature entertainment.
80
A spare, effective and genuinely frightening retro-nightmare.
80
The result, however clichéd, is spectacularly unnerving: hair-trigger horror.
80
Buoyed by solid ensemble work, some yuckily effective special effects, and a script that subverts genre convention by having its characters do smart things instead of stupid ones (mostly), Splinter earns our respect while delivering 82 minutes of lean, mean fun.
70
It's short, taut, nicely shot, well-acted, astutely directed, specific where it might have been generic, original enough to be engrossing and derivative enough to be amusing.
63
Splinter is no exploitative blood bath or torture horror like the "Saw" movies. It's more of a thriller along the lines of "The Thing" or "Alien." The scares are equal parts psychological jolts and gore. This is classic Halloween fun, with plenty of thrills and chills, surprisingly believable performances, and healthy doses of humor.
60
A fan of flash-edited, orientation-challenged, hand-held camera mayhem, Wilkins unfortunately takes the wrong cue from his title and fragments the movie's attack scenes for maximum energy but minimal logical effect.
60
If "Saw V" offers an example of how little filmmakers can get away with, Splinter proves how much a director can do with next to nothing.
58
There's potential for a lot more excitement in Splinter, but Wilkins seems content just to bring it across the finish line.
50
A diverting if not terribly original on-the-cheap horror film.
