Splinter

Moving back to the family home in Dover, Delaware, is a difficult process for Scott (Jim Thalman). He likes the place well enough, and it’s infinitely more practical than Baltimore, even if his teenage daughter, Olivia (Quincy Saadeh) is sulking about it, but it brings back memories of childhood and – as we are made privy to in the prologue – the night when, out of the blue, his mother took him to his aunt and uncle’s house and left him there, saying that his father was dead and that they must never allow her to go near her son again.

On top of this, a lot of work needs to be done to get the house into shape, and Scott is expected to do it all himself, with his wife Teresa (Kristin Muri) pressuring him to speed up. Getting a splinter in his foot is just another annoying detail in an already trying day. Still, he tries to keep things in perspective. He carefully extracts it and gets on with his day. Until, that is, what he had thought was a clean wound begins to fester. He feels ridiculous going to the doctor because of a splinter, but realises that it might lead to something much worse.

How much worse, he cannot imagine.

There’s a lot of story packed into this latest low budget horror tale from Tom Ryan, as Scott contends with a worsening injury and begins to be haunted by strange dreams which seem connected with the history of the area, whilst curious stories begin to emerge from the neighbours about his parents. The acting leaves something to be desired and the lighting betrays the film’s limited resources, but there’s a solid idea behind it all, and one which genre fans will enjoy (even if one aspect of it strays dangerously close to Troll 2 territory). When the big revelations come, they pile on thick and fast, with a barroom scene which stands out because of how nice the bartender is – quite out of keeping with genre tradition – even if there’s little he can really do to help.

US horror has spent a long time exploiting the sacred Indian burial ground trope, which is doubly obnoxious in the light of the fact that hardly any Native peoples traditionally buried their dead. In a film which takes on themes around personal and generational atonement, Ryan also seems to be making an effort to atone for this. He shows more understanding of the Native traditions of the area, and furthermore, his characters react to learning about its history in a very different way, their sympathies instinctively directed towards the Native people rather than their own ancestors. This aspect of the story may still be quite crude, but coming just three years after the big budget Pet Semetary remake which showed zero self awareness, it’s a definite step forward.

Underlying all this is a clear love of the cruder side of the horror genre. A great deal of effort has gone into creating the special effects and the final shot will produce cries of delight from genre fans watching together. This may not be a highly polished film but it has a natural exuberance which is both entertaining and endearing. it’s a hell of a way to deliver a public health message (you can develop sepsis from splinter wounds, which can be fatal, so you should always see a doctor if they don’t get better), and it was a natural fit for Frightfest 2022.