#dren splice

[the-entity-down-the-street]

"Splice" is a better Frankenstein adaptation than "Poor Things" because:

SPOILERS FOR BOTH FILMS

A) the mad scientists face consequences for their unethical genetic fuckery instead of dying peacefully. Elsa is left traumatized, with her loved ones dead as a result of this experiment. Sure, she's getting a lot of money, but that's not going to undo the mental scars that will no doubt haunt her to the grave.

B) The female monster is actually fucking monstrous. Dren does have some typically attractive traits like symmetrical features, smooth skin, etc, but still. If you're going to make an abomination against science, MAKE THE ABOMINATION. Don't give me some pretty girl in a frilly dress and call that a monster, okay? Cowards.

C) They don't frame the dubious consent/noncon as liberating. Elsa is disgusted with Clive for sleeping with Dren, and when Dren assaults Elsa in her male form, it's a traumatic experience. Bella's assaults (because that's what they are. She has the mind of a literal toddler. I don't care if she is enthusastic about it if she doesn't have the cognitive capacity to understand what's happening.) are framed as sexual liberation and it makes me want to hurl a chair at somebody. Calling sex "furious jumping" because she's not mature enough to fully understand sex. The fact that her fiancé wants to marry her when she's a fucking toddler. Gross. Disgusting. I hate it.

D) Splice is a true gender swap of the Frankenstein narrative, because both the scientist and the creature are female. Clive helps, but let's be real, Elsa is pulling the strings and convincing him to go along with it. Splice doesn't claim to be a feminist retelling like Poor Things does, but it's more narratively driven by women who are allowed moral complexity and agency. There's no bullshit girlboss moment either (the goat brain swap).

E) This one is just a personal gripe, but the whole "bringing back a dead woman with the brain of an infant she was forced to carry" thing? And somehow, this is a feminist retelling? Hate. Get it away from me. Not saying Dren was created ethically (Clive didn't even have fully informed consent because he didn't know it was Elsa's DNA), but goddamn, at least the mother of the child had agency in the child's creation. There is absolutely nothing feminist about using an unwilling woman's body as a vessel for the baby she didn't want. What in the pro-life bullshit is this? Ew. Ew. Ew.

Rant over. Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk.

[lexezombie]

OH I DIDN'T SHOW SQUIRREL DID I!!??

I made a FiddleStan kid too since I do be a multi-ship enjoyer + have a few billford + fiddauthor kids (and the three of them together)

Not really a full on AU but more like canon events except the whole 'fiddleford and stan were both there for Ford goin in the portal', they end up together and Ford's AroAce in this world or somethin idk

EITHER WAY! Squirrel!

Info bout em under the cut if u cant read the pic

Stan calls them 'squirt'

They steal clothes from both Stan + Fiddleford

Can't speak but makes chirps, hums and whistles

Genderless (any pronouns)

Science experiment that escaped to Gravity Falls

Snuck into McGucket's house

Loves their little stereo + collection of (stolen) mix tapes + CDs

No nose, Huge eyes + Hands for feet!

Scars from escaping containment (shackles + jumping fence/escaping dogs)

Has difficulty walking sometimes (especially when first found)

'Toes' usually have bandages on them from blisters and scrapes

Burns easy in sunlight (VERY pale)

Sensitive eyes

Body has a bunch of scars

No teeth + proboscis with a sharp spike at the end (they eat mostly liquids like soups and juice, but if it's soft or small enough they can eat it; like berries, nuts, small meats, etc)

Hates: Sleeping alone, Cold weather, Wearing shoes (but has to)

Likes: Music! (Especially Classic Rock + Soul), Cooking, Shiny things

Their fashion changes a lot and they also have more girly clothes (they like skirts), but their usual fit is Fiddleford's old shirt + Stan's old jacket

Edit: OH! and for Stan uhh

He's got a mullet again (never got rid of it)

'Married' to McGucket (unofficially)

Wears a lot of rings, most of them were either stolen or from Fiddleford; though Squirrel found some too!

Ears are pierced but he doesn't wear earrings anymore

Bunch of scars from bein stabbed, shot, etc

[shadowgale96]

‘Why won't somebody come and save me from this? I must confess that I feel like a monster.’

Nadja - Blood Red Sky (2021)

Greta - Love, Death, and Robots: Beyond the Aquila Rift (2019)

Lily - Siren (2016)

Sai - Inhuman Kiss (2019)

Moder - The Ritual (2017)

Thomasin - VVitch (2015)

Dren - Splice (2009)

Beldam - Coraline (2009)

Melanie - Girl With All The Gifts (2016)

Irena - Cat People (1982)

[speedydazevoid]

My 9 year old self didn't have any business on watching this shit!!

It's good.

But we all know that one scene, hm? If not, GOOD. Stay like that.

But why is this nasty ass baby cute? Maybe it's just me and my weird ass self thinking this way.

[gluetrapsreviews]

Ok watched Splice last night and I actually really liked it up till like the last 3rd of the film so ig like notes on that and how I think they could’ve had a similar ending but you know included less of *gestures vaguely * that

Tw for mentions of rape and incest btw, this is a really weird film

Uh ok so first change: Elsa finds Dren’s drawings of all of them, Dren even drew herself but maybe sad that she looks different than them or maybe she draws her Barbie doll instead of herself? Like a human stand in for herself almost. Elsa asks about Dren’s depictions of herself which upsets her and she runs to the cat. Elsa does take the cat away but to the vet to see if she might actually have some sort of diseases, Dren partially understands this but is still upset. Clive comes to check on her. This scene stays the same but make it less sexual please i beg you, Clive realizes Elsa used her own DNA through some means other than weirdly staring at Dren’s neck. Same argument with Clive and Elsa then they get a call from the lab about the protein thing that their hours have been extended till they figure it out. Elsa gives the cat back, Dren hits the cat but doesn’t kill it or maybe she just hides in the rafters while Elsa tries to apologize. Now Elsa and Clive have barely enough time to check in on Dren. This is when she starts getting hormonal changes when it’s just her and the cat. Insert montage of Dren acting weird maybe playing with her wings while Elsa and Clive work on the protein thing. Then one day Clive is checking the cameras and Dren is sick like she was near the end of the film, he fakes being sick and goes home to check on her. He realizes how weird she looks but assumes it’s just the next stage of her life and tries to take care of her. Dren wakes up with Clive next to her trying to work from home and attacks him, insert scene parallel to the one when Dren first gets sick and Clive tried to drown her(Dren drowning Clive). Dren then breaks out of the barn and starts looking for Elsa killing all men she sees in her path, eventually she gets to the lab and is poisoned by Elsa via parallel scene to the first time Clive tried to kill her. Elsa gets in tons of trouble and the lab gets shut down. Potentially there is a scene at the end where uh oh Dren might still be alive but that’s it that’s the film.

If you really need the Clive falls in love and has sex with Dren bit, have her lay eggs instead of having the sex change and then rape Elsa. It makes way more sense for her to lay eggs in the water and then attack everyone because they’re too close to the “nest” then boom you still have your weird sex crazed killer mutant + your sequel material + no horrifying incest rape scene, a triple win

[nopestilldoomed]

DAY 2 of watchtober, ive done it. I found a scary one

Splice (2009) is a movie.

It starts a very good Modern Prometheus of sorts Elsa is a mad scientist she makes her creature, it looks like a kangaroo. It becomes a lady. I liked what was happening where as time went on Clive and Elsa switched opinions on Dren. But then the statutory happens and the genderswap and the full on assault and... i can not recommend this movie to anyone. I liked most of it but... sour ending.

After the statutory i expected the movie to become about dren trying to survive these two awfull toxic people that she trusted. As Clive and Elsa tried to kill her... you know cause its a Frankenstein story and shes the creature, but no.

Hmm man made horrors beyond what mortal can? Or uncanny near humans that pass as humanlike? Removal of agency? Hard to classify... ill go with stranger if the humans are the main character and Lonely if Dren is.

[eldritch-spouse]

If you’ve ever seen the movie Splice, what’s your opinions on it, specifically Dren? I feel like their design is so intriguing and the plot is fucking weird

I'm sorry but her face is giving this.

And I'm trying, I'm really trying because Splice is an interesting movie and I feel for her, I like her. But girl. You need to be a lot more monstrous to pull off that gap.

[thatgirlfromthegraveyard]

Has anyone seen Guillermo Del Toro’s sci-fi horror movie Splice (2009)? Something’s been on my mind about it. Spoilers below.

So, I’m not usually one to like sex scenes in movies, especially rape scenes. A lot of the time I find them unnecessary or lazy, especially in horror. I know a lot of people feel that way about the two sex scenes in this movie, but I disagree.

So, what is it? Splice is a modern Frankenstein, a story about a creature incapable of being loved by the humans it was created and formed by. In which biologist couple Clive and Elsa are tasked with creating hybrid creatures using a mix of different animal species DNA. After an initial success, Elsa, unbeknownst to Clive, creates another hybrid by mixing DNA from the initial hybrids with her own. The rapidly-growing hybrid, named Dren, acts just as monstrous as a humanimal would be expected to. The couple keeps Dren in isolation, fearing repercussions and the loss of their research efforts if she was discovered.

So it’s very clear from the beginning that Elsa is Dren’s mother, biologically and emotionally. Elsa feeds, clothes, teaches, etc. I’ve seen people refer to Clive as Dren’s father but…honestly, he really isn’t. Elsa treats Dren as the child she wants her to be, Clive treats her like the experiment she was supposed to be. Clive is disgusted at Dren’s existence, even moreso when he discovers that Elsa used her own DNA to produce her. Clive does not attempt to bond or connect to Dren, calls her “the creature”, “the experiment”, or “the subject”, and actively tries to kill her on multiple occasions. There is a scene when Dren is toddler-age where she gets sick and is actively dying, and while Elsa attempts to save her by using a cold bath to bring her fever down, Clive physically pushes Elsa away and attempts to drown Dren. He is unsuccessful, as it’s revealed that she has amphibious lungs, but Clive very specifically did not know that and very specifically lied to Elsa that he did. “Father” of the year everyone. It would be more accurate to refer to Clive’s relationship with Dren as “her mother’s boyfriend”.

Now, here’s a big point that the movie spells out explicitly but a lot of people seem to miss (or ignore): Neither Elsa nor Clive wanted to be parents. Clive, from the beginning, wanted to be a scientist and nothing but. His intention was to remain detached and clinical, to treat his animal test subjects as a stepping stone for knowledge. Elsa is explicitly maternal, caring and cooing and playing the part of a doting mother. But that’s the thing, she is PLAYING the part.

When Dren starts getting older (read: stops being a small, stupid, easily-commanded child) and wanting to do things like go outside, or keep a cat she found as a pet, or eat meat, Elsa stops acting like a good mother. She starts with yelling at and berating Dren. After Dren runs away from a confrontation and hides in her bed, Elsa follows her, and takes away her cat (a cat that she’d been taking apparently good care of, considering it was healthy and comfortable enough to purr while she held it). Elsa’s violent reaction to Dren’s (pretty normal for a kid/teenager I might add) disobedience culminates after Dren has an emotional reaction to having her pet taken, and having her request to go outside denied.

Dren pushes Elsa to the ground, threatens her with a venomous tail spur, and steals the key to her enclosure from around Elsa’s neck. It should be noted that Dren does NOT harm Elsa, rather unlocks the door and goes outside to look at the sun. Elsa responds by hitting Dren on the back of the head with a shovel, knocking her out, and strapping her to a gurney. In one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in the movie, Elsa surgically removes the end of Dren’s tail while she’s awake and struggling, all the while recording audio logs of the process where she repeatedly refers to Dren as a subject.

Clive walks in after the fact, with Dren still strapped to the gurney with a bloody stump at the end of her tail. At this point in the movie, the couple switches roles, with Elsa now seeing Dren as nothing but an experiment, and Clive seeing her as a person.

Elsa did not want a child. Elsa wanted a baby. Clive calls this out directly early on (while also notably avoiding the fact that he was complicit in Dren’s creation), by chastising Elsa for treating an infant Dren “like a pet”. Clive brings attention to this concept again directly later on, telling Elsa that she “never wanted a normal child, something you couldn’t control”. That is the main thesis of the story, that neither Elsa or Clive, nor their predecessor Victor Frankenstein, were prepared or willing to take care of a person.

They created monsters, because they did not want to be responsible for children who would grow up to be people. But like in many of Guillermo Del Toro’s works, a person is a person whether or not they’re a monster. They created monsters, because they would not love a child that could disobey. In both stories, the creature is not human, and is brought up in isolation because their creator and their world will not love anyone who isn’t human. In Splice specifically, Dren’s idea of love is formed by two things: Elsa’s treatment of her, and Clive’s treatment of Elsa.

So what does that mean for the sex scenes, and why am I writing so many words to justify them? Put simply, Dren has only seen love through two lenses, the violence of a mother who did not want a child, and the passion of sexual intimacy. It should be noted that Dren did NOT show any interest in sex until after she watched Clive sleep with Elsa, and that she did NOT show any interest in Clive until he stopped her from running away by telling her that he loved her, and giving her a hug. It should also be noted that Clive did not see her a person until she started talking (well, forming words with scrabble tiles), ie. forming and expressing independent thought. Don’t take this as me defending Clive, he was still complicit in Dren’s creation and directly involved in her isolation and abuse, but it’s important to note the differences in how he and Elsa thought about Dren.

Dren is, just like Frankenstein’s monster, an example of a tragic abomination. Both are people, whose parent wanted to create, but did not want to deal with the consequences of creation. Both are people who watched and learned from a stranger that was so disgusted with their existence that they tried to kill them.

By the time Dren is an adult, she’s internalized that love is violence, and love is sex. First she seeks out sex from Clive, who tells her to stop, then initiates again after she pulls back. What a Totally Great And Not Terrible At All way to teach the mutant monster girl the idea of consent, Clive. At the end of the movie, Dren has become fully a monster. She hunts and kills the strangers that discover her.

Which brings us to the scene that most people cite as the most disgusting scene in the movie: Dren, presumably because of the mollusks or insects in her DNA, has become male, and rapes Elsa. Is it disturbing? Absolutely. Is it morally abhorrent? Yes of course. Is it out of character or lazy shock? No, not at all. There’s a very important callback, punctuated by the fact that it is Dren’s only spoken line in the entire movie. When Elsa asks what she wants, Dren parrots the exacts words Elsa told her as a child.

“I, inside you.”

Elsa taught Dren that her love had nothing to do with Dren herself, and everything to do with the fact that Dren contained her DNA. Clive taught Dren that if you love someone, you fuck them whether or not they say no. What Dren did was awful and disgusting, but the horror of her actions doesn’t come from the monstrous acts she committed, but from the fact that it was never her fault she became that kind of monster in the first place. Even Elsa’s resulting pregnancy ties into that concept, the idea that she will never fully escape from the monster she created.

Elsa taught Dren that she loved her, on the condition that she was, as she put it, inside of her. All Dren did was return the favor.

In other words, hoes mad when the horror be horrific.

[wanderingnork]

Horror Movies: Lady Lab Rats

This is a theme that takes a turn for the disturbing: movies about women who are the subject of scientific experiments. Most of these can get pretty uncomfortable, so I strongly advise tackling this list with care. That said, I love all but one of the movies on this list. One of them is in my personal top ten horror pieces, in any medium, of all time. This list is presented in increasing order of intensity and on-screen violence.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920): A strange doctor exhibiting an eerie somnambulist as a carnival attraction arrives in a small town. The presence of this movie on the list should tell you there’s more to this than meets the eye, but I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone who doesn’t already know. This movie leans on an unsettling atmosphere and gorgeous sets, not screaming and gore, to create its horror. The leading lady is delightfully spooky throughout.

Thale: A pair of crime scene cleaners stumble on a mythological creature trapped in a basement, formerly a subject of medical experimentation, and have to decide how to help her--or if the risk of helping is worth it to them. No actual experiments go on onscreen, and though the leading lady spends the entire film fully nude, it’s not remotely sexualized. Vulnerable yes, sexual no. It’s a slow-paced movie, with strong creature feature elements.

Splice: Two scientists decide to secretly create and raise an animal/human hybrid creature in their barn. Of course, this goes horribly, terribly wrong. Dren (the creature) has an absolutely stunning design. This one’s unique on the list in that the woman in question was born thanks to an experiment, not brought into a preexisting situation. I was personally disturbed by the strong elements of child grooming in the actions of both scientists, and would be unlikely to watch this again even though I adore Dren.

V/H/S 94: The Subject: A classical mad scientist kidnaps and alters unwilling people into cyborgs in a dark, back-alley clinic. When the authorities arrive, Subject 99--one of the only survivors--has to fight her way free. This is literally one of my favorite horror stories ever. Subject 99 is an incredible Final Girl, the found footage is shot in a very impressive way, and the action doesn’t outweigh the dreadful horror of what’s happened.

Martyrs (2008): A troubled young woman follows her even more troubled friend directly into the hands of a cult obsessed with discovering the secrets of the afterlife--by “scientifically” torturing young women until they can see it. You can imagine what happens from there (or maybe you can’t). Responses to this movie vary. Some people say that it’s the most disturbing thing they’ve ever watched; others, like me, found it incredibly moving and cathartic. Some people call it torture porn; I’m not so sure the label applies here. It is a challenging watch, no matter where you fall on the scale.

Some questions for thought: What changes in the stories if the protagonists of these movies have their gender changed (male, transgender, nonbinary, anything) while nothing else is altered? Would the characters feel more or less vulnerable? Would your reaction to the more violent movies change--would you be more or less disturbed? What role does the trope Beauty Is Never Tarnished play in these stories, if any? Would your feelings about these movies change if the characters were aged up to middle age or older? Why or why not? Would it surprise you to find out that I think The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is on an equal level of institutional violence to Martyrs, if not more so? If you’ve seen them both, would you agree?

(Previous Recommendations)

[the-entity-down-the-street]

I made Dren's wings from Splice because she's a gender icon

[master-jarrus]

Have I seen the movie splice fully and not just random clips? No

I however have seen enough clips to get context and decided that if they had just been fucking nice to Dren instead of trying to kill her on multiple occasions and that one guy never tried to have sex with her the ending wouldn’t have happened

It could’ve ended on a better note

[shadowgale96]

Splice, 2009

[the-entity-down-the-street]

I don't necessarily think I *am* Dren from Splice, but I do have whatever she's got going on. She's like a sister to me. Same species I guess.

i'm starting to feel less and less safe in this site as a fictionkin, so i just wanted to call out (factkin dni please):

INTERACT WITH THIS POST IF YOU'RE FICTIONKIN

INTERACT IF YOU RESPECT ALL KINTYPES REGARDLESS OF MEDIA

[twilitkingzant]

Ahhh, thoughts... Ahh. (Random Thought # -1)

Well, I just thought about all of my OCs (including my cringy ones from my old DeviantArt account) in one of those hotel conference rooms. That's including:

The Firealpacas (Akuma, Oni, Shokku, etc.)

CW (Computer Worm Thing)

My Courage the Cowardly Dog Gary Stus (Devilish Dan and Psychotic Pete, they were supposed to be Freaky Fred's brothers...)

Viktor the Soviet Russian Cat (Some Communist Cat, lol)

Experiment G, B, and X (They were based off of Dren from Splice.)

Dracul (Pandimensional Hellhound similar to Doomageddon)

The Katsonyans (Feline Alien Race that lived on different planets)

Mr. Webb (Male Arachne Professor Guy)

No Name and his brother James (Demon Brothers)

Mr. Pepper and Mr. Fluffy (More Cats!)

Corvus (Mutant with the legs and wings of a Raven)

Sah'drii Oman (Demon from the 9th Circle of Hell that manipulates Black Ice)

Xander Badumna (Another Arachne, but he's a student)

Vladimir Himnerith (Lanky Vampire Highschooler that always gets in trouble)

Anthony Greyclaw (Chubby Werewolf guy who is Vlad's best friend)

Frona (Nerdy Insectoid Girl)

Obsidian Viliaris Crocus (Mutant that turns into a slime monster, he's also Sah'drii's only friend)

Syn (9ft Tall Incubus that is somewhat of a motherly figure)

Ludovico (Servant-To-Be that acts like a toddler)

...Any many more. Uh.

[fmp2pb]

Splice is an interesting film following the plot of two young scientist who go rogue in their experiments and splice human DNA into their work, creating a human-animal hybrid that they call Dren, as the film progresses Dren reveals her amphibious traits, carnivorous tendencies and retractable wings, the film takes a turn and Dren becomes complex and dangerous. The film delves into the ethical and scientific implications of genetic engineering, blurring the line between ambition, the consequences of scientific exploration and pushing the boundaries too far. Dren is a very manipulative character, tricking people to get her way and shows she is dangerous, killing multiple people at the end of the film. It is an interesting concept that is sometimes explored in films but not to this extent, it is cool how they designed Dren to be a strange mix of creatures, appearing to be human but having amphibious qualities and others like wings, a stinger and the most interesting is changing her gender which is a very rare phenomenon in animals, mainly fish and amphibians can do this, which is a very unique concept to put into the design and plot but it does work quite well and is something that could be used for a creature that I will design.

[the-entity-down-the-street]

Marak Sixfinger (literally work with him as a pop culture deity)

Eric Northman/Alex Skarsgård (wrote my first book about him and tried to learn Swedish one time)

Marvel Loki (kind of why I ended up working with real Loki in my deity practice)

Milo Thatch (gender icon, stole his glasses)

Dren from Splice (gender icon, I stole her whole vibe)

okay I'm curious. if you feel like it, reblog this post with your top five all-time blorbos. not your latest blorbos, but the ones you've had the most persistent and irreversible brainrot about over the years