Last night, my husband and I watched a horror movie that he’d ordered from Netflix after seeing it featured at Barnes & Noble.  The movie, Splinter, seemed to be a bit low budget — the special effects weren’t totally bad, but you could tell when the camera work was a bit vague so that you couldn’t see that it was just a dummy with a dirty blonde wig on.

Basically, the premise is that while on a failed camping trip, this couple is kidnapped by another couple, on the run to Mexico.  The first couple is celebrating their anniversary, and the girl is obviously the bold and capable one, while the guy is a bit of a pansy.  Of the second couple, the girl is obviously unwell, and the guy seems to be a pretty hardened criminal.

Anyway, after running over an animal, blowing out a tire, and running out of engine coolant, they all end up trapped in a gas station out in the middle of nowhere, being stalked by a parasite that invades the bodies of its victims and uses them to kill more people.

It was a good idea for a movie, reminiscent of movies such as The Ruins, but what I thought was the best part was the character development — much better than you would expect from a horror movie.  As I already mentioned, the main girl was a strong character, her brainy boyfriend turned out to have some pretty valuable skills, and the bad guy wasn’t at all the type of person you thought he was in the very beginning.

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