There’s something almost disgusting watching Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody on a barn floor humping a hybrid lab experiment, a creature with legs like a kangaroo and a stinger on its tail. Sorry if that spoils your take on the new film Splice -- but this information is already abuzz on the internet.

Clive (Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) are genetic engineers specializing in splicing DNA from animals to create new hybrids. They are also an affectionate couple who share the love of their work, yet Elsa refuses Clive’s pleas to have a baby.

The first hour of the film -- which played to a dead-silent audience at the screening I attended -- comes across as intriguing. The couple’s current project produces two giant worm-like creatures that are supposed to open the world to new discoveries. But while working secretly on another project of their own, Clive and Elsa’s lives change drastically.

Unbeknownst to Clive, Elsa has added human DNA to their project. When the screeching, unrecognizable creature in the lab gets Clive’s attention, Elsa must reveal what she did. Clive informs her they are morally bound to destroy it. However, as days go by and it begins to have more and more human features, Elsa refuses the idea. Clive is also disturbed because he can see that Elsa is becoming emotionally attached to “Dren,” the name they end up giving it.  

In no time at all Dren starts growing older and must be hidden, so Clive and Elsa take it to an abandoned barn. As the creature watches the loving relationship between Clive and Elsa, it wants to be Elsa and get all that affection from Clive. By this time, everyone in the once dead silent theatre where I saw the film was laughing hysterically. It’s hard not to. For example, when Dren seems to be dead, Clive says, “She’s dead.” But just like in those old B-movie thrillers where the dead person is never dead, neither is Dren. Yet 20 minutes later in another scene Clive pronounces her dead for the second time. One moviegoer shouted out, “again?” And right – she wasn’t.

I have no idea what writer-director Vincenzo Natali had in mind when he wrote this movie or at least the second half. By now the entire plot has changed from intriguing to sci-fi porn. The intriguing dilemma about the moral complexities of genetics completely disappears into a byproduct of sexually ravaging creatures. Several times I looked at these two above average actors and said to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding!”

Of course, the hype will get some folks who care nothing about plot into the theatre, but after these viewers experience a few of their own repulsive moans, they’ll probably figure out Clive and Elsa aren’t the only ones feeling the pierce of Dren’s deadly tail -- or tale.

(Released by Warner Bros. Pictures and rated “R” for disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language.)

Review also posted at www.reviewexpress.com.