Real science is in a rather unenviable position. On the one hand you have the pure scientists, the geeks, whose only interests are exploring the world and its possibilities through research, all of which needs funding. Then you have pharmaceutical companies that want to exploit that research for profit. Unfortunately, state-funded research has all but disappeared, along with the socialism that supported it. One example is the research into bacteriophage that was happening in the USSR. Bacteriophage are a natural alternative to antibiotics, a virus that kills bacteria and mutates as the bacteria attempts to change. After the fall of communism, state funding was cut, the research and all the resulting cultures were neglected until an American investor tried to revive the work, but was eventually stopped by the corporations producing expensive antibiotics, and all the work was destroyed.

It is in an environment of a corporate funded laboratory that the story of SPLICE is initially set. Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) are the superstar wunderkinds of genetic engineering, who specialise in DNA splicing – the joining of genetic material from different species to create new hybrids. However, their work goes far beyond making more resilient soya bean crops. They want to mix human and animal DNA to find new cures for diseases. Although the pharmaceutical company funding the research is desperate for results, and a certain amount of success has already been achieved with mixed animal hybrids, they are not ready for their star couple to use human DNA.Clive and Elsa are driven to succeed in their research, not so much because they want to please their backers but because they want to see the results, although there is financial pressure to deliver. In order to overcome an inherent defect in their research to build the required genetic string, Elsa introduces some human DNA into their own secret project, which results in the “birth” of a creature that they call Dren, which starts to show unusual intelligence. While Elsa loves the creature like a daughter, and Clive loves it in his own way, they have to keep Dren hidden from their employers and the general public, for their own safety as well as that of Dren. The creature starts to grow into a recognisable hybrid of animal and girl, and eventually into an alluring and unusual young woman, who still has a final metamorphosis to make.

Writer-director Vicenzo Natali is a smart and funny filmmaker - CUBE, CYPHER and NOTHING (not released in the UK) – and has created what is pretty much your basic monster movie, in the vein of Frankenstein, that also explores other themes such as medical ethics, parenthood and the clash of nature versus nurture. The movie approaches the science with just the right balance of realism and fiction, a boundary that is rapidly blurring in the real world, and it is used to set up the story but isn’t its main focus. The familial aspect of the movie is very interesting and brings up the issue of caring for a "special needs" child, although this one can fly, live under water and has a taste for raw flesh coupled with a burgeoning sexuality.

For a sci-fi film that is covering so much ground it manages to maintain a good balance of science, human drama, humour and horror, particularly in the final act. However, it will not appeal to everyone and certain aspects may even annoy hardcore genre fans because of the different strands and themes, but that diversity will also make it more palatable to a broader audience.

SPLICE is on general release from July 23.