Some ideas just work.

Take the movie SPLINTER (2008), for example, now available on DVD. No, it's not a movie about wooden slivers that innocently enter little fingers and then tear their way through entire bodies (hey, that's not bad!).

The premise behind SPLINTER is the idea of enemies needing to bond together to fight a common foe. Great idea, very likeable, and it certainly piqued my interest. Now the film doesn't really pull off this plot point with any great pizzazz, yet, this didn't stop me from liking this picture.

In SPLINTER, we meet an amiable couple about to go camping to celebrate their one year anniversary, nerdy but charming Seth Belzer (Paulo Costanzo) who is studying for his Ph.D. in biology, and his strong-willed fiery girlfriend, Polly Watt (Jill Wagner). Unfortunately, their plans are interrupted by escaped convict Dennis Farell (Shea Whigham) and his girlfriend Lacey (Rachel Kerbs) who kidnap the couple in order to use their car to get them to Mexico.

During the drive, they hit an animal that darts in front of the car. The collision causes a flat tire. As they change the tire, they are surprised as the unknown road kill suddenly comes back to life and attacks them. They flee to an abandoned gas station, and it is in this setting, barricaded inside the building from the threat outside, that the convict and his kidnappers must work together to fend off the murderous monster hell bent on getting inside.

Again, the idea of people being kidnapped having to work with their kidnappers to fight off a common enemy is one I like and one that makes for an exciting story. The problem here is that it happens a little too easily. The two sides work together so quickly and effortlessly you half expect them to open up some beer cans and start cracking jokes.

I would have preferred it had the convict been a bit more psychotic, like the villains in the recent remake of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (2009). Had that been the case, and our young couple been forced to deal with both the monster outside and the maniac inside, that would have made for a very intense plot. As it stands now, the story is interesting, but as written by screenwriters Kai Barry and Ian Shorr, you definitely get the feeling while watching the movie that this is the way these writers wanted things to happen, as opposed to this is how it really happened.

Worse yet, in terms of the writing, the film's menace is not clearly explained. It's never all that clear what the monster is. Using his Ph. D. knowledge of biology, Seth deduces that what they're dealing with is some sort of splinter parasite which needs animal or human bodies as hosts. Huh? Your guess is as good as mine.

But there are plenty of thrills, thanks to director Toby Wilkins, enough to make me really like this movie, in spite of its shortcomings. The most gruesome scene in the film is when Seth must amputate Dennis' arm in order to save his life. Seth only has a small pocket knife available. The scene is a stomach churner. You might need to turn away.

There's also a neat scene with the monster, now inside the body of a dead mutilated Rachel, repeatedly banging its head against the glass of the gas station, producing one sickening thud after another, as it tries to break in.

The most suspenseful scene in the movie involves Seth lowering his body temperature so he can move about undetected by the heat-seeking creature (Come again? Sorry, you're gonna have to ask the writers. No clue.). But it's good scene, nicely done by director Wilkins.

The acting is OK. Shea Whigham makes a scary escaped convict, but as a baddie with a heart, he becomes likeable a little too fast for my tastes. Gag. He also was difficult to understand in several scenes, as his character seemed to have a mumbling problem.

Paulo Costanzo (Seth) and Jill Wagner (Polly) are likable enough as the innocent couple kidnapped by the convict and his honey. The role of Seth was a fun one, as it wasn't the typical male movie hero. Seth was rather nerdy, yet not in the boring cliched interpretation we see so often in the movies, but in a much more realistic way. So writers Barry and Shorr deserve credit here for creating a refreshing take on a horror movie hero. And I thought Costanzo delivered the most consistent acting performance in the film.

The special effects weren't bad. What little we see of the creature is satisfying. No instances of blaring "this looks cheap and awful."

The ending isn't particularly strong. It's certainly predictable in terms of who survives and who doesn't. No surprises here. And it just sort of ends, as if the filmmakers told their gas station tale and concluded that "OK, this is enough, let's end it here." It offers nothing creative.

While I liked SPLINTER and thought it a good movie, one worth watching, ultimately, for a monster blood-fest, it's a little too neat and tidy. A little more psychotic energy and unpredictable pandemonium would have been welcome.

And the film certainly could have done a much better job at explaining its menace. The monster is not fully explained at all.

But SPLINTER works because the characters are likeable, and the threat, while not easily understood, is quite scary. You've got this "thing" that takes over your body and--- hmm, speaking of "things," the monsters here do call to mind the weird and wild creatures from John Carpenter's classic remake THE THING (1982), though they are nowhere near as memorable. Sort of "thing" wannabes.

Ultimately, SPLINTER is a sliver of a horror film that creates enough suspense and bloodshed to satisfy that late night craving for some frightening monster horror. Just don't expect all the answers and explanations to make sense.

If SPLINTER were a food it would be something deep fried in grease, best enjoyed without thinking about it too much.

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