“Splinter” gets Oklahoma City premiere
There’s a mysterious creature roaming through the woods of Oklahoma – but that’s actually good news for the state.
A combination of elements conducive to the script and incentives from the Oklahoma Film Commission drew director Toby Wilkins to Oklahoma to shoot “Splinter.” The horror film gets an Oklahoma City premiere Thursday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
The state is “one of the few places you can still find isolated, rural pockets of civilization, like gas stations in the middle of forests, which is a key element of the script,” Wilkins said in a phone interview. “And I don’t want to spoil the movie, but for various reasons having very warm summer nights played a part in how the script worked.”
The key roles in “Splinter” are filled by Shea Whigham (“Wristcutters: A Love Story”), Jill Wagner and Paulo Constanzo. Whigham was the first aboard, Wilkins said, as escaped convict Dennis Farrell.
“With the 15 or more movies that he’s done, (he brought) an enormous amount of weight to the casting process.”
Wilkins hadn’t been familiar with Wagner’s genre background in “Blade: The Series,” but he said once he learned of it, it was a nice bonus. She and Constanzo play a couple who take to the woods for an amorous anniversary.
Wagner provided “a strong, powerful female lead who is a take-charge and confident character at the beginning of the movie, but still has access to the vulnerability that’s needed for the scares in a horror movie to work,” he said.
And Costanzo, best-known for his role on the “Friends” spin-off “Joey,” was interested in attacking something in another genre.
“The nervous energy that Paulo brings to the character of Seth is really what I was looking for from the beginning,” Wilkins said.
Wilkins said he was pleased with the talent of the local crew, which included many Oklahomans. And it’s not only Wilkins who is pleased with the finished work. The film won six awards this month at the eighth annual Screamfest horror movie festival in Hollywood.
“It’s a record-breaking sweep,” Wilkins said. “I’m so blown away that the crew involved in putting the movie together and creating it and making it what it is are getting the recognition they deserve.”
From Wednesday’s The Oklahoman
By Matthew Price
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