Splinter
Following the murder of his wife and son, an agoraphobic man becomes convinced that someone, or something is invading his home... Kindred is a tense psychological thriller set entirely inside the home of the protagonist.
Summary
Splinter (2022) is a claustrophobic psychological thriller centered on a man shattered by the murder of his wife and young son. Now agoraphobic and confined to his home, he struggles to cope with grief, fear, and the routines of daily life in the place that once represented safety. As unsettling signs begin to suggest that someone—or something—has entered the house, his sense of security steadily collapses. The protagonist carries the film, with his murdered family remaining a powerful presence through memory, absence, and the emotional scars they have left behind. The mysterious intruder functions both as a possible physical threat and as a source of psychological torment, forcing him to question what he sees, hears, and believes. With the action restricted almost entirely to the home, ordinary rooms and familiar objects take on an increasingly threatening quality. Rather than relying solely on conventional horror, Splinter builds tension through isolation and uncertainty. Its central themes include bereavement, survivor’s guilt, agoraphobia, and the fragile boundary between trauma and paranoia. The film’s confined setting mirrors the protagonist’s damaged state of mind, turning his home into both a refuge and a prison. Slow-burning and intensely intimate, it is best approached as a character-driven study of a man struggling to distinguish an external danger from the horrors generated by his own grief.
