The film is about a young man, Justin Frost (Middleditch), who falls in love with Galaxy (Taylor), a splinterhead (someone who works at a carnival but is not a carny). The two go on their share of Geocaching adventures and in the end start dating. This aspect of the movie has caused it to develop a cult following among those who do geocaching as a hobby.
Schuylar Croom of the band He Is Legend makes a cameo in the film.
Nick Schager of Slant Magazine gave Splinterheads .5 stars out of 4, explaining his reasoning as "Despite positioning itself as a Napoleon Dynamite-style comedy about a spazzy social retard, [the film] seems to have misplaced most of its jokes".[2]Variety's Peter Debruge criticized the film for "Attempt[ing to compensate for its too-familiar romantic setup by defining its characters through idiosyncratic hobbies and traits".[3]
Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B−" and called the film "a quirkier Adventureland" which, according to him, "never rises above mildly amusing".[4] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called Splinterheads "a shaggy comedy with more heart than heft".[5]
According to Nick Pinkerton of The Village Voice, the film "[is] another tale of an overgrown kid accepted for his sweet, stammering self and nurtured out of his cocoon".[6]
