With: Lou Taylor Pucci, Nadia Hilker
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorehead
Writer: Justin Benson
Genre: Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi
Rated: NR
Length: 109 mins
Though Spring is an interesting but fractured remix of assorted genres and sub-genres, what it lacks in cohesion it makes up for in sheer ingenuity.
Evan’s mother has just died. On the day of her funeral, with emotions still raw and alcohol in the veins, he tussles with a burly man, knocking out a few blinged-out, silver teeth. It’s enough to get the attention of the cops, who awaken a hungover Evan the following morning. Rather than answer the door, he books a flight to Italy.
What starts out as depressing becomes funny. Funny becomes hopelessly romantic. Romantic becomes skin-crawling — from which we transition to romantic once again. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead direct Benson’s script, constructing Spring as if it were envisioned by Richard Linklater and Ridley Scott. That’s right — Before Midnight meets Alien. At times Spring may have an identity crisis of sorts, but its crises effuse an adolescent verve.
Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci giving a promising performance) falls for Louise (an equally impressive Nadia Hilker) at first sight. She’s looking for a hookup. He wants a date. She leaves. He stays in the picturesque Italian town in hopes of snagging that date with Nadia. And after a chance run-in he gets it.
It’s no coincidence that Louise, who harbors a dark secret, is a student of evolutionary genetics. And her interest in Evan may come from an ulterior motive. But to explain further would spoil the plot.
Spring is sun kissed, bright, airy and beautiful — not indicative of the horror genre. Spring is, above all else, an intimate movie. And its few skin-crawling, ear-tickling moments are an affront to the senses more than they are terrifying (here’s lookin’ at you, necrosis). But Spring‘s steadfast eeriness is electrifying. It’s a spry, youthful movie, built around a believable budding relationship in supernatural circumstances.
Spring upends the laws of the horror genre, showering it with romance and imagery that make it a refreshing oddity.
