Spring (2014)

Directed: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Country: USA

Movie Review: With only two feature films in their careers (not counting with the segments for the pathetic “V/H/S: Viral”), fellow filmmakers, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, have been conquering a legion of fans, and are now considered trendy representatives of the independent filmmaking. In their first film, “Resolution”, I didn’t get convinced of their capabilities since what it was supposed to be a horror film, became an unaesthetic, somehow pretentious adventure where everything seemed purposely created to baffle and supported on incoherence. With the conceptually bolder “Spring”, a modernistic romance horror sci-fi, which is mostly, if not entirely shot with handheld camera, I’m a bit more convinced, even believing that the film would have benefitted if had spent more time around the eeriness than in a romance that never showed many motives for us to care about it. The story follows Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci), a Californian cook who gets in trouble after the death of his mother (amazing opening scene), fleeing to a small village on the Italian coast where he meets the love of his life, Louise (Nadia Hilker). This lovable femme fatale is a researcher scientist whose availability is far from being regular. Getting too close and growing too fond of Evan, her dark secret will be exposed to him in a hideous manner. As an ancient creature, she confesses this is the first time she’s in love with somebody (naivety), but that love is menaced by increasingly dangerous transformations that turn her into a repulsive killing beast (a mix of alien and werewolf with scorpion tail). The dialogues might be baloney at times and the pace somewhat uneven, but “Spring” managed to properly engage with its sweetly bizarre facet and a few powerful scenes.