25 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen: Spring (2014)

I love films with open endings.  I like philosophical exploration, emotional clarity, and above all things I love when a film is unafraid to explore honesty.  There are so many different ways to do it; metaphorically, allegorically, scientifically, and spiritually.  So what do you call a film that explores the metaphysics of love via a monster movie format?  All of the above I suppose and that's what makes Aaron Moorehead and Justin Benson's Spring an immensely great film.

After his mother succumbs to cancer, Evan's (Lou Taylor Pucci) life is completely upended by tragedy and circumstance causing him to flee the United States.  With no idea where to go he books a flight to Italy where fate pushes him towards Louise (Nadia Hilker) an incredible woman harboring a dark secret.

Every review you will ever read likes to draw comparison's to Richard Linklater, particularly Before Sunrise and due to many of the creature transformation effects present (and the seaside setting) to the horror of H.P. Lovecraft.  It's an apt comparison, at least stylistically, but there is something so completely honest about Spring that I think it's almost unfair.  That is not to say that Linklater's films don't contain honesty, but he does have a certain pretension to philosophical meandering that is nowhere near as present in Moorehead and Benson's work.  The immediate intimacy between the two leads is electric and their dialogue is so refreshingly honest, witty, blunt, charming, and mature.  So much of dialogue in films is made up of arguments that lead nowhere.  Evan and Louise communicate so fully throughout the film that it almost makes it read even more as a fantasy, if only because the audience isn't used to it.

This film was a breakout success following their first film Resolution which gained some notoriety at the Tribecca Film Festival in 2012, another film in which they use the Horror genre as a springboard (pun intended) to discuss other more real life issues and fears.  Spring, outside of being an incredible mash up of genre, is also an exquisitely shot film where the camera itself takes on the presence of an invisible character.  Settling on strange animal and plant activity happening the foreground which starts of barely noticeable and slowly becomes a focal metaphor to the rest of the narrative, the camera never feels intrusive or uninviting, but instead a welcoming power.  It is also so refreshing to see a film that isn't afraid to inhale deeply personal emotions and exhale a monstrous creature that feasts on living prey.  A fantastic second feature from a team of incredible filmmakers who are absolutely worth following.