Spring (2014)
Directed by Justin Benson
A young man in a personal tailspin flees the US to Italy, where he sparks up a romance with a woman harboring a dark, primordial secret.
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10 films that influenced Spring
What critics say influenced Spring
It’s the most regal of Shakespearean epics meets the most sinister Joe Dante feverdream, striking a wealth of emotional riches while also utilizing beastly effects reminiscent of Landis’ An American Werewolf In London and many other skin-tearing affairs.
A mutant hybrid between Before Sunrise and An American Werewolf in London, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s Spring is a clever and severely romantic creature feature that, not unlike its dim-witted bro hero, is in desperate need of a woman’s touch.
A bit like a cross between Before Sunrise and An American Werewolf in London but nowhere near as good as either.
Tone is everything in "Spring," a " Before Sunset "-esque drama whose amiably rambling plot mimics its love-lorn protagonist's journey.
The best way I can describe Spring is by calling it a monster-movie version of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise.
Ostensibly, the film starts out somewhat like Before Sunrise, if that Richard Linklater film took place entirely in the headspace of the Ethan Hawke character while he traveled Europe by train.
Since festival audiences have already exhausted the “Spring is like…” comments over every form of social media (Spring is like Before Sunrise meets H.P. Lovecraft, for example), I’ll just plainly say that Spring is romantically horrific bliss, achieving perfection through tragedy and soul.
Put another way, the new indie film Spring feels a little like Before Sunrise, as imagined by a pair of filmmakers who love David Cronenberg, but are clearly more interested in the emotional side of humanity, and not necessarily the visceral side of the story.
Some have already compared the romantic elements in “Spring” to Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise,” a fair comparison but also a bit misleading, as the writing here is a little spotty at times and the romance a bit rushed even if the gorgeous leads, Lou Taylor Pucci (from the recent “Evil Dead” remake and “Thumbsucker”) and Nadia Hilker, have solid chemistry together and give good performances.
On the other hand, it’s not difficult at that point to imagine him following up with Robert Mitchum’s immortal line from “Out of the Past”: “Baby, I don’t care.”
With hints of screwball comedy and stunning aerial camera-drone shots that would make even a blockbuster-budget movie proud, "Spring" is entirely successful in its mission, and an interesting successor to such can-this-relationship-be-saved predecessors as "Cat People" (1942), "Possession (1981) and "Let the Right One In" (2008); yet for this genre fan, it's final-act emphasis on romance over horror is a disappointment.
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His work is known for its use of electronics, synthesizer and Rhodes piano, all of which is on display in the score for “Spring,” often reminiscent of Michael Andrews’ work on “Donnie Darko.”
Spring has about it an air of Near Dark.
Benson and Moorhead made a splash with their twisty meta-flick Resolution, that one another observantly-written character/relationship drama that takes on genre implications somewhere along the line.
Co-directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (“Resolution,” “V/H/S: Viral”), working from a script credited to Benson, do a clever job of entwining elements of budding romance, mounting dread and indolent vacation in their leisurely paced, handsomely produced indie feature.
Just as Benson and Moorhead accomplished in Resolution, Spring breezes through scenes in the most effortless of manners.
Screenwriter Justin Benson, who co-directs with Aaron Moorhead (they previously teamed on Resolution), puts an interesting spin on myths, magic and monsters, enfolding them in a dream-like relationship drama that makes space for brief touches of humour.
Directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, the latter of whom also wrote the screenplay, previously collaborated on Resolution , a crazy quilt of horror-movie clichés.
Trust, though, that much as their overlooked directorial debut, Resolution, steeped itself in compelling character development before slyly incorporating longstanding horror lore, Benson and Moorhead remain eager to keep an audience on its collective toes.
Written and directed by the very clever guys who made Resolution (2012), Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson’s Spring is only tangentially a “horror” film, but don’t let that turn you off; there are hundreds of gory flicks about a guy who falls in love with a female “monster” – check out Vincenzo Natali’s colorfully insane Splice – but Spring is more interested in the mental and emotional impact of not only discovering a supernatural being, but also in falling in love with her.
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Spring is also about Louise's choices in this life: whether, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-like, she should fall in love in a mortal world--if she should give up eternity for the chance to play at eternity in just a few moments.
It's a horror film insomuch as Let the Right One In was a horror film.