The road to Halloween is paved with good films. Wherein we countdown to the spirited season with a hundred doses of horror. 54 days to go.
When was the last time you saw a truly beautiful horror film? One that is both visually lyrical and horrific, blending the two seamlessly. Spring is a film that starts as a moody drama that very soon morphs into a Lovecraftian horror and might even make you believe in true love again.
If you’re not familiar with Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, shame on you. They made some waves at the festival circuit a year ago with The Endless, a film about two brothers returning to the cult they once escaped, only to find something sinister and possibly cosmic going on. The Endless was a fascinating look into the nature of time and our relationship with inevitability and change.
Before The Endless, the director duo made a much smaller film called Spring, which is easily one of the most wonderful horror films ever. I often make a very loud argument for the spectacle of violence, finding the grace in the gruesome but Benson and Moorhead truly manage to bring it to the screen with Spring. The film bursts with beautiful images, full of meaning and even at its ugliest, many frames could belong to a museum.
Lou Taylor Pucci plays Evan who quite frankly, is having a really hard time. His mother has just died after a long illness and he gets into a fight after her funeral. Desperate for a change, he leaves the country and travels to Italy, because that’s what you do when tragedy strikes. There he meets a beautiful, mysterious woman in red and is instantly smitten with her. However, she might be a bit too mysterious…
Spring has been described as a horror version of Before Sunrise, which seems like a fair, if uninspired comparison. It’s a dialogue-heavy horror which never aims to scare you, but to move you. Like in The Before Trilogy, time is of the essence here, there is a timer on this romance and time is ticking fast. Spring questions the meaning of life and once again Benson and Moorhead tackle time in their narrative. Without giving too much away, time’s cyclical nature plays a huge part here. The film ponders on the meaning of life from an aspect that makes it interesting again. Would you be willing to live your life as a monster? Are you scared of dying?
Spring is a visually stunning film. Filmed in Italy, it has a lyrical, peaceful feel to it and while it’s not afraid to turn dark and ugly, it’s nice to have a horror which isn’t afraid of daylight. Everyone is of course talking about Midsommar, but Spring got there first and pulls it off gorgeously. Moorhead and Benson utilise drones for some shots, which glide over the sea and the hills. These shots feel slightly disrupting and out of place in such a poetic film, but but also give the film an alien feeling, as if something big is watching us and approaching the idyllic scenes in front of us, ready to cover them in blood.
I’m not entirely happy to call Spring a horror, because it feels like putting it in a box it doesn’t quite fit in. It’s horrifying and there are forces of evil at work here, but the film has such a natural feel to it, it never feels like a pure horror. A horrific drama perhaps? It bends and attempts to break some rules and limitations of the genre both Moorhead and Benson deeply love and clearly understand.
There are monsters in Spring and the character design of those feels unique and exciting, but also inspired by many horror favourites that came before. H.P. Lovecraft has clearly been a huge influence when designing the creatures, but Benson and Moorhead use the CGI sparingly. The film is deliciously self-aware of the genre and the script and dialogue reflect it. Despite the occasional sense of overt familiarity, Spring is a unique entry to the genre and one that will stick with you for a long time after the credits roll.
