"Spring" (2014)

Watched Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead's "Spring (2014). I had no idea what this film was about, other than reading one of the directors citing the Australian thriller, "Wake In Fright" as an inspiration. When the lead character Evan (played by Lou Taylor Pucci) leaves the States to avoid trouble and ends up in Italy with a couple of British hooligans, I quite expected this to film to be about one person's descent into moral degradation. Instead, Evan ditches his two traveling companions upon meeting the lovely Louise (played by the gorgeous Nadia Hilker) and suddenly the film becomes all about these two characters falling in love, very much in the vein of a Richard Linklater film. Oh, and I should also throw out there that Louise sometimes mutates into an assortment of different creatures if she doesn't inject herself with a serum she has! What's really amazing about this film (aside from the wonderful chemistry between Pucci & Hilker), is that this isn't a monster movie, even though it does have a monster in it and contains some minor scenes of bloodletting. Nor is Louise's mutation treated as a peculiar side story (like the monsters in Gareth Edwards' "Monsters"), but rather it's very central to the plot, as we as the audience are wondering throughout how the revelation of this will affect their relationship? I went in expecting "Straw Dogs", but instead I came away with a film that is deeply romantic, and oddly enough very sweet, that made me care about it's characters and want to see them find happiness in one another. And while I'm not normally one for romance movies, if you throw in some tentacles growing out of someone here & there, that's always a good way to keep me on board. 8 out of 10 for me.