Spring: Love is a Monster (2014)

Spring: Love is a Monster: Directed by Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead. With Lou Taylor Pucci, Nadia Hilker, Francesco Carnelutti, Nick Nevern. A young man in a personal tailspin flees from US to Italy, where he sparks up a romance with a woman harboring a dark, primordial secret.

“This turned out to be much sweeter, much more touching than I had first anticipated. Though the film takes a good half an hour to get into its stride it really is worth the slight uneasy feeling you may have when Evan first gets to Italy and youu0026#39;re wondering if itu0026#39;s going to turn into something akin to the Hostel series, but thankfully this is as far away from that kind of horror as possible.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAt itu0026#39;s core the film is a dark, fairy-tale like horror romance but it keeps itself grounded in ways that are really satisfying and could only be possible in the world of independent cinema because if someone else, other than Benson u0026amp; Moorhead, had made the film it couldu0026#39;ve easily turned into one of those slick, Hollywood style fantasy movies with lots of leather, low-key lighting, vivid colours and fast editing. The film does have very dark moments, horrifying moments, but theyu0026#39;re handled with a certain amount of grace and elegance that I wasnu0026#39;t expecting and you will enjoy this film more than you think you might.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe lead actors are great. Lou Taylor Pucciu0026#39;s portrayal of Evan is wholly convincing, his character couldu0026#39;ve run the risk of being entirely forgettable but heu0026#39;s sweet and charming and highly likable. Nadia Hilker has been working in German television for about 5 years, this is her first feature film, and I have to say Iu0026#39;m a little bit in love with her. The personality she gives to a character that could easily have fallen into the realms of utter cliché is really, really refreshing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA slightly twisted, supernatural companion piece to Before Sunrise? maybe, maybe not. But definitely something different, at least.”