A fear of commitment, of emotionally giving yourself over to another person, is a genuine and relatable problem to many. Spring (2014) is a young adult film tailored to those who have experienced the challenges of love, and appreciate its rewards. While it’s frequently billed as a sci-fi or horror film, Spring can more realistically be classified as a romantic drama - one in which fantasy and horror only exist to literalize the challenges and risks of love.

Spring follows the story of Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci), a twenty-something who put aside his own desires and dropped out of school to care for his ailing mother, who dies in the film’s opening scenes. He gets fired from his job on the same day, and having no remaining ties to his current residence, hoofs it to Italy for some rather tardy coming-of-age self discovery. It’s there that he meets Louise (Nadia Hilker), a mysterious and beautiful girl with whom he begins a passionate and confusing romance.

As things progress, the film slowly reveals Louise’s unique qualities - transforming into other creatures and supernatural beings, managed with an injection of something. Louise eventually confides in Evan describing the fantastic and supernatural characteristics that make her unique. It’s horrific without being gross. It’s fright without disgust. It is the filmmakers’ means of showing how genuinely terrifying putting your emotions in the hands of someone else can be.

“The horror here is just a means to heighten the emotions and work the stress points of a romance where natural fears—of women on Evan’s side, of commitment on Louise’s—are rendered supernatural. “ - Scott Tobias, The Dissolve

The film toys with science vs. magic, insinuating that love itself is a power of the latter. And like magic, Louise is depicted as a centuries-old woman whose survival stems from her cold-hearted approach to human relationships, forbidding herself from loving anyone as it would result in her death. There’s an inexplicable wonder in loving another person, especially knowing that love can often come with powerful suffering. But ultimately, as Spring will attest, it’s worth the risk.