Philosophical horror’s a thing. A friend introduced me to Moorhead and Benson films—these aren’t major studio productions—and I’ve been watching them as I can find time. They’re intelligent and tend away from heavy gore, which is fine by me. And they leave you with plenty to ponder. I recently sat down with Spring, an unusual movie that sometimes gets classified as science fiction, probably because the lead actress plays a science student. There will be spoilers here, so if you have plans to watch, please stop and do so now. Here goes: The story follows an aimless young man who’d given up college to take care of his dying mother. To get away, he heads to Italy with no particular destination in mind. He ends up in Polignano where he meets and is smitten with a young woman. At least he thinks she’s young.
From the privileged point of view of watchers, voyeurs perhaps, we come to see that Louise isn’t who Evan thinks she is. She’s a two-millennia-old woman who has to regenerate herself every twenty years to maintain her immortality. When the twenty years wind down, she transforms into other creatures on the evolutionary scale on the way to humans. Since she lives on she’s not really seeking a long-term relationship. This leads to some discussions of religion, which I find intriguing. Louise is a scientist, however, and even when she transforms into a monster, she refuses to call it supernatural. Rather, she claims it’s just something that science can’t yet explain.
This perspective really does get at the heart of the debates between science and religion. Are there things science simply can’t explain? I.e., are there things beyond science? Or is science really the panacea for all things? The problem is that the human mind cannot sense or detect all things. We don’t even have a clue as to how many things there actually are to detect. How can one method be used to encompass everything? Not a bad set of questions to be raised by a somewhat Lovecraftian movie. Lovecraftian, by the way, due to its focus on the sea and some of Louise’s atavistic transformations. Spring is an unusual and thoughtful movie. It’s a love story as well, about willingness to face the unknown for love, and trusting evolution. The characters are likable and you want them to thrive, which you don’t always get in this genre. It’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to Moorhead and Benson, and always being glad I came.
