Spring is a 2014 romantic mystery drama directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, and written by Justin Benson.
Following the death of his mother and the loss of his job, Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) travels to Italy to get away from it all for a while. In a small coastal town, he meets Louise (Nadia Hilker), an attractive woman who is more than she seems...
This film provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: The obnoxious American tourist seen a few scenes earlier happens across Louise as she's suffering from one of her transformations. After she doesn't respond to his highly inappropriate propositions, he prepares to rape her. She turns suddenly, and cue the Gory Discretion Shot as all we hear are his screams and loud biting noises.
- Babies Ever After: Implied, as Louise theorizes that if she loves someone she'll stay pregnant and not change. The ending indicates that she loves Evan, will keep her form and give birth to their child as they remain happily together while Louis now becomes mortal. How happy this is though isn't clear as Vesuvius erupts again at the end in the background.
- Body Horror: Louise's transformations. A side-effect of her regenerative abilities, she uncontrollably turns into creatures from humanity's genetic past. They can be managed with injections, or by eating raw flesh.
- Celebrity Paradox: Not a Celebrity Paradox at the time of this film's release, but early on, a character mentions 8 Mile, in which Anthony Mackie had a role. Spring is in the same universe (via connections with Resolution and The Endless) as Synchronic, which stars Mackie.
- Doing In the Wizard: Upon discovering Louise's true nature, Evan asks if she's one of a variety of supernatural beings. She asserts that she is human, although with a mutation that allows her to live forever. She's studying genetics to learn more about her condition, and has well-developed theories and explanations for it.
- The Fog of Ages: Louise can't remember her original name.
- Healing Factor: Louise claims to have one, but it's never shown.
- Horror Hunger: Louise tells Evan she tries to be vegetarian but sometimes craves meat. Later on she’s shown killing and eating various small animals raw (and at least one human).
- Humanoid Abomination: Louise’s unpredictable mutations certainly qualify her for this trope, even if she is technically human.
- Immortality Promiscuity: Louise has to get pregnant every twenty years to remain immortal, and thus has slept with many men across her 2,000 years of life.
- Immortal Procreation Clause: Zig-zagged. Louise can get pregnant, but after a week or so her body will assimilate the foetus, and use its cells to regenerate. Genetically speaking she's a new person (technically she becomes her own child, mixing her own DNA with the "father's"), but she retains all her current memories and maintains her apparent age. She believes this can be be prevented, however, if she is truly in love with someone; a hormone will be produced that prevents her body assimilating the foetus. She'll lose her immortality but remain pregnant, and be able to grow old with the one she loves.
- Immortality Begins at Twenty: As well as looking in her early twenties, Louise 'regenerates' approximately every 20 years, in spring.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Evan is the mayfly and Louise is the December.
- Mutants: Louise is one whose form changes every twenty years, after she's gotten pregnant as this then lets her regenerate, remaining immortal because of it.
- Omniglot: Louise can speak many language, probably due to her very long life, including Italian, English, Latin, Arabic and Turkish.
- Really Gets Around: Since staying immortal requires Louise to get pregnant every twenty years and she's about 2,000, she's slept with at the very least 1,000 men over the centuries. Louise teases Evan for being jealous about this.
- Really 700 Years Old: Louise. She's actually approaching 2,000 years old, since, as she reveals near the end of the movie, she was born in Pompeii, and survived the famous eruption of Vesuvius.
- Undead Tax Exemption: Discussed as Louise says she has to change her ID frequently and will herself things, which is a logistical nightmare, so no one knows she's an immortal mutant.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: All we see of the aforementioned Asshole Victim after the attack is his body on the beach. If there was an investigation into his death, we never see it.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Louise at first claims she loves her immortality, and nothing is good enough for to give it up. Evan though says being mortal makes life more precious, since every moment counts more with them being more limited. Louise appears to agree with him at the end as it's implied that her love for him made her become mortal.
