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Arts & Culture

Meet The Directors Of 'Spring' Friday, Saturday At Digital Gym Cinema

Nadia Hilker and Lou Taylor Pucci star as unlikely lovers in the horror-romance "Spring," screening tonight and tomorrow night at The Digital Gym Cinema with the filmmakers in attendance.
Drafthouse Films
Nadia Hilker and Lou Taylor Pucci star as unlikely lovers in the horror-romance "Spring," screening tonight and tomorrow night at The Digital Gym Cinema with the filmmakers in attendance.

New film blends horror and romance

The Digital Gym is hosting a late Friday and Saturday night screening of the new horror-love story “Spring” with the filmmakers in attendance.

Being able to talk with a filmmaker right after seeing his or her film is always a treat, and usually it’s the kind of perk you only get at a film festival here in San Diego. But Horrible Imaginings and The Film Geeks at the Digital Gym Cinema are bringing Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead down to discuss their new film that was partially shot in San Diego.

“Spring” is the perfect film to see under these circumstances because there is a twist to the story that I don’t want to reveal, yet I want to talk about.

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The film opens with Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) caring for his dying mother. After her death, he gets into a bar brawl and loses his job. So he impulsively buys a plane ticket to Italy, where his life takes an unexpected change when he meets Louise (Nadia Hilker), a beautiful young woman with a dark secret.

“Spring” is a genre defying film that mixes horror and romance in unexpected ways.

And don't panic, it's not a "Twilight" blend of horror and romance.

It's smart and actually has ideas it wants to mull over. It’s also part of a crop of films from young filmmakers who are taking the genre seriously and trying to expand the definition of what horror is and can be.

I don’t want to give too much away but “Spring” dovetails nicely off of the Old Globe’s production of “The White Snake” in terms of how it tweaks the themes of “Beauty and the Beast” and questions about loving people for who they really are.

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Oh wait, I hope I didn’t say too much!

“Spring” screens at 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at the Digital Gym Cinema with Benson and Moorhead holding a Q&A after each screening.

Disclaimer: I am one of the volunteers programming films through The Film Geeks at the Digital Gym Cinema.