****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Wow, this was a superb movie. I expected one thing – a Lovecraftian horror film, mixing in an American abroad coming across ancient cosmic horrors sort of trope like in _An American Werewolf in London_ or _Afflicted_ – and didn’t know I was, sorry if this is a spoiler, getting a really great romance movie that I got heavily invested in, with a wonderful climax that had nothing to do with death and destruction…ok, it did, but not how I expected to, for it also involved romantic love, Love and Romance starting with capital letters, something Shakespearian. This was a beautiful film, with gorgeous Italian countryside, light touches of humor, deft character development of minor characters, and two very compelling leads who I grew to care a lot about. This was excellent, one of the best films I have seen in a while, a rare film that will appeal to horror fans and to romance fans (maybe romantic comedy fans too, but this wasn’t a romantic comedy but really a true romance).The movie at first focuses on a young man named Evan (played very well by Lou Taylor Pucci, who shows layers to his character as the movie progresses). Losing his mom to cancer very early on in the film, getting in a bar fight that may land him jail time (and does cost him his job), and having put his life on hold to care for his ailing mother, he very impulsively goes to Italy.At first spending time with two fun blokes from the UK eating, drinking, and smoking their way across Italy, he soon breaks off from the two when he becomes interested in a local girl in an Italian seaside town, a woman named Louise (played by Nadia Hilker, absolutely perfect in the role). She seems flirtatious, Evan wants to more formally date, and the two hit it off in a whirlwind romance.Only Louise is hiding a dark secret, things she doesn’t want Evan to see, how her body doesn’t always stay human, she has to take injections without him seeing…I can’t say much more than that, but you have a horror mystery (and body horror) while also getting a wonderful, rapturous romance (and ultimately, weirdly, one supports the other). It’s strange but it really works.A lot of the film was subtle, with some high-quality cinematography, camera angles, just slightly underplayed at times in a way that really worked without being languorously slow. The world felt real, with care and attention to detail to the minor characters, the two Evan spends time with in the first 23 minutes of the film, a farmer Evan stays with, fully realized characters with a wit and charm about them.The film sinks or swims though on whether we buy the acting and dialogue of the two main characters and their chemistry together and I absolutely bought it. They are the heart and soul of the film, an intertwining set of plots, one the romantic one, the other what deep, dark, horrifying secret Louise is hiding from Evan. A really great film.
