In 2012, the up-and-coming directing duo of Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson took the indie horror world by storm with their feature film debut, Resolution. Their intimate, micro-budgeted tale of two men stranded in a cabin during a time of crisis (in more ways than one) immediately caught on with the horror community at large and, because of the compellingly unique storytelling approach Benson and Moorhead utilized in Resolution, the pair immediately became filmmakers to watch. They recently collaborated together on a segment for V/H/S: Viral and their latest genre-bending feature, Spring, is set to debut in theaters and on VOD on March 20th.
We recently chatted with both Moorhead and Benson about the inspirations behind the story and the creature from Spring, how the indie landscape favors their bold approach to genre storytelling, working with their talented cast on the film and why relationships have been and will always be important to the films they create together.
What a fantastic story, guys- what inspired you to create such a beautiful monster movie?
Aaron Moorhead: We didn’t really approach this as a monster movie, it was more of a ‘boy meets girl’ story that happened to have some really cool monster and horror elements to it. When you’re usually making a horror movie, the first two acts are about the discovery of the monster and then running away from it and the finale is all about conquering that monster. That wasn’t what we wanted to do with Spring. This story was more about fighting for the relationship.
A lot of people say that we have an unusual way of telling stories but we don’t really see it like that. It’s not about us being ‘off-kilter’ or anything, it’s about us telling compelling and interesting stories in a way that makes sense to us as filmmakers and fans.
Do you feel like focusing on relationships more allows you guys to tell more compelling stories?
Justin Benson: It does. Both Resolution and Spring- and even Bonestorm to a degree- were about exploring relationship stories and digging into what it means to truly connect as human beings. This story was like cramming six weeks of a relationship into one week which ends up being this really magical and wonderful journey for these characters. They go through all those firsts- the first date, their first fight, the first time they have sex- in such a small amount of time that it almost feels like an exaggeration of a real relationship. But I think the way we paced everything, and tried to keep the emotions and the way these characters interact with each other as authentic as possible, grounded all the fantasy elements and made the story that much more relatable.
Most indie films try to scale things down because of budgetary issues and yet, you guys go and make a movie in Italy which was really ambitious. Was it tougher this time around for you guys to get Spring made?
Justin Benson: It was really hard to get Spring made because it wasn’t a typical horror movie and in reality, no one ever wants to make your second movie. It’s so hard getting people on board and it’s weird to say this but people aren’t really convinced that you can actually make a second successful film.
Aaron Moorhead: Actually, the reason we were able to make Spring was because we shot it in Italy. The script was written back when we were still ignorant about making films so it didn’t necessarily occur to us just how much the setting would influence the budget. But then we found a film commission located there who was looking to help bring in international productions so in the end, there’s no way we could have done this had it not been for Italy being so generous and supportive of our film.
Lou was probably my favorite part of The Evil Dead remake and it was so great to see him in this, delivering an extraordinary performance that was completely different than I was expecting.
Justin Benson: There are just so many great things about Lou; he’s mastered that kind of nuanced acting we try to get out of the actors we work with. What we like to do as filmmakers is try and whittle down certain scenes just so it feels like real people talking, not like they’re saying dialogue they’ve memorized and not all actors have that natural ability to feel like they’re having everyday conversations. He was able to give us that each and every day.
The thing with Lou though is that normally, we end up casting based on actor’s real-life personalities; we did that for Nadia. She’s an amazing person but she’s also got that same kind of personality to her. The same with Vinny (Curran) and Pete (Cilella) from Resolution- they’re both pretty much the same guys you see in the movie. But not Lou- he couldn’t be more different than Evan. Even Lou’s laugh is different from Evan’s.
I really thought the creature design you went with in Spring was ingenious and it was cool to see that you guys worked with Todd Masters for this.
Justin Benson: Yeah, we loved the design and working with Todd. We started with this idea that Louise was this kind of evolutionary Frankenstein where she has all the qualities that we know from modern monster stories, like vampires and zombies or even The Creature. And as she’s evolved over centuries, she takes on new aspects of those monsters and we thought it would be kind of cool to see a connection made between movie monsters and human evolution since it hadn’t really been explored before.
When we sent Todd reference pictures, we weren’t sending him images from movies, we were sending him messed up pictures of nature stuff- birds with messed up legs and that kind of stuff- because that’s what we were looking for.
Aaron Moorhead: And I think that’s what excited Todd the most was that he was going to get the opportunity to create something wholly original, even if it has all these components to its DNA that seem familiar. For example, something that was cool about the design was that the fangs she wears were based on a mold of raccoon teeth and wolf fangs and that was really unusual. We liked that Todd was willing to go a new route for this and how it plays into the VFX film is something we’re very proud of.
What would you say is the biggest thing you both took away from your experiences working on Spring?
Justin Benson: I think the biggest takeaway that I had from my experience working on Spring was a boost in confidence as a director. The movies we make are relatively unconventional and the stories we like to tell can be challenging for some viewers, which we completely understand. But to see the overwhelmingly positives we’ve had towards our first few projects has been awesome. Plus, it pushes us now to keep making these kinds of films and embrace our approach even if it may not necessarily be the way most people would do it.
Aaron Moorhead: It’s been cool to be continuously rewarded over the last few years for being bold. It wasn’t like we set out to necessarily ‘be bold’ or anything with our work but we knew we were breaking a lot of rules along the way which meant not everyone would embrace what we were trying to do. But now to have this foundation in place- with Resolution, with Bonestorm, and with Spring- where we can show people that unconventional films can be successful has made all of this extremely special for both of us.
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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