Spontaneous is the 2020 Horr-RomCom movie (Horror Romantic Comedy) about spontaneously exploding High School Seniors.
Yup, you read that correctly. They just pop and loads of blood splatters everywhere!
It is only happening to Seniors at just one specific High School, Covington High. Within the class of Seniors, the spontaneous exploding seems to be random and undeterminable as to who might be next. The government does what they can to figure out why/how this tragedy keeps happening. Everything from quarantining the teenagers in total isolation, blood draws and blood tests, pill trials, on and on, to find a solution to the phenomena. Along the way, more and more teens just suddenly pop like balloons. There are quite a few hard knocks on the government in Spontaneous, as they say and do everything we expect them to say and do in this situation, and with no true results or answers. And the teens act as teens might in such a situation, defiant but strong-willed (and mouthed) and determined.
Mara, (played by Katherine Langford, from 13 Reasons Why, also an intense role that deals with another sensitive real-life topic, teen suicide) is the main character. We follow her through the tragic events that befall the high schoolers of Convington High, as they try to survive the next moment, for it could be their very last.
Along the way, a romantic loving relationship sprouts out of the blood-stained darkness. Charlie Plummer stars as Dylan, the would-be boyfriend of Mara’s. Their romance for each other being induced by the tragedies surrounding them, deepening as the Hell they’re experiencing continues, worsens, and seems unending. The chemistry between these two was catching, realistic, and charming. Thus, the romantic part of this movie's genre type.
I really liked this movie.
It was just so damned hard to watch because of what I took to be the main underlining topic: High School shootings. Replace the randomly exploding teen with deaths from shootings at school, and you have real-life experiences (pre-COVID of course). The realism of the fear and horror that the teenagers deal with in Spontaneous is palpable and eye-opening. Even during the goofy or romantic scenes my gut was in knots because at any moment there could be a head-to-toe covering explosion of blood. That, and the realism, is the Horror aspect of the movie. Also, what supports the strong sobering nature of Spontaneous is the great acting by all accounts in the film, specifically Katherine Langford. Kudos to her in this film!
The movie addresses heavy issues a teenager shouldn’t really have to think about…at least it wasn’t as such when I was in High School (seems like AGES ago!). As comedic and funny as Spontaneous is, it addresses the same, if not more, amount of deep emotional subjects such as death, life, love, purpose, losing loved ones, redeeming love with those you’ve hurt. This makes for the heaviness of the film. Luckily there’s enough to laugh about to offset that heaviness.
Speaking of the humor, it is rich and highly sarcastic throughout the first half of the movie. However, this quickly gets overwhelmed every time with the grievous deaths of the teenagers that surround the main characters. It’s a tough roller coaster ride as you are laughing heartily about something one moment, then a teenager is popping in a bubble of spraying blood the next. Gives the heart a joyride with no brakes!
Spontaneous is unique and stands alone in its field. The viewer can easily get sucked into the characters and fall in love with them because of the great acting, which is unfortunate when you have no idea when, or who, is going to explode next. It is as tragic as it is funny. Spontaneous is also very colorful with rich cinematography…especially with the color red!
And the end-all message of “take advantage of the time you have on Earth right now” is really nailed home. Especially with the final scene’s commentary: “The world is a f**king cruel piece of s**t and nothing makes sense, and the only thing you can do is put your middle fingers up and be all like, f**k you, life! I’m gonna be amazing in spite of all life’s s**t!” Basically, no matter what we face in life, good or bad, we have to keep going with our heads up and out of the sand!
Thought it was a good wrap to the dramatic shocking satirical-comedy movie.
This honestly might be a one-hit wonder for me, as I really liked it, but might not watch it again. Probably because I don’t always prefer to ‘feel’ while watching a horror movie. Ha!
I do recommend it for a single watch if anything I mentioned drew your attention! I gave it a 3.5 Bloody Reels out of 5.0.
Bloody Cheers!
Spontaneous
Released: 10/2/2020
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi,
Director: Bryan Duffield (Writer of: Underwater, Love and Monsters, The Babysitter)
Writer: Bryan Duffield (See Director), based on a novel by Aaron Starmer
Stars:
Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why, Knives Out)
Charlie Plummer (The Clovehitch Killer, Looking for Alaska)
IMDB Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%!!
Metascore: 78 out of 100
Rentable on these Apps as of this Blog posting: YouTube TV, GooglePlay, Fandango Now
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