Spontaneous premiered on 6th October 2020 on Video on Demand and saw a limited release on 2nd October 2020. Written and directed by Brian Duffield, the 97-minute-long film stars Katherine Langford, Charlie Plummer, Hayley Law, Piper Perabo, Rob Huebel, and Yvonne Orji.
Life Is Uncertain…
Spontaneous is set in a high school where a senior class full of students, one fine day, experiences something that leaves them petrified. Students explode (literally!) into pieces without any reason or signs, as if a blood bomb has been set off and there are copious amounts of blood everywhere – ceiling, students, teachers, stationery, and table!
There is no stop to this bloody havoc. It is between this blood and fear that we are introduced to our protagonist Mara Carlyle (Katherine Langford), a free-spirited girl who is true to herself and doesn’t believe in being pretentious in any shape or form. She’s a rebel and that is portrayed by her wearing a jacket saying ‘ANTI-YOU’.
While the world is turning upside down, Mara meets Dylan (Charlie Plummer) who confesses to having a crush on her for 2 years because of what’s going on around them. What follows is a constant fear of suddenly disappearing, romance brewing between Mara and Dylan, and a tragedy that’s not just agonizing but melancholic too.
When I started watching Spontaneous, the whole idea of teenagers just detonating out of nowhere made no sense. It still doesn’t, but going a bit deeper into the love story of Mara and Dylan and the series of strange incidents, I realized that the movie is a bit more than just teenagers detonating out of nowhere. It depicts the uncertainty that tomorrow holds. How you’ll never know who you might lose forever the next moment. In a lifetime where we take moments for granted, maybe we shouldn’t and live like it’s our last day.
The film can also be classified as an absurd film, in my opinion. Absurdism dates back to the 1950s (Post-war era) – the whole idea is the idea of ‘nothing,’ the uncertainty. Spontaneous is a dark comedy in ways and is centred on the idea that life is incongruous, conflicting, unpredictable, and meaningless.
After analyzing the movie the viewers would realise that it offers no answers and explanations for anything that’s happening, especially the scary, sudden and disturbing exploding of kids. We don’t even know why Mara is so rebellious because the movie offers no explanations or background behind it.
Stream It or Skip It
With the ambiguity and unanswered things the film carries with itself, I am still unsure of whether anyone should stream or skip this blood blasting, teenage killing romantic movie! But overall, the film has a fine tone to it and does keep you engaged till the very end hoping for an answer to the painful explosions and wanting for Mara and Dylan to get through this phase, alive.
Spontaneous is now available on Video On Demand.
Read our other reviews here.
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