Nina Forever (2015)

"Nina Forever" has been talked about since it's screening at Fantasia International Film Festival this year, and rightfully so. It's a movie that is hard to categorize into only one genre but still feels complete and secure in its choices. If I were to put it in one genre, then it would be "romance", yet somewhere in this dark love triangle we find comedy, horror, drama, gore, eroticism and pure love. Our emotions are played with in "Nina Forever", and it's exciting to be part of from start to finish.

The movie follows Holly and Rob, a young couple who fell in love after meeting each other at work. Holly found herself fascinated that Rob had recently attempted suicide and decided to muster up the courage to talk to him. Rob doesn't tell her the reasons why, but after a night of passionate sex it is revealed to her that Rob lost his girlfriend in a car crash. Holly finds this out because his girlfriend, Nina, comes back to life while they are having sex. She continues to torment the couple every time they have sex.

The wonderful thing about this kooky concept is that we have no distinct answers as to why Nina returns, but it never makes us question it. We feel involved but we don't let the mystery of Nina get in the way of what actually matters in the movie - the love story. This is not the first movie where a dead ex-girlfriend returns to life. In fact, there have been a few recently with Joe Dante's "Burying the Ex" and "Life After Beth". Both of those movies follow a recognizable formula, but "Nina Forever" is its own thing entirely. Nina doesn't come back as a zombie that the couple have to deal with and try to hide from people. Nina comes back as something else, more of a ghost, and only comes back during sex to make life harder for the couple.

Thanks to the comedy, which is not too crazy or out there, we can relate to this strange story and connect to it as a love drama rather than a horror movie. That doesn't mean that it isn't charged with several dark, twisted things. There are scenes that could be qualified as necrophilia, several scenes of graphic gore, and a whole lot of nudity and steaming hot sex scenes (always followed by a bloody mess in the bed as Nina makes her entrance). Luckily the movie remains hard to classify because it doesn't choose to focus on one thing specifically, and this leaving us with the wonderful movie that "Nina Forever" is.

Abigail Hardingham, Cian Barry and Fiona O'Shaughnessy make up the lead trio of actors and I am pretty sure that the Blaine guys would have had some problems on their hands if it weren't for these three. In a movie as odd as this it is important that all parts understand exactly what they are trying to achieve. These three lovely actors could not have had an easy time on their hands, trying to balance all of the important ingredients to make "Nina Forever" as lasting and engaging as it is. It could easily have slipped into the realms of bland or trying too hard, but it never does.

"Nina Forever" is one of the bloodier romances, but don't confuse that with being a horror movie. It shows several aspects of a horror movie, obviously, but there is a heavy focus on comedy, drama and romance as much as there is on blood and gore. It's a fresh take on several old genres and I can't help but think that this will be on many people's minds after they have seen it. Whether "Nina Forever" sounds like it would be up your alley or not, it is a movie that I highly recommend to all of our readers.