5) Starting with Jason Yu’s 2023 feature debut, ‘Sleep’, which isn’t technically a ‘Romance’ film but deserves its place in this list regardless. In short, it’s a horror movie about sleepwalking gone wrong but upon a closer look it’s a story about a couple who believe they can overcome anything if they have each other. The couple live blissfully in their apartment with a baby on the way. However, when Hyun-sun (played by Lee Sun-Kyun) begins to sleepwalk; eating raw meat out of the fridge, chanting terrifying things and putting his family at risk, things take a sinister turn. The pair refuse to leave each other's side coming up with a plan of action involving sleeping bags and oven gloves as safety precautions. They are a unit, lying in their marriage bed, drifting in and out of consciousness but always sensing when something is wrong. As the film progresses Hyun-sun’s sleepwalking turns from concerning to terrifying, and the film asks us just how far you would go to protect your family from itself…
4) Next up is Guillermo del Toro’s weird and wacky ‘The Shape of Water’. Released in 2017, the film follows the unlikely romance between a mute janitor working in a lab (played by Sally Hawkins) and the amphibious creature (Doug Jones- ‘Hollywood’s most famous ‘monster’) being held captive there. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War in the 1950s, ‘The Shape of Water’ is a unique tale of isolation, unlikely connection and the transcendent force that is love. While there might be a few questionable moments that put you off watching this, the film’s dream-like visuals and touching story of defiance make up for it in the end…
3) My next recommendation meets almost every expectation for a spooky romance, it’s a gothic-fantasy comedy featuring long-distance vampire lovers. What more could you want? Starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, the 2013 film ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ takes a new perspective on immortal longing. Depressed musician, Adam reunites with his lover, Eve, on the desolate streets of Detroit. Although their relationship has lasted centuries, their bond is tested upon the arrival of Eve’s sister, Ada (Mia Wasikowska). The film chooses to take a slower pace, trundeling along with a minimal plot, much like how you would expect the lives of two immortal beings to be. However, it is also beautifully acted and textured with creative visuals. There is strange kind of ‘realness’ to the film, content in implying that if an immortal vampiric couple really did exist, this is what they’d be like: jaded, pretentious and utterly devoted to one another.
2) Up next is probably the most popular recommendation on this list, Luca Guadadnino’s ‘Bones and All’. In this canniballistic, road-trip, love story; our protagonists Lee and Maren are like Bonnie and Clyde for weirdos. After an incident at a sleepover, Maren (Taylor Russel) is abandoned by her father and decides to set off on a cross-country journey across America to find her mother. Along the way she meets the charismatic Lee (Timothee Chalamet). The pair fall in love and take on the world together, but their pasts (as well as their canniballistic tendencies) quickly catch up with them. ‘Bones and All’ is the perfect amalgamation of Guadadnino’s previous films, weird and often brutal but full of unrestrained tenderness. He challenges his audiences perception of romance, blurring the lines between food and eroticism- Maren and Lee’s hunger is the kind that stays with them even after they have ‘fed’. Their longing for one another and their uncontrollable hunger become synonymous…
1) My favourite watch this spooky season has to be Ariane Loius-Seize’s 2023 film, ‘Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person’. If you’re looking for a synopsis of this film, look no further than the title- a young vampire named Sasha (Sara Montpetit) has a problem: she can’t kill. But when her parents cut off her food supply, her life is put into jeopardy, and she has to put her love for humans aside and hunt for herself. In the midst of all this, she meets Paul (Felix-Antoine Bernard), who you guessed it, is her ‘consenting suicidal person’. The film’s compassion is what gripped me immediately, balancing comedy and seriousness with beautiful scenes of intimacy; like when the pair listen to Sasha’s favourite record together, ‘Emotions’ preformed by Brenda Lee. At first nervous, they become absorbed by the music as the turntable spins, singing and dancing together. The film gently reminds you that no feeling is final, and that everyone is simply looking for connection and to be understood.
