It’s easy to get lost in the film because the central mystery is well hidden for quite a long time. In fact, it starts really slowly as we get to know Evan, a young American man, at home, caring for his mum in her last days with cancer. We stay with him through a short but moving scene as she passes away. Cut to the wake, where Evan is goaded by a local lout and ends up attacking him. He's filled with grief, having also lost his dad previously, and is now being hounded by the cops (presumably for GBH), so he does a runner! He gets on a plane, quick, and heads away from the USA. He doesn't care where, but it happens to be Italy.
When he gets there, a coastal resort, he buddies up with some British louts, gets drunk a lot, and behaves obnoxiously with them, but eventually they head for Holland, so he's there alone. During this time, he bumps into the pretty Louise. He chases her. She's coy - doesn't much want to get involved - but he's insistent and driven. So she dates him. And sleeps with him.
She's a genetics student, free-spirited, open-minded and he can feel himself falling for her very quickly in the week we spend with the pair - whirlwind romantic stuff aplenty. However, all is not quite what it seems, as Evan finds a syringe on her bathroom floor and assumes that maybe she's a junkie. He confronts her. She explains it away, saying that she has a skin condition which makes it hard for her to be in the sun - and this serum helps her to get round it, basically. I guess you can see where this is going already!
Spoilers from here!
We start to see Louise acting strangely. She injects herself with this mysterious chemical, her skin kind of shifts and cracks - and she disappears at night to prey on local animals (and on one occasion, a tourist)! Eventually, Evan walks in on her mid-transformation into some octopus-like monster/creature with tentacles and tails. When he's (very quickly) put two and two together (instead of legging it and never returning), he gives her one of her injections (which is lying around on the floor). She recovers (returns to a human form) and he starts to quiz her as to WTF is going on. As you would. If you hadn't legged it!
This is honestly where I got a bit lost as to what Louise is. It seems that she's about 2,000 years old, born in the Roman era, but not a vampire (though she behaves like one sometimes, drinking blood), nor a werewolf (though she behaves like one sometimes, transforming like something from the set of An American Werewolf in London), but apparently she's an "immortal evolutionary anomaly". Turns out that, when she eventually explains herself to Evan, every 20 years her body undergoes some sort of violent 'reset' as her cells mutate uncontrollably, mimicking various stages of evolution (claws, tentacles, scales, etc.). It's all very imaginative!
In order to survive this mutation and another 20 years, she must get herself pregnant. Her body then uses the embryonic stem cells to regenerate her organs and skin. However, this process usually results in her 'birthing' herself and losing her previous identity or simply consuming the genetic material to restart. Yes, I had to look all this up as, by this stage, I was even more lost!
The finale of the film involves a dilemma for her, as she knows that she can stay semi-immortal and remain a monster but can't really love anyone or change. However, if she falls in love (which she never has done up to now, avoiding it), she can become mortal again and live out a life from 20 naturally. So you can imagine what the ending is going to be like. She either falls in love with Evan and does the latter, or doesn't, transforms, and consumes him! I won't spoil the outcome of that for you!
It's all good fun with Justin Benson (Resolution) in charge of the very capable, engaging and convincing Lou Taylor Pucci (Evan) and Nadia Hilker (Louise). The scenery looks after and speaks for itself - gorgeous land and seascapes of a lovely, culturally-rich Italian village and bay. The special effects are sparse in relation to the runtime of nearly two hours, but when they come, they are done very well, as I watched a little wider-eyed than I had been! The story is clearly bonkers, but it's injected with some humour here and there and holds together very nicely. Well worth a watch if you haven't beaten me to it.
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