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nIt Follows (2014)
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nDirector: David Robert Mitchell
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nCast: Maika Monroe, Olivia Luccardi, Keir Gilchrist, Lili Sepe, Daniel Zovatto
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nIt Follows is a little miracle in the world of Americannhorror films because normally today’s American horror films are nausea inducingnand not because they are horrifying or morbid, or god forbid gory; no, no, no,ntoday’s American horror films are nausea inducing because they are not whatnthey should be, which is horrifying, scary, or dare I say, frightening. Ofncourse, there are rare exceptions when an American horror film is actuallynscary and good, but what passes today for the modern American horror film is sonbland and fluffy, that I hesitate to call it horror. But of course I speak ofntheatrically released horror films, which by the way are less and less everynday. In today’s horror world if you want to find a truly good horror film, likensay The Babadook (2014) or V/H/S/2 (2013), you’ll have better luck finding it onnvideo because the really good ones don’t make it to theaters. Sadly, whennhorror films do make it to theaters they comply with two norms: either they aren‘soft horror’ depending solely on those damnable jump scares or they arenreligious horror films, aimed at propagating religious fear and amplifying thenfaith of the masses. The problem with horror films of that ilk is that theyntend to be repetitive and dull, and therefore, not scary. The same situationsnand themes get played out ad nauseam, and it’s not that you couldn’t donsomething new with these themes, it’s that Hollywood just won’t go there. Theyndon’t want to make a truly scary film. They want to scare you just enough sonyou’ll go to church, but not enough to truly disturb you. The result is anseries of disappointing horror films that aren’t worth our time. Thankfully, daringnfilmmakers aren’t dead yet and every once in a while a film is made that revivesnmy hopes for the American horror film, a film like It Follows. Not a perfectnfilm, not the end all be all of horror, but at the very least It Follows is anfilm that lets us know that better horror films can be produced.
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nIt Follows tells the story of a young girl who goes out on andate with this guy who seems like your typical nice guy, the only thing is thatnhe believes someone is following him all the time, always on the edge. One thingnleads to another and he ends up seducing her. After having intercourse with thenguy, he warns her that she is now cursed and that a supernatural entity willnnow follow her until it kills her. It is slow, but it is not dumb and shencannot let it touch her. That’s all you need to know.
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nSo that’s the premise, it’s simple, but damn is itneffective. The first thing a true horror connoisseur like myself realizes whilenwatching It Follows is that it’s a throwback to horror films of the 70’s andn80’s, the whole vibe of the film is very old school. The wardrobe, the cars,nthe houses, they all seem to come out of the 70’s and 80’s. Another thingnthat’s retro is the soundtrack, which is an obvious homage to John Carpenter’snscore for Halloween (1978), which is an obvious influence here. The whole thingnwith the supernatural force following you around is reminiscent of JasonnVoorhees or Michael Myers, you know, those slow moving types that still get tonyou in the end. It Follows also has a bit of A Nightmare on Elm Streetnfranchise in it because it’s all about teenagers and their preoccupations, thenkind that glaze over adults consciousness. It’s the kind of film in which adultsnare completely oblivious to the life and dangers that teenagers are living. Innfact, I only saw one parent appear in the film and for only a couple of seconds;nbasically, the entirety of the film is centered on teens and their world. Teensnare dying and its teens helping each other discover the who and the why of thenevents that are transpiring, forget the grownups and the police! So it’s a very old school type of film, whichnis a good thing because the horror films from the 70’s and 80’s are vastlynsuperior than a lot of the horror films being made today.
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nSo is it a slasher or is it a supernatural thriller? Well,nit’s true that at times it feels like a Halloween or a Friday the 13th film with the relentless killer afternyou, but then again, there are no gory deaths save for one, so I can’t reallyncategorize this as a slasher. I’d say it’s more of a supernatural horror filmnthat comments on the horrors of sexually transmitted diseases, which if you’rennot careful can follow you around like a curse all your life. I say thisnbecause the whole film is centered around people who want to have sex, amplifiednby the fact that the film main characters are all in the prime of their youths,nhaving their first sexual experiences. For example, in the film, in order tonget rid of the curse you have to have sex with someone in order to “pass itnon”. The person who has the curse has this whole mental struggle, should theynor shouldn’t they have sex with someone just to get rid of the curse? In thisnsense, It Follows is a bold film thematically speaking; it plays with themesnthat are hardly touched upon by Hollywood. In fact, the only other film that Incan remember that is an allegory for sexually transmitted diseases is DavidnCronenberg’s Rabid (1977), the latter being a real influence on It Follows.nBoth of these films play with the struggle a person has when they don’t want tonpass a sexually transmitted disease to someone, but their sexual libido and basicnneed for human intimacy is so strong that they end up transmitting the diseasenanyways. Though in It Follows, the person with “the curse” is seen under a sympatheticnlight, not like in Cronenberg’s Rabid where society deems these individuals asngarbage to be thrown out in a dumpster! Point It Follows has something to say, it’snnot here just for the scares.
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nAllegories and symbolisms aside, the film is quite creepynwith some genuinely horrifying moments and visuals. I loved how the film usesnvery little jump scares. Instead, it attempts and succeeds in building up thosenscares in a genuine way. That whole idea of an ominous looking thing coming fornyou, slowly, yet relentlessly is so effective. I loved the suspense created bynthis concept which isn’t new of course, but it was well played here, the wholenfilm is built upon that concept and they really went with it. It Follows is notna perfect film but it has more good things going for it than bad. For example,nwhile characters might do stupid things at times that make you scream at thenscreen, it does manage to get you all worked up and that’s a good thing in anhorror film. It Follows works so well, I mean this movie even went as far asnmaking daylight scenes scary, not an easy feat for a horror film to achieve,nmost just go with night scenes to augment their scares, but in It Follows, evennscenes that take place on a beach, in the middle of a sunny day can be scary!nKudos to the director David Robert Mitchell for that and also, for shootingnsuch a good looking horror film, some of the compositions are just beautiful tonlook at. It Follows proves that low budget horror doesn’t have to be crap andnthat you don’t need gazillions of dollars to make an effective horror film, definitelynlooking forward to this directors future work. n
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nRating: 4 out of 5
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