Directed by
David Robert
Mitchell
It is not a normal occurrence for me to rush to the theater to watch a
horror movie, but something about the trailers for It Follows really got to me. It appeared to be a throwback to the
glory days of slasher horror films, led by Wes Craven and such. It is. It appeared
to be an original story in a much worn genre. It is. It appeared to go about
its scares in a way other than loud artificial noises and jump cuts. It does.
What might have most intrigued me, however, was that it is directed by David
Robert Mitchell, whose only other film was one of the best movies of 2011 and
one of the great high school hangout movies I have seen (The Myth of the American Sleepover). I had to know what his next
movie was, especially being a genre on the other end of the spectrum. Yet
somehow, it almost isn’t.
The movie starts the way most classic horror movies do. A young woman
is running around distraught, frightened, and in tears. She looks back at her
house, but nothing is there. Still, she becomes increasingly terrified and hops
in her car and speeds away with her life. Next, she is on the beach making a
phone call to her parents apologizing to them, knowing that she was about to
meet her end. The next thing we see is her dead, deformed body in the exact
place she made the call with the vibrant, shock horror sound effect that was
common in the films of John Carpenter. From that moment on, we are glued to the
screen because we are confused, terrified, and oddly fascinated by what
transpired in the first couple minutes.
The main characters are a group of friends led by Jay (Maika Monroe),
who is a typical hot teenage girl going out with an older guy named Hugh (Jake
Weary). As they get closer, Hugh begins acting weird. He seems paranoid in some
way and acts uneasy in crowded areas. Eventually, they hook up in his car
outside some abandoned hotel, and then he drugs her and ties her up. We think
he is the villain for all of a few seconds, until we realize how either
mentally deranged he is or that he actually had good reason to do this. He
explains to Jay that he passed on his curse to her. He got followed by people
trying to kill him. Only he could see them. They walk slowly, but they follow.
They will now be going after Jay until she passes it on by having sex with
someone else. Everyone exposed to it can always see “it”, but they will only go
after the end of the chain. When the newest one is killed, it moves back up to
the one who passed it on. From that point on, Hugh disappears and Jay is
constantly trying to convince her friends and sister that it is real and she is
not going crazy. When she finally passes it on, that is when the real artistic
and creative talent of the young writer-director comes out.
What I love about the screenplay of this film is how it really creates
its own rules. It is almost dreamlike in the way it portrays the followers. The
feeling of being followed is spine-tingling in itself, but knowing that
whatever or whoever is following is in fact trying to kill you makes it even
more uncomfortable. We do not really ever find out or have any way of finding
out what “it” is, but then again, we almost do not care. We are too busy
watching the beautiful shots of slow-building tension of a young child, old
man, or half-naked woman walking agonizingly slowly toward the characters
unbeknownst to them. We are right with them in the horror of imagining exactly
what they are capable of doing, especially after seeing the images of the
opening scene. We would like to try to solve some sort of plot puzzle, but it
is almost irrelevant. The story is not what is at the forefront here, it is the
experience.
The young cast is utilized well here. Mitchell showed in Sleepover that he can direct younger
actors as well as anyone, and this only furthers that sentiment. Maika Monroe
(who I would say you might recognize from The
Guest, but you won’t because you probably haven’t seen it) is really good
here as the center of all the scares. Her character is most important, because
if her frights are not convincing, we get disinterested. She makes us feel just
as claustrophobic and terrified as she is. She has a sweet friendship with Paul,
played by Keir Gilchrist (It’s Kind of a
Funny Story). These types of elements are among the most authentic in the
movie. We feel like we know the characters and we really believe the dynamics
of the group. Usually the beautiful young people in films like this are almost
faceless and are just there to scream and run around in terror. These
characters are deep. We learn their back-stories and cannot fathom watching
them get taken out. That is quite an accomplishment in a 100 minute movie
spends so much of its time watching invisible characters slowly strolling down
the street or across a beach.
Several critics have tried to decipher the movie and figure out what
exactly “it” is and what “it” symbolizes. Most have cited AIDS or STDs, which
would make sense to a certain extent. To me, it almost feels more like the
lingering effects of sexual assault. After those experiences, your life is
never the same. You have images and nightmares that haunt you and follow you.
STDs is more of a reflection of how it is passed on and such, but that seems
too simplistic. Most of the followers look as if they just got violated in some
way. Just a thought…I am sure that it is open to interpretation if “it”
actually does represent something.
I am not usually this taken in by a horror movie. It is a really low
budget flick, but it has tremendous cinematography and set pieces. The final
confrontation especially is ingeniously shot and played out. The movie somehow
finished in 5th place at the box office in its opening weekend, yet
it only made $3.8M. Is that a flop, or is that an indie hit? It is playing at
both art house theaters and in the main auditorium at multiplexes. It all
depends on how you look at it. It wasn’t advertised all that much, but most
horror films are word of mouth and viral marketing anyway. I hope it continues
to build up, because it really is a worthwhile movie. I actually think it is
the best horror film since [Rec] in
2008 and the most chilling one of its kind since The Descent in 2006. The end of the film absolutely leaves it open
for another director to pick up where it left off with the spectacular
uncertainty and lack of giving away all of the details of the story. The
audience can’t shake the uneasiness that we are left with. It Follows: it lingers.
Rating: 
