Summer of Screams: It Follows

It Follows
Directed by: David Robert Mitchell
Starring: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto
Released: 2014 (Cannes)/2015

Like any good horror story, I can't really recall where I heard about this movie from. After looking it up on Rotten Tomatoes my interest was split, while it had high ratings, the description was a little iffy. "After a strange sexual encounter, a teenager finds herself haunted by nightmarish visions and the inescapable sense that something is after her." I'm so glad I decided to give it a go. It seems a little odd to say, but this awkward little movie is a contender among my top favorite horror movies.

Reviewing/discussing/whatever you'd call what I do is kind of difficult for movies, especially one like this. I already gave away a bit of the surprise in the last line of the opening bit there, so expect light spoilers throughout. I HIGHLY recommend watching this for yourself without having all the details revealed beforehand.

I can't talk about the movie without bringing the up the focal point of it. I implore you to stop reading if you haven't seen this and give it a watch. I'll stop disclaimering all over you now. It Follows is about a creature that can take on the form of anyone and slowly stalks its prey. Its prey is a cursed person, who can pass the curse on through sex but if that person winds up dying the creature just goes back down the line so anyone who had the curse is ever truly safe. The creature is also invisible to anyone who isn't cursed, so cursed people tend to act fairly crazy due to paranoia. Literally anyone walking towards them with a deadpan expression could be coming for them.

Everyone portrayed their characters very well, a group of quirky teens is pretty commonplace in horror movies, but none of them came across as annoying. Really the only unbelievable aspect of these characters was how chill everyone is. The main character ends up acting like a crazy person and her friends, for the most part, just go along with it. Other than that, a few stupid ideas stand out, but quirky teens always come up with stupid ideas right?

The setting is weird, it seems like a typical 80's-90's era small town, but one character has this weird little clam shell cellphone/tablet thing. Aside from that weird anachronism though the rest of the movie feels straight out of that era. The atmosphere is my favorite part of the movie though. The main character spends a lot of time just kind of staring off, at times this can feel a little slow, but it helps to build the feeling of slow summer days, and later builds on the tension the character is feeling. Watching a lot of the scenes is very uneasy, as the creature could show up almost anytime and almost no one would notice. It drips with uneasiness and is where the film excels.

The monster itself is great too. While the premise sounds kind of limiting, it can only walk towards someone cursed, really this adds to the terror. Sure anyone could just hop in a car drive for a few hours and be fine for a while, but it is still out there, and now they don't know where it is. Nothing will stop it. As with most good monsters this one has no real origin, outside of a random mention of a girl from a bar passing it on to a character, which works out for the best.

If you enjoy horror movies, watch this movie, if you enjoy tense films, or legitimately creepy atmospheres, give this movie a watch.  This is honestly one of my favorite horror films now.