It Follows has already had its reputation cemented as one of the most revered horror films in recent years, taking its place alongside the likes of The Witch, The Babadook and Get Out. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen it until recently as I’ve still got roughly 120 years of cinema to catch up on, but it’s a film that I’d wanted to see for ages. Not only does it have its reputation backing it up, but the premise is really intriguing – the idea of a terrifying entity where the identity of who it stalks is passed on through sex is really clever and creepy. That said, it’s one of those ideas that has to come from the right person as giving it to the wrong creatives could make it incredibly preachy. Let’s face it, many religious groups would see that idea and carve out a message of “pre-marital sex = bad.”
Luckily, David Robert Mitchell is the right person to tackle this premise and understands what you can do with it. He both writes and directs It Follows, and the one-man show gives it a tightness and cohesion that can be lacking in some more outlandish horror films. It has a lower budget than mainstream horror making it very restrained in its presentation, but it also really helps enhance the film stylistically. Although we see the odd possession, we never see the monster’s true form on-screen – a conceit that the best horror films use to their advantage and one that It Follows takes in its stride. It’s admirable how much tension the film can create by showing so little, but this is down to two crucial things: the camerawork and the performances.
While the cinematography isn’t overly flashy, Mitchell knows what to show and how to show it in order to make the best possible impact. The way in which he uses POV shots (e.g. from over a character’s shoulder), is really clever and does a great job at making you feel constantly uneasy. For most of the film, the horror is not right in your face, but there’s a sense of dread and anxiety that leaves you feeling just as scared as any shot of a malformed screaming demon would.
What adds to this is a fantastic performance by Maika Monroe as the tortured protagonist Jay. You want someone to root for in a film like this and she is exactly the character you want. Not only do you want this ruthless and relentless force of evil to be destroyed, but you want Jay to recover from the ordeal and come out the other side. Monroe gives this character so much nuance that any fears of her slipping into the cliches of a stock horror female lead never surface. She does need the support of others, not out of a lack of capability, but rather because she realises the importance of having a close net of people around you.
It’s moments like this where subliminal themes of PTSD and recovery from trauma can be noticed, and it’s admirable how elegantly they’re handled. The aftershocks of Jay’s kidnapping can be seen in Monroe’s performance, with her shakes and blank expressions being incredibly realistic. There are also no moments where a side character stops the film to monologue about being there for other people and how to work through your trauma. Instead, these sentiments are conveyed entirely through the acting and the scares, and there are some bloody good scares.
For most of the film, the horror is not right in your face, but there’s a sense of dread and anxiety that leaves you feeling just as scared as any shot of a malformed screaming demon would.
Horror is a strange genre for me because I’m very much a person who gets frightened in the moment, but then quickly gets over it rather than having intrusive nightmares that keep me up at night. With that said, the dreamlike visions and the vivid imagery of this film were things that really crept under my skin. The slow shots of naked women walking in Jay’s periphery, getting closer and closer, were excellent ticking clocks of tension that never got old, despite how much the film used this trick.
It also helps that, while the cast attempts to outrun the entity, we jump around between various locations as this can create a lot of memorable set pieces, and it also makes the creature even more frightening in its ability to always catch up with our protagonist. Once again, it’s portraying the lingering effects of trauma and its constant presence in people’s lives in a really interesting way.
I did have a couple of small issues with It Follows (minor though they are), one of which was the film’s occasional breaks from its atmosphere of constant, looming dread for some moments of gross-out horror. They didn’t quite work for me as these moments felt at odds with the way the rest of the film got its scares. The way in which the entity assumes the appearance of various people is already very unsettling, so I didn’t need to see it having sex with one of Jay’s dead friends.
Another thing that puzzled me was the lack of a distinct sense of time and place as there are definite allusions to the 1980s – complete with references to John Carpenter’s Halloween and a gorgeous synth-based soundtrack – but the decor choices, clothing and environmental aesthetics were all over the place. The film also missed out on developing a more grounded setting thanks to it barely featuring the parents, and while I love ambiguity in horror, I need a tangible environment for those ambiguous things to happen in.
Those issues aside though, I think It Follows succeeds at being a great horror film with an amazingly chilling atmosphere and a quality lead character. If the film’s setting was better explored and there were a few less obvious jump scares then this would’ve been perfect, but as it stands, it’s still well worth your time.
It Follows is out now on Blu-Ray courtesy of Second Sight.
