The premise for It Follows makes comedy gold for parodists: a girl is informed by her date that he has sexually transmitted a curse to her, and that until she has sex with someone else, an unstoppable killer "thing" is going to follow her everywhere until it catches her. It’s the Terminator in STI form. It’s the Ring girl without her TV. It’s that lecherous Wolf running from Droopy, made into a horror movie. Whatever jokes you can make out of the concept, it turns out to be quite brilliant. It Follows is one of the best directed, suspenseful and frightening horror movies I’ve seen in a while.
The movie follows a group of college age kids in a story that’s largely devoid of adults, in a setting that somehow combines futuristic e-readers, 80s synth music and 70s fashion. It is a bit peculiar to look at, despite being wonderfully photographed and edited. It all works towards setting up this somewhat old fashioned horror movie atmosphere; the slasher style, implacable killer. One might think this would be a stale subject of a horror movie, but after so many blandish haunted house movies, Exorcist derivatives and Saw gore spectacles, it actually has come around to feeling like a fresh idea again.
It also helps that the slasher, It, is an excellent original character. It can look like anyone, and changes appearance in every scene. The only thing that stays the same is its peculiar behaviour. We never really get to understand what ‘It’ is or what It wants, and we never need to. Fear is of the unknown.
I fully recommend It Follows, especially to anyone who has grown as tired of the horror genre as I have.
Sent My Wife Through the Ceiling
The premise for It Follows makes comedy gold for parodists: a girl is informed by her date that he has sexually transmitted a curse to her, and that until she has sex with someone else, an unstoppable killer "thing" is going to follow her everywhere until it catches her. It’s the Terminator in STI form. It’s the Ring girl without her TV. It’s that lecherous Wolf running from Droopy, made into a horror movie. Whatever jokes you can make out of the concept, it turns out to be quite brilliant. It Follows is one of the best directed, suspenseful and frightening horror movies I’ve seen in a while.
The movie follows a group of college age kids in a story that’s largely devoid of adults, in a setting that somehow combines futuristic e-readers, 80s synth music and 70s fashion. It is a bit peculiar to look at, despite being wonderfully photographed and edited. It all works towards setting up this somewhat old fashioned horror movie atmosphere; the slasher style, implacable killer. One might think this would be a stale subject of a horror movie, but after so many blandish haunted house movies, Exorcist derivatives and Saw gore spectacles, it actually has come around to feeling like a fresh idea again.
It also helps that the slasher, It, is an excellent original character. It can look like anyone, and changes appearance in every scene. The only thing that stays the same is its peculiar behaviour. We never really get to understand what ‘It’ is or what It wants, and we never need to. Fear is of the unknown.
I fully recommend It Follows, especially to anyone who has grown as tired of the horror genre as I have.