It Follows

"It Follows” is smart, the premise is original, it’s packed with suspense and disturbing imagery. I keep playing its best scenes over and over in my head. They just keep getting scarier.

After Jay (Meika Monroe) has sex with Hugh (Jake Weary), he gives her a grave bit of news. She’s now the carrier of a curse. In the distance, invisible to everyone except those who've been infected, some kind of creature is coming for her. It doesn’t move quickly, but it’s relentless. It won’t stop until it kills her. Her only hope is to pass the curse onto someone else.

This film will be interpreted in many different ways. Some may call it a cautionary tale about sex. That guy/girl you hook up with? They could turn out to be a stalker or some other kind of creep. That's not what this movie is really about. It's really about the thing that everyone fears most: death. For you, for me, death is coming. You can avoid it for a while if you stay smart... but in the end, there's no getting away. Chances are good you won't see death coming until it's too late.

"It Follows" reminded me of times when I was a kid, sneaking around my grandparent’s house while everyone else was asleep to grab candy or play video games. I’d always be afraid to look outside the windows. I always imagined that in the off-chance something scary was out there, watching me. If it was, I'd be powerless to do anything about it. The dread you feel from that lack of power permeates every second of this film.

There are two principal genius decisions on the script level. The first is the monster's look. If you’re cursed, you can see it... but the thing is a shapeshifter. It will look like someone you know or a total stranger. The only giveaway is that it’s always walking towards you. The fact that you can see it coming is where the cinematography comes in. Whenever you see someone walking, a chill creeps up your spine. “Please don’t let it get any closer, please, SOMEONE notice that stranger walking towards the camera! ” The fact that it never runs is what grinds away at your sanity. Look at it. It's so slow! The problem is that it never stops. While you try and find a way to eliminate the creature, it advances. Eventually, you see no other solution but to pass it on and this solution brings you a new kind of horror. You've saved your skin by damning someone else but if the person you pass it to is killed by the creature, you become its target once again.

On the big screen, I found myself constantly looking around trying to see if the creature could be spotted somewhere in the distance. Not that spotting it gives much relief. Which is worse? Being able to see it and knowing that it's time to run or not being able to see it?

Much of the atmosphere is generated by the way "It Follows" is shot, and also by the score. Reminiscent of “Halloween” and “Assault on Precinct 13”, it doesn’t give you hints of what is about to happen or how you’re supposed to feel as much as remind you that nowhere is safe.

The story is so simple and to-the-point but also innovative and clever. It generates terror inside you, and then reflects how you feel onto the story in an endless escalation. This is a horror film for those who admire stories that are meant to frighten you through psychological implications. It’s a legitimate film with real characters, original ideas that play with the slasher genre's tropes, and will leave those who expect a brainless parade of blood and guts in the dust, wondering what they just witnessed. (Theatrical version on the big screen, April 30, 2015)