“Don’t let it touch you” is the stark warning that comes part way into this chilling indie-horror throwback that’s sure to get your heart racing.
Without giving too much away, It Follows focuses on a curse passed from one person to another where a slow stalking demon, who’s only purpose is to collect its next victim, tracks them until death. The only person who can see the demon is someone who has been cursed and there’s a very specific way of passing it along to someone else. After a quick opening we meet Jay (Maika Monroe) – a wallflower of sorts. After spending some time with a boy, ‘Hugh’ (Jake Weary), a night to remember turns into a nightmare as Jay begins to see the shape-shifting aspiration that’s easiest to refer to as ‘IT’. ‘Hugh’, who passed the curse on to Jay, briefs her on the rules that he understands himself, including the fact it’s slow, but not dumb, and then he drops her off back home. Jay isn’t really sure what to believe but it soon becomes apparent to her that whatever the curse is, she has it. Jay’s sister Kelly (Lili Sepe) and her friends, Paul (Keir Gilchrist) and Yara (Olivia Luccardi ) as well as the bad boy across the road Greg (Daniel Zovatto) all agree to help Jay to track down Hugh and find out what exactly is going on, all the while ‘IT’ continues to stalk Jay at a chillingly relentless rate.
There’s so much right with It Follows it’s hard to know where to start. The film is beautiful, the score is mesmerizing and the concept is simplistically wonderful. Influences new and old are as clear as day, whether it be the John Carptenter suburban backdrop or the inability to outrun your demons – i.e The Ring. It Follows mashes up together a wonderful concoction of horror and suspense and makes a new film feel old, but fresh simultaneously.
Credit goes to writer/director David Robert Mitchell, who has clearly taken great care with his second film that would do his sophomore effort justice. Everything from that masterful score, to the thoughtful way in which the film was shot, to the influences seen throughout, literally on the TV the characters watch a few times to see certain shots, locations and themes within the film. The homages are all here to see in a film that itself may one day have a status worthy enough of a homage or two.
It Follows is riddled with ambiguity. Is Jay actually seeing this demon? What is it she’s actually being tormented by? Is it a ghost, is it some kind of incubus/succubus or even death itself? Is the film a metaphor about teenage lust or an even deeper meaning about our own mortality and our attempts to outrun death? This isn’t a film you watch just once and once all of these questions are racing through your head you’ll be able to go back and try and pick up on things you would have ultimately missed the first time. That’s ultimately what it comes down to, the film’s final gift, it’s simply up to you. Do you want to take it at face value or would you want to look deeper into the message it might be sending, the questions it may be asking?
However, you take it won’t change the fact that It Follows is a thoughtful modern classic in the making that somehow creates an iconic killer without ever really having a set face to be afraid of. The film, like ‘IT’ is slow, is methodically and utterly chilling in the best possible way.
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