It Follows (2014)
Writer/director David Robert Mitchell’s sophomore feature It Follows is set in an unspecified past that, anachronisms aside, resembles the gnarly 1980s. It’s a world where teenagers quote Dostoevsky, tune in to vintage clunkers such as Killers From Space, and choose high heels as appropriate footwear to escape from a pursuer. The police fail to take fingerprints at a murder scene, a gunshot to the leg incurs no investigation, and prostitutes ply their trade in an abandoned warehouse district. In short, folks, it takes place in Bullshit City.
After having sex with her purported boyfriend Hugh (Jake Weary) in the back of his vintage jalopy, teenage Jay (Maika Monroe) becomes the recipient of a sexually transmitted curse. No, not an STD, but a far more insidious infection. Hugh explains to her that he is being followed by a slow-moving stalker that assumes various human forms but is only visible to those with the curse. What's worse, it's intent on killing him. The only escape from death is to transmit the curse to another person through sex, thus making them the new target of the shape-shifting wraith. There’s a catch, however: once the mysterious entity kills the new victim, it returns for the previous carrier. To protect his own ass, Hugh urges Jay to pass along the curse by screwing some other unlucky schlub ("It'll be easy for you...you're a girl!").
Whatta guy! And what a film, with a premise that seems tailor-made to scare teenagers into celibacy. Curiously, this anti-sex sentiment is "transmitted" by a film that periodically lingers on flesh, most especially the bodies of scantily clad young women. That’s hardly unusual for a horror film, and perhaps it’s Mitchell’s point that, in a hyper-sexualized culture, teens are likely to submit to their hormones, whatever the risk. But what distinguishes the premise of It Follows from the vintage slashers that it occasionally resembles - though not in its gore score, which is mostly restrained - is that, rather than a harbinger of impending slaughter, as in Halloween and its low-rent imitators, casual sex is a temporary means of escape.
So the initial question is: knowing that her victim will suffer a horrible death, who will Jay infect? I was hoping that she’d fuck Dick Cheney, but, incredulously, her male friends seem to regard a grisly comeuppance as reasonable payback for shagging her. It’s an odd, comic notion in a film that otherwise exploits shopworn horror tropes in search of scares that never arrive. That’s partly because the spectre, though it takes the form of various characters (most of them near-naked or totally starkers, for whatever reason), is easily identified by its shuffling lope and greasepaint circles around the eyes that resemble what you’d find in a Jaycees haunted house. As Jay and her friends attempt to solve the mystery of the relentless revenant, Rich Vreeland’s spooky synth score does its best to remind viewers that they’re not watching a live-action version of Scooby Doo minus the titular mutt. There’s even a Velma lookalike on hand.
These missteps are unfortunate, for It Follows contains much to admire. Unexpectedly subtle developments near the conclusion, which cannot be discussed without spoilers, underscore the script's metaphorical implications about adolescent social life, parental relations (though adults are nearly as absent as in a Sugar and Spike comic), and the benefits of monogamy. Some pleasure is also provided by the striking cinematography of Mike Gioulakis (John Dies At The End). Gioulakis’ impressive, sun-washed compositions transform both the cookie-cutter suburbs and blighted industrial regions around Detroit into ghostly, Artforum-worthy imagery.
Though she occasionally garbles her dialogue, Monroe (also in Rahmin Bahrani's At Any Price) is convincing as the terrified carrier of the curse. The supporting cast members, draped in archaic fashions, are all fine as well. For his part, Mitchell displays a penchant for working with young actors and a flair for repugnant imagery (two words: “walking pisser”). But horror films are at their best when the fantastic elements erupt from a believably realistic scenario (Hitchcock's Psycho, Kill List), or are deliriously surreal throughout (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders). It Follows treads neither path, and the recurring lapses of credulity sabotage its impact.
It Follows should not be conflated with the mindless horror dreck aimed at the indiscriminate thrill seekers who haunt the multiplexes, yet it falls short of the praise with which its been showered by the same mainstream critics who generally disdain the genre. Reviewers who claim it's the best horror film "in a decade" apparently haven't been paying attention.
Whatta guy! And what a film, with a premise that seems tailor-made to scare teenagers into celibacy. Curiously, this anti-sex sentiment is "transmitted" by a film that periodically lingers on flesh, most especially the bodies of scantily clad young women. That’s hardly unusual for a horror film, and perhaps it’s Mitchell’s point that, in a hyper-sexualized culture, teens are likely to submit to their hormones, whatever the risk. But what distinguishes the premise of It Follows from the vintage slashers that it occasionally resembles - though not in its gore score, which is mostly restrained - is that, rather than a harbinger of impending slaughter, as in Halloween and its low-rent imitators, casual sex is a temporary means of escape.
So the initial question is: knowing that her victim will suffer a horrible death, who will Jay infect? I was hoping that she’d fuck Dick Cheney, but, incredulously, her male friends seem to regard a grisly comeuppance as reasonable payback for shagging her. It’s an odd, comic notion in a film that otherwise exploits shopworn horror tropes in search of scares that never arrive. That’s partly because the spectre, though it takes the form of various characters (most of them near-naked or totally starkers, for whatever reason), is easily identified by its shuffling lope and greasepaint circles around the eyes that resemble what you’d find in a Jaycees haunted house. As Jay and her friends attempt to solve the mystery of the relentless revenant, Rich Vreeland’s spooky synth score does its best to remind viewers that they’re not watching a live-action version of Scooby Doo minus the titular mutt. There’s even a Velma lookalike on hand.
These missteps are unfortunate, for It Follows contains much to admire. Unexpectedly subtle developments near the conclusion, which cannot be discussed without spoilers, underscore the script's metaphorical implications about adolescent social life, parental relations (though adults are nearly as absent as in a Sugar and Spike comic), and the benefits of monogamy. Some pleasure is also provided by the striking cinematography of Mike Gioulakis (John Dies At The End). Gioulakis’ impressive, sun-washed compositions transform both the cookie-cutter suburbs and blighted industrial regions around Detroit into ghostly, Artforum-worthy imagery.
Though she occasionally garbles her dialogue, Monroe (also in Rahmin Bahrani's At Any Price) is convincing as the terrified carrier of the curse. The supporting cast members, draped in archaic fashions, are all fine as well. For his part, Mitchell displays a penchant for working with young actors and a flair for repugnant imagery (two words: “walking pisser”). But horror films are at their best when the fantastic elements erupt from a believably realistic scenario (Hitchcock's Psycho, Kill List), or are deliriously surreal throughout (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders). It Follows treads neither path, and the recurring lapses of credulity sabotage its impact.
It Follows should not be conflated with the mindless horror dreck aimed at the indiscriminate thrill seekers who haunt the multiplexes, yet it falls short of the praise with which its been showered by the same mainstream critics who generally disdain the genre. Reviewers who claim it's the best horror film "in a decade" apparently haven't been paying attention.