Review: It Follows
Cinema: It Follows (2014)
Jay (Maika Monroe) tells her sister and friends (Keir Gilchrist and Olivier Luccardi) sheβs met a new man, and after a seemingly ordinary sexual experience with her new boyfriend, events take an unusual and horrific turn.
Sex and death, the last girl, punishment for being sexually active, all the old familiars make an appearance in ‘It Follows‘. The beginning of the films is a throwback to a 70βs slasher, it looks like the same neighbourhood Michael Myers lived on, only this is worn, old, a bit shabby. A postmodern slasher setting for the new generation of tweeny horror fans. But this is no tweeny horror remake, but rather a new and fresh horror, with an in-depth feel for its characters.
The look of the film is almost languid, muted colours, static shots that donβt move away from whatβs happening. Imagine a Giallo with a script that makes sense, directed by Sophia Coppola. It pauses, looks at the scenery, takes in all nature around it, despite this is doesnβt feel grounded in the real world, but rather it immerses us in a fever dream, where that thing under the bed is real and it wonβt stop until its snapped your legs off.
This is a film about teens, the camera never leaves them, all other adults are depicted in shadow, blurred, in mirrored reflections, there are no grown upβs to save them, they are on their own. This works perfectly, the problem before Jay and her friends is all that matters, itβs all they, and we, can see.
After sleeping with her boyfriend for the first time, Jay is βinformedβ in a brutal way that she will be βfollowedβ and so she is. At first no one believes her, leaving her to think sheβs perhaps hallucinating.
Slasher horror is well known for its βYou fuck, you dieβ mentality, one could almost accuse past filmmakers of being prudish, punishing the sexually active with an axe through the head. This doesnβt stray far from that premise, only now the horror lingers, thereβs no instant βpunishmentβ but an all-encompassing journey into an inescapable sexually active hell. Let that be a warning kids.
Weβve been lucky with some of the recent horrors out there, βWhat We Do in the Shadowsβ and βThe Babadookβ have raised the bar and underlined that horror fans arenβt just tweeny squeakers, ‘It Follows’ gives us some good young actors playing almost believable roles, helpless and terrified. The scares themselves come at you 100 MPH, and I jumped and pushed myself back into my seat a few times.
One of the main stand outs is the soundtrack, like a cross between ‘Berberian Sound Studio‘ and ‘Drive‘, as though written and performed by John Carpenter β Itβs obtrusive but fits perfectly, itβs not annoying and adds to the terror of the film.
We donβt do stars, but Iβd give this a 5 out of 5. I just HOPE they DONβT make a Part 2, The Beginning. A truly creepy, crawly horror that will stay with you.
Seriously, Iβll be looking under the bed tonight.