Review of It Follows (2015) by Jamie J — 01 Mar 2016
It Follows feels more like a twisted nightmare from which you cannot wake than a standard horror piece, where you are aware you are dreaming yet are paralysed and totally helpless. Im sure most of us have had bizarre dreams of scary figures, or being pursued at one point or another, It Follows taps into that fear brilliantly.
With its dreamlike camerawork and ethereal electronic soundtrack providing most of the tension to the proceedings, the actual scares are left to the titular "it" and it's relentless pursuit of hapless teenager Jay, who's only sin was being randy. Sleep with the wrong person it seems and prepare to be followed endlessly at creepy walking pace by a form chsnging entity until you let your guard down. The idea that your pursuer can be literally anyone, alive or dead is a superb twist to the genre. Whenever the pursuer is present on screen, if always looks suitably grotesque, but more in a sense that taps into people's own fears and insecurities about the human body if anything, with just the right kind of unnatural nudity to really get under your skin.
Not really a straight up fright fest, and a little too slow paced at the beginning, It Follows isn't a masterpiece, but it shows that as modern day horror goes there's still life in the old cadaver yet.
This review of It Follows (2015) was written by Jamie J on 01 Mar 2016.
It Follows has generally received positive reviews.
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