Review of It Follows (2015) by T-Manmoviez — 08 May 2015

'It Follows' is an american horrorfilm by director David Robert Mitchell. The movie was released on March 13th, 2015.

The plot of the movie evolves around the teenage girl Jay (Maika Monroe). One night, Jay and 21 year old Hugh (Jake Weary) go out on a date to the movie theatre. It becomes apparent that something is not right when Hugh, within a game the two of them are playing, refers to girl in a yellow jacket, who only he seems to be able to see. Startled, he takes Jay out of the movie theatre with him.

After Jay tells her sister Kelly (Lili Sepe) about the odd incident, she goes on another date with Hugh. They drink beer and eventually have sex. After the act, Hugh sedates Jay with Chloroform.

Jay awakes in an empty building, still in underwear and tied to a chair. Hugh explains to Jay that he passed 'it' on to her and that he did not mean to harm her. He tells Jay that it will follow her and that it may change it's appearance to whatever it helps it, get closer to her. The only way for Jay is to pass it on to someone else, by sleeping with that person. Hugh subsequently pushes Jay in the chair to the ledge of the building for her to see what appears to be a woman, walking towards her. Hugh explains that it will always walk, slow 'but not dumb'. The woman enters the building and Hugh lets her get closer to Jay, before taking her with him and dropping her off at her home, essentially buying Jay some time.

The first thing you will notice about 'It Follows' is the atmosphere. This is due to the mixture of retro technology and the more modern world. Almost exclusively every piece of technology is dated, TV's show movies from the 1950s and the ambient music is provided by synthesizers. These elements give the movie a certain, very delibrate and vibrant atmosphere, that is somewhat dark but also very mysterious. Mysterious is the right word here, since a lot about the movie is in fact mysterious. You do not know where the monster comes from, what it is,where it all started and not even exactly what it looks like.

Time felt kind of 'off' in this movie. I found it quite hard to find an overseeable structure, the movie feels a bit chaotic and trying to say exactly where act two transitions into act three was like playing a guessing game to me. Nevertheless, with the mysterious ambiance and atmosphere, this makes a lot of sense and is very fitting to the movie.

The intersections between chases or appearances are used for character development and to establish realtionships between Jay and her friends, who try to help her. This is, however, not a filler. Said intersections feel like they could have been taken from a teenage movie of a somewhat different kind, but it feels fitting without taking away from the genre or tone of the movie.

The movie has a certain sexual tension to it, since Jay has two male friends, one of which is in love with her and she can only be saved by having sex with another person and passing it on to them. This aspect of danger to sex and sexual attractions adds to the atmosphere in that it makes you feel a certain fascination. You just emerge into the situation even more.

The horror of this movie does not come in the form of sudden jump scared around every 90 degree angle, like it does so frequently in horrorfilms these days. That is a good thing. It is a horror that has you invested because it actually scares you and does not have to rely on cheap punches and blindsides.

What can we conclude?

'It Follows' starts off as an above average horrorfilm that utilizes maybe not essentially a new kind, but a different kind of horror. The movie builds up tension and an excellent ambiance and a beautifully composed mysterious atmosphere. I felt like the trailer emphasized the horror aspect almost exclusively and while this is definitely present, the movie has way more to offer.