Review of It Follows (2015) by Filmgob — 29 Apr 2015

After a seemingly innocent sexual encounter, nineteen-year-old Jay finds herself plagued by strange visions and the inescapable sense that someone, something, is following her. Faced with this burden, Jay and her friends must find a way to escape the horrors that seem to be only a few steps behind.

Now, I was eagerly anticipating this film after hearing nothing but good things... it turned out to be the worst horror I've seen in quite a while. Lets start with the hipster retro worship on display. Despite being set present day, it indulges itself in gas guzzling vehicles, teens watching 50s sci-fi on antenna television sets, directed through a grainy 70s filter and a john carpenter inspired 80s synth soundtrack. Since when did paying homage to your favourite directors or playing with genre tropes become the be all and end all of a successful horror film? Did the director forget he's out of film school and he needs to bring originality to the table?

Moving on, the horror element was basically 'followers' randomly changing one second to the next, with no explanation of why their appearance was that way. Sometimes it's an old man following her, a half naked woman peeing herself, a child looking like a rotting corpse. I'm sure the boyfriend said "It will come to you in the form of someone you were fond of" or whatever, so who the hell are these random folk?

Logic seems to have been abandoned throughout the film. Ridiculous decisions made by nearly every character, in nearly every other scene. She runs to and sits on a swing out in the open, IN THE DARK, which is SAFE now for some reason? There's open space all around you, does she have eyes in the back of her head? Later she takes the car and abandons her friends for something like the third time, and sleeps on the bonet. AT NIGHT. IN THE FOREST.

Jay and friend catch up with the dude who cursed her but no beatdown or argument just "yeah, sleep with someone to pass it on and you'll be fine" which turns out to be wrong advice anyway so...? For some reason all the boys are lining up to take the curse off her, why? And she's happy to go along with it all showing no concern for these friends.

Why is a naked follower standing on the roof? How did he get on the roof? He should be going through the front door and up the stairs to Jay's room like earlier on in the film!

SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME AGAIN WHY THESE TEENS ARE WATCHING 1950S B-MOVIES ON AN 80S TELEVISION SET!?

I sensed many people in the screening with me were shaking their heads and laughing, especially at the ending, there was a collective reaction of, "is that it?" There are some great female led horror films in the past few years that show intelligence and originality without the need of bombarding the senses with retro ideas we've seen over and over again.