By Brett Blake IT FOLLOWS is kind of a fascinating film. It will no doubt prove frustrating for some viewers (perhaps many), while others may herald it as a modern masterpiece. There are valid points to both interpretations, and although I might not come down fully on the side of its unimpeachable greatness, I do think it has considerably more on its mind than most of the current horror crop, and it’s constructed with a deeply intelligent eye by writer/director David Robert Mitchell. The storyline is effective in its relative simplicity: a young woman, Jay (Maika Monroe, in a very strong and sympathetic performance), finds herself relentlessly pursued by a supernatural entity after sleeping with a mysterious older guy. The entity - invisible to others - walks directly towards her, and can resemble anybody; if it reaches her, it will kill her. The only way for her to avoid this is to pass this strange “curse” along… by, of course, having sex with somebody else. Suspense and terror ensue as Jay and her close friends try to avoid death at the hands of this seemingly-unstoppable being. The movie establishes the central mythology and rules in an understandable way, and said rules are communicated and re-iterated in ways that don’t make it feel like the audience is being fed exposition, even as wrinkles in the mythology are uncovered (for instance, if you are killed by “It” before you pass on the curse, the entity will proceed to work its way back up the chain). The simplicity sets the foundation for the movie’s big scares, which are (mostly) pretty effective. You wouldn’t think that seeing a lone figure slowly moving through the frame could elicit such intense feelings of unease, but that elegant visual device does much of the heavy lifting (and to great effect). There are a few fake-out jump scares, which are normally irksome, but in this film’s case, they serve as much-needed tension-release valves, because the mood of dread is so intense and prolonged that they’re almost necessary to keep the audience from feeling overwhelmed. What sets IT FOLLOWS apart from most modern horror films is the serious thematic heft it brings to table, as well as the near-brilliant subversion/adherence dynamic it presents with respect to one of the oldest horror tropes (less charitable viewers might call them cliches) of the genre: the classic “if you have sex, you die” rule. The filmmakers are able to have their cake and eat it too, so-to-speak, by deconstructing this idea (the teens in the story actually MUST have sex in order to have a chance at surviving) while also keeping the original moralistic spirit of it (if the teens hadn’t had sex in the first place, they wouldn’t be in any danger from the entity). It’s a difficult balancing act that writer/director Mitchell pulls off perfectly. This is grafted onto a thematic spine that is quite strong, telling a cautionary tale about the fears of moving into adulthood. It’s is a classic and well-worn idea, to be sure, but it’s handled here with a thoughtfulness that is striking and intelligent. To the characters in IT FOLLOWS, adulthood is a scary place, personified by the “It” creature of the title. Additionally, “It” functions as a potent visual metaphor for any person’s past bad decisions or regrets (and not even necessarily of a sexual nature, though that’s the obvious connection given the movie’s plot); your past is always with you, following you around until you can find some way to make peace with it (illustrated by the movie’s wonderfully ambiguous conclusion). Visually, the film is borderline-superb. The cinematography is often flat-out beautiful, alternating between crisp and hazy, lush and stark, and in conjunction with the very effective score by Disasterpeace (which itself evokes some of the classic horror score of the 1970s and ‘80s, particularly those from the films of John Carpenter), the imagery conjures up an almost dreamlike, evocative look and mood; the shot compositions, especially, display an artful touch. The photography works in tandem with the production design choices, which place the film in an indiscernible time period; this is a movie where our teen protagonists ride around in (seemingly-new) 20 or 30 year-old-vehicles and watch (in a totally un-ironic way) old black-and-white monster movies on boxy cathode ray tube televisions… but yet also have cell phones and tablets at their disposal as they go about their daily lives in the autumnal suburbia (a traditional horror movie locale if there ever was one) they call home. This lack of a definite period also contributes to a kind of dreamy quality. Having said all of this - and hopefully having established that I enjoyed the movie a great deal - I can certainly see why some would take issue with the film. While it has all the elements of a horror movie (and they’re effectively, creepily handled in this writer’s opinion), at its core, IT FOLLOWS doesn’t much feel like a horror movie. Even with its unnerving and frightening atmosphere and incidents, the overall tone of the thing is much more melancholic, much more in the vein of an angsty teen drama than a terrifying thrill ride of fear. Those who can’t lock into this particular mood might find the movie more of a frustrating tone poem than anything else, and that’s probably valid to some degree. There’s a low-key flavor to the movie, and those who want intense visceral thrills and chills will probably come away disappointed. This is made more pronounced by a climax that - although I found it very cool and satisfying in its own way - does not seem interested in paying-off what has come before in some kind of grand and pronounced way. At the end of the day, though, horror (like any genre) is subjective. I found IT FOLLOWS to be a very strong effort, a movie that manages to feel like an homage to the great scary movies of years past while also being almost wholly fresh and contemporary, and like the sinister entity of the title, it will linger with me for some time.
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