IT FOLLOWS (R)
Released by The Weinstein Company
Reviewed by Adam Mast
Back in the slasher heyday of the 80’s, movies like FRIDAY THE 13TH suggested that those who were promiscuous were very likely to meet their end in the form of iconic killer, Jason Voorhees. In David Robert Mitchell’s atmospheric horror show IT FOLLOWS, sex itself serves as the potential killer. So consider this a cautionary tale.
In IT FOLLOWS, young Jay Height (well played by Maika Monroe of the 2014 gem, THE GUEST) is pursued by an evil force after her casual and seemingly harmless evening of love making with a boy comes back to bite her in the ass. As it turns out, the evil force in question can appear in the form of any individual. The key to survival is to not let said individual catch up with you. If “it” does catch up with you, you’re dead and the evil entity is then instantaneously transferred back to the person who gave “it” to you. The only way to get rid of “it,” is to sleep with someone else and pass “it” along. That’s right folks. Essentially, IT FOLLOWS is a movie about a sexually transmitted poltergeist, and rest assured, “it” knows what scares you.
IT FOLLOWS is a mood piece. Stylistically speaking, it’s a throwback to John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN. Even the film’s effective score harkens back to the synth stylings of Carpenter’s landmark 70’s slice of American horror.
This efficiently shot horror film relies more on tone and the creep out factor than it does routine, garden variety jump scares, and in the end, it is David Robert Mitchell’s sense of style that keeps IT FOLLOWS from collapsing under the weight of its sheer simplicity. Truth be told, there isn’t a lot of meat here. Jay does deal a bit with the moral ramifications of her actions and I quite enjoyed the bits between she and an awkward pal (played by Keir Gilchrist) who has had a crush on her for years, but the majority of the picture finds our heroine joining forces with her friends in an effort to figure out a way to destroy “it.” And since the characters at the heart of IT FOLLOWS aren’t entirely sure what they’re dealing with, Mitchell opts not to clue the audience in with what they’re dealing with either. The end result is an eerie cat and mouse thriller that is almost as frustrating as it is unsettling.
Mitchell sets up what appears to be a few rules early on and then sort of changes things up as the film progresses. Take for instance a scene in the first act in which Jay initially contracts “it”. It’s only a matter of minutes before “it” arrives to pursue her but later on in the film, when another character is the recipient of “it”, “it” doesn’t show up for a few days. True, by switching things up, IT FOLLOWS is a movie where anything bad might happen at any given moment but in a way, that also feels like lazy writing. The rules are simply being altered on a whim, and for me personally, it was distracting. I also found the physical properties of “it” a tad confusing. “It” appears to possess those it uses as a host, but in other scenes, it’s a ghost-like entity.
The entire film makes its way to a final act showdown that left me a little dumbfounded. I liked the location of the showdown–it felt a bit like a nod to the ending of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN– but I’d be lying if I said I completely understood what Jay and crew were trying to do. I’m all for ambiguity, but there were stretches in IT FOLLOWS that were a little too ambiguous.
Story issues aside, there’s a lot to like here. Monroe is solid in the lead and again, stylistically speaking, Mitchell knows hows to shoot a movie. In the end, IT FOLLOWS may not be the rebirth of the modern horror film, but it’s still certainly worth seeing. Particularly if you’re a fan of the genre.
