8/10

First time director, David Robert Mitchell, will undoubtedly do for sex among teenagers what “Psycho” did to keep people out of the showers. “It Follows” centers around Jay (Maika Monroe), a teenage girl who has a strange sexual encounter with a guy on their first date. After the surprising turn in events, she finds herself haunted by nightmarish visions and the inescapable sense that something is after her. There is a lot i loved about this movie, and a lot of it centers around a synth-pop John Carpenter-esque score that really sets a terrifying pace for the film. I felt a lot of “Halloween 3 : Season of the Witch” in it’s electro pop bass chords that set a perfect compliment to the fear of the unknown just laying in the bushes waiting to strike. There’s a lot of homage here to the 1980’s horror movies we all grew up loving, and the music pays tribute by starting low and getting louder when Jay is being chased. Tone is an important thing in any horror film, and this one definitely didn’t disappoint me. We feel the tension for the fear of the unknown, as the “It” is a revolving shapeshifter that never settles with just one appearance. Other influences include backwards camera panning reminiscent of “Halloween”, or the slow pace walking and blank stare appearance of our stalker being a nod to not only Michael Myers, but The Pod People in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. There’s a lot in this film that will blow a refreshing breath into horror fans who have been longing for the creatively original premises that centered around such cult classics. The setting of Detroit is perfect for a film that centers around the loneliness of our protagonist. Lots of abandoned houses give the simple feel of there being nowhere this thing can’t find her. The wide angle shots of Jay in fields of darkness and slowly creeping closer are brilliant, and never contradict the tone that Mitchell has set for his scenes. On the plot side of things, i hear a lot of people have had problems with this, and i think it had a lot to do with descencitization of modern horror movies being the same thing. A film this creatively brilliant hasn’t been seen in the horror world in quite some time, so people don’t know how to react when something is different. I viewed the chasing scenes in a metaphorical sense as being our sexual histories always coming back to haunt us no matter how fast we run away from them. There are things in our lives we aren’t so proud of, and that is why sex is such an important decision. I actually think the film did more to help teenagers realize the severity of such a decision, and that’s something that films in any genre have trouble showcasing. The cast is young, hip, and display a very wide range of emotions well beyond their years. Monroe herself, killed it in this role. There’s something horribly tragic about the one night you have dreamed about for ages being a disappointment, and now you will spend your life running from it. There’s a lot of backstory with her and another male counterpart (Kelr Gilchrest) that gave the story much more depth than just a sex filled horror chase. Their chemistry gets you behind their friendship, and makes you want something more for both of their characters. I did have a couple small problems with the film, but nothing that ever really took away from my experience. The first is kind of contradictory to what i said about the score, but it works in both ways. Negatively, it was so good and brilliantly captivating of the moment the scene was in that it felt a little disappointing in some scenes when they just ended. There’s build and build and build to the tension, and then we hit a wall when it cuts to the next scene. It does eventually pay off, but it makes the script feel kind of empty at times to this long build for the big payoff. The second problem i had came in the suspension of disbelief with the safety of Jay. There are two scenes in particular that show the character sleeping on top of her car in the woods, as well as lying unconscious in a hospital room, but we are supposed to believe that this thing never caught up to her? It seems to me the only time she was safe in the film was when she was sleeping, so why not down some sleeping pills and call it a night? There are some questions about the sex and the ability to be infected, but the spoilers are too big on that one, so i will avoid it. Overall, “It Follows” didn’t disappoint me in the slightest. It’s nice to see a film in my favorite genre finally pay off with having to use the overdone methods like jump scares or POV camera work. The film has been getting a lot of critical praise, but not as well liked by regular moviegoers, and i can see both sides of the story. If you haven’t seen many solid horror films in the last ten years, it will be a little hard to recognize them after a while. Most people want a big breasted babysitter being chased by a maniac wielding a machete, but here is a film that supplies it’s terror by the building of suspense and a score that is leaps and bounds above anything horror related that i have heard in a long time. Even if you don’t like the film, i hope my review helped open your eyes to a few things you may have missed. I think overhyping is something critics do that sets the bar too high for people going into a film. Nothing will scare me at the age of 30, so i take something like “The scariest film in years” with a grain of salt when i read it, and you should to. Don’t trash a film just because it isn’t scary. View it for some of the things the film does great on a technical aspect, and in “It Follows”, it comes in spades. I could honestly write 20 pages about the references alone in this film, but instead i will tell you to definitely give it a shot. creatively and visually it is a work of real craftsmanship, and it displays a conscious understanding of the paradoxes of different emotions that the horror genre plays with so well.