Back Catalog Review: It Follows (2014)
One sign of a great horror film is when you are constantly scanning the negative space of a given frame, terrified of what you might see.
In that way, It Follows contains a near perfect mechanism for horrific tension. In the film, an entity of unknown origin attaches itself to new hosts through sexual contact, and follows them until it catches and kills them. What makes this extra terrifying is that the creature assumes the form of ordinary people, and even sometimes people you know, all while bee-lining toward its victims slowly but relentlessly. The premise is deceptively simple, and every time our heroes are having a quiet moment of reflection or characterization, the seemingly empty background, shot with gloriously agoraphobic wide-angle lenses, oozes menace.
The film's writer/director, David Robert Mitchell, draws from a ton of influences. Shades of the great 70s and 80s horror-meisters like Carpenter, Craven, and Romero, as well as the 80s teen drama of John Hughes or Cameron Crowe come through loud and clear, but more as clever homage than rip-off. Interestingly, the movie's time period is deliberately obscured. Although the characters are seen using smart phones (some of which, in the case of an interesting clam shell design used by the main character's friend, do not actually exist), most of the settings, cars and clothes feel vintage. This has the dual effect of hearkening back to classic horror, while also instilling the film with a satisfying timelessness.
Like the best horror films, underneath It Follows' thrilling supernatural foundation lies a deep-seated thematic truth that preys on a viewer's real-life fears. As a metaphor for STDs, slut shaming, and date rape, the film has surprising potency. The monster represents both the physical and psychological pain that comes after any trauma. Although a person may put some distance between them and their ordeal, the pain is always there to some degree, lingering in the back of their psyche, stalking them in the periphery. Rape trauma in particular, a subject that has recently peeked out from behind the veil of secrecy thanks to some especially famous monsters, is a social trauma that lasts long after the initial event. One of the refreshing sides of this movie is that unlike most filmmakers who exploit sexual violence as a shock-value prop (*cough* Zack Snyder *cough*), Mitchell instead creatively lingers on its lasting effects through artistic interpretation.
On the acting side, lead actress Maika Monroe ably follows up her self-aware performance in the excellent little pulp film, The Guest, with a straighter, but more subtle performance. Equally fascinating to watch is the resident "Ducky" of this film, Keir Gilchrist. Gilchrist plays the perpetually friend-zoned Paul as endearing some of the time, but at others reads as incredibly creepy. His performance really hints at the inherent ick-factor that comes with the term friend-zone lately as it has become high-jacked by a weird sense of male entitlement. Ostensibly, Paul is that friend who will do literally anything for the girl he pines after, but when that anything comes with weird sexual strings attached, he feels less altruistic and more nakedly self-serving. The rest of the cast does reasonably well, but since the film focuses so much on Monroe's Jay, they made only a fleeting impression.
The concept and the expertly crafted tension are the real stars here, though. Mitchell takes his great idea, and executes to the best of his ability, which is quite considerable. Near the end there are a few conceptual missteps, but honestly they matter so little to the overall power of the film that they barely deserve a mention. For any horror fan or just a fan of lovingly made tense pieces of cinema, you cannot do much better than It Follows. Something tells me we'll be seeing great things from David Robert Mitchell in the future.
