It Follows

Okay, yes, I'm pretty late to the party on this one.  Which is funny, because I actually saw this movie before it's official release date, in a special advance showing with the director at the famous Alamo Drafthouse.  I have a bit of a different perspective on it than most films because I was able to see the director speak about it, so I will touch on that.  Since seeing the director, I've since seen it twice more (once with my fiance and once accidentally at the Secret Film Festival in Santa Cruz).  In any case, I'm majorly past due to finally write about it.

Jay is the star of this surreal horror flick.  As I'm sure you've heard by now, she goes out with a guy, they get it on and whoopsie she ends up with a Sexually Transmitted Demon.  It's an old horror trope, but turned on it's head.  She now has to pass it along to someone else before it gets to her.  Until then, It Follows.

It's this simple but clever conceit that gives the film that urban legend feeling.  It's also surreal, with Peanuts Parents who never really appear & a distorted sense of time & place.  It was filmed in Detroit, and (much like the more recent Lost River) uses that to it's advantage.

The film is also keen on not overexplaining things.  There are "rules" to the creature that follows them, but they are simple.  When asked about these rules in the Q&A, the director said something I found particularly interesting.  He reminded us that the rules we're given as an audience are how the characters interpret & infer the rules of the creature/ghost/demon/It.  They are not necessarily correct.  There is a commitment to the movie as a nightmare instead of a mystery.  The film really benefits from this.

Most of the film is somewhat mundane.  Sitting, waiting, talking, driving.  But the unrelenting, slow follow keeps tension high throughout the film.  The cinematography is also pretty and unusual.  Although, unlike many, I have mixed feelings about the soundtrack.  I feel like in some ways it was incredibly successful but it was also often overdone for my taste.

The most successful element of the film is the slow burn fear.  The fear of something that only you can see, that's coming for you and isn't in a rush, because it seems to know it will get you.  Classically her friends don't believe her, though they think she's been manipulated by an abusive dude (and technically she has) rather than thinking she's just gone insane.  Of course, there are multiple love interests for her, which gets a little eye-rolley and silly given that she's been through a lot and believes having sex with someone will likely end in their death.

Speaking of death, the first death in the movie is intense and perfect.  It's brutal and brilliant and shocking.  But the second death is, for me at least, the weakest point in the entire film.  I won't spoil it for you, but I will say I found it awkward and hilarious, but not at all scary or ominous.  I feel like a creature with such a buildup needs to have a spookier way of killing people.  This was by far my biggest issue with the movie.

But in the end, the movie was experimental, and so in spite of it's imperfections I still like it.  There's a lot of allegory, about the fear of STDs, about the use of casual sex to distract from our mortality, and about our society's obsession with punishing young people who choose to have sex.

As a final note, I do need to stress that the cinematography is lovely.  The last decade or two has been dominated by gritty films being visually described via dark, bland colorschemes.  This is not a film that expresses darkness in such a literal way.  Instead of being shown in shades of black and grey, it's in the soft, bright colors of the suburbs, in acid wash blue and candy apple red.  This is not lazy cinematography, and I really appreciate that boldness of artistry in a horror film.

So yes, in spite of it's flaws, I recommend you come out and see what all the fuss is about.