500 Days Of Film Reviews It Follows And Finds A Brilliant, Innovative Horror - Walking Has Never Been Creepier
After having sex with her boyfriend for the first time, Jay (Maika Monroe) is drugged and tied to a chair.
Her boyfriend then reveals that he has passed a horrific curse on to her.
She will now be followed by a malevolent supernatural presence.
Her only escape lies in passing the curse on to someone else.
Until then, the curse will follow her at a steady walking pace. Will Jay pass it on? Will she ever be safe again?
Is It Any Good?
It Follows had quite the buzz when it was released and is now out on DVD and is available for live streaming.
I think this film attracted attention in part because many people are fed up by so called torture porn films and found footage movies. In contrast, It Follows feels like a breath of fresh air - albeit an extremely creepy intake of oxygen.
I feel that I am now back in the saddle of horror movies. When I first started my challenge, these films were what worried me the most. Now I feel slightly desensitized (should I be worried?) and am happy to watch them.
I have always preferred to be creeped out than watch something gory. I also believe that a genuinely intelligent, scary film is much more difficult to pull off than a blood ‘n’ guts flick laden with lazy jump scares.
So, I was intrigued by the concept behind It Follows. Just how scary can a person walking be - surely you just outrun the evil?
It was such a great surprise to find, therefore, that the concept works and the film is brilliant.
I spent a lot of the movie looking behind the central characters, watching for random people heading their way. It felt remarkably unsettling and for quite some time afterwards I felt the need to keep checking behind me.
I also love the way the film allows us to get to know and spend time with the characters in its story. While there is tension and high levels of peril, the characters are not just there to be picked off one by one.
Refreshingly, they all work together and support each other. This raises It Follows to a higher level than many horror films that I have watched.
However, the film did not scare me as much as I thought that it would. It is also far from perfect, with some scenes making little sense and leaving me wondering why the big bad was faffing around when it should be getting on with its stroll.
Despite these small niggles, I really enjoyed It Follows and hope that this movie will inspire other horror filmmakers to work harder for their genre.
Random Observations
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the awesome setting of this film. It feels even more disorienting because you cannot quite place it in time.
Have you watched It Follows? What did you think? Let me know in the comments section below!