Movie Review: It Follows
Stars: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Lucardi
Rated R for disturbing violent and sexual content including graphic nudity, and language, and brief nudity, 100 minutes, Horror
Compare to: The Ring (2002), You’re Next (2013)
If you were able to cross an STD with the chain emails that tell you you’ll die if you don’t pass it along, you’ve got It Follows.
Stylish and filled with tension, there are a few things that take away from the film but enough to set it far above the majority of diluted Horror the screen is so often filled with.
After Jay’s date with a guy she hasn’t know for very long, the two get in on in the back of his car. Young love… Afterword, he tells Jay his terrible secret and that he’s passed something onto her that will follow her until she passes it onto the next person. If she ever lets what’s following her get to her, she’ll die and it will come back to the person that passed it onto her. Got the picture?
What is it? Where did it come from? Is it It?
I don’t mean to make it sound stupid. It’s just that much of what you get out of the film really is right there on the surface of the story. As soon as you hear/read it, you know what it’s trying to say. But getting the point of the film doesn’t mean everything that happens is superficial. If anything, the fact that people get this while reading the plot might say something about society as a whole. The discussion between characters about what “it” is read like something out of a healthy class video about the spreading of STDs. Apologies and “I’m not sure where it came froms” galore.
But this isn’t to say you’ll feel like somebody is beating you over the head with a health book throughout the 90 minute run time. The cinematography and music make it interesting to watch even in the slowest moments of the film. In fact, they’re what make the film. Much of the tension is heightened something is actually happening or doesn’t kick in until, make the horror feel all the more real.The movie may have had a small budget, but it ain’t handheld thank God.
One thing this film has got going for it more than any other Horror film that came out last year (aside from having a point) is that the music and camerawork are all done in favor of the story as opposed to just being involved because “Uh…that’s how you make a movie, right?”
The most negative things I can say about the movie is that the run time of only an hour and a half still began to feel too long. Not much is explained as to what the antagonist is or where it came from, we’re just thrown into the story and have to deal with what our leading lady is dealing with. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad there was no cliched “Research old newspapers in a library to find everything we need to know” scene but the climax of the film still felt a bit too stale considering how well the tension had been building up and the ending feels a bit lazy but at the same time, almost as though it had more right to end that way than most that do.
If you watch this one, you won’t be disappointed, though you might be left wanting more all the same.
I’m sure the pool had some significance but I’m not exactly sure what.
Positives: Great music by Disasterpeace, great cinematography Mike Gioulakis, the less than famous cast doesn’t give you the feeling that they’re only in the movie because they know somebody. Horror film with a point.
Negatives: Felt a bit too long, many things go unexplained or without a hint, a slow burn with little rewatching value.
Grade: B
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