I have kind of a love-hate relationship when it comes to horror movies. I’m a big horror movie fan, but unlike most die hard horror movie buffs it isn’t the only genre I love. There are a lot of good horror movies that have come out since the beginning of cinema although the horror genre has a weird trend in Hollywood where executives and filmmakers love to clasp onto an idea and drive it into the ground. We’ve seen this happen a lot in the horror genre and the result more often than not ends up being mediocre or just downright awful horror movies being made. That is why I’m thrilled whenever a creepy and interestingly artistic horror movie like It Follows comes out.
It Follows is directed by David Robert Mitchell and is about a young college woman named Jay Height (Maika Monroe) who goes out with a guy named Hugh (Jake Weary). They end up having sex in the back of his car and afterwards they are just talking when all of a sudden Jay is chloroformed from behind by Hugh and she wakes up tied to a chair in the middle of a run down parking garage. Hugh explains to her that he has sexually given something to her that will cause her to see some demon ghost-like entity which will randomly show up and start to follow her, not exactly chasing her but just creepily walking slowly towards her while looking like anyone it wants to, but only she and him can see it. He tells her the only thing she can do is sexually pass it on to someone else, but to beware because once it kills that person it will come back for her and continue backwards along the line of sexual partners. He drops her off back at her house and she is left to figure out this nightmare of a mess with help from her sister Kelly (Lili Sepe) and two friends Greg (Daniel Zovatto) and Yara (Olivia Luccardi).
Maika Monroe is a young actress who is really starting to make a name for herself. Last year she turned some heads by co-starring in an exciting thriller called The Guest. A lot of horror movies will usually portray obnoxious paper thin characters, but that is not the case here. Monroe’s character has a lot of layers to it and she is very likable especially when we see her hang out with her sister and friends. The most interesting thing about that is the fact that they don’t give the characters too much back-story and yet they are still able to make you care about them here in their awful and terrifying situation. The cast also features the two sister’s mother played by actress Debbie Williams, but she is very much in the background with the main character Jay explaining this by telling the others that there is no way her mom will believe this supernatural situation she is stuck in.
The aspects I was impressed most with in this movie besides the initial concept were the cinematography, the set designs, and the film score. This entire movie is pretty much a huge tribute to John Carpenter and his style of movies especially Halloween. The filmmakers did a great job of taking aspects influenced by John Carpenter and implementing them into the movie without being straight up ripoffs because the director David Robert Mitchell puts a lot of his own spin on everything. The cinematography throughout the entire movie is stunning with very interesting camera placement that gets very interesting shots. The set designs and wardrobe choices are also visually interesting because they both come off as very retro which keeps you guessing when the movie is suppose to take place. Most of the movie visually looks like it takes place in the ’70s or ’80s, but it isn’t quite that simple to figure out due to the director throwing in a few small things that also make it look modern day. I believe this visual style was chosen to make the movie feel timeless and I’m not sure if it completely works for that, but I personally thought that it added a unique style to the movie.
I would have to kick myself if I didn’t at least write a little bit about the synth and bass heavy music score in this movie. The music is actually the thing I liked the most about the movie. The movie was scored by composer Rich Vreeland (aka Diasterpeace) and he delivers a unique and minimalist score that is throbbing and adds a lot to the movie. During a large part of the movie you as the viewer are waiting for the demon ghost who could look like anyone to show up behind the character of Jay and start to walk slowly towards her. Vreeland’s music playing in the background of these scenes are not only haunting but also very stressful, so much in fact that I felt my adrenaline going up every time the music kicked in. The score is very slow and the best way to describe it is basically a more minimal, slower, and more modern version of a John Carpenter score.
The only negative thing I could really say about this movie is that the plot gets a little messy in the third act. There is a specific thing that the four main characters decide to do which doesn’t seem to be set up by anything else in the plot so you are kind of just left wondering how they came up with the idea. It is really too bad that the plot couldn’t have been a bit tighter because it played a big part in why I didn’t give this movie a perfect rating score. Overall I really enjoyed the movie although I must state that this movie will come off as a little artsy for a mass casual movie watching audience. That doesn’t mean most people won’t enjoy it or “get it” necessarily, but for interesting movies like this that take chances I think it will not exactly click for everyone like it did for me.
Dave’s Rating- ★★★★½ (4½ ) out of ★★★★★(5)
