It Follows: Movie Review

It Follows is a horror movie directed by David Robert Mitchell that came out in 2014. I saw it yesterday and I loved it! I found it much better than the much more popular It: Chapter One (2017) by Muschietti, in which the characterization was well made, but the scary/horror part was seriously underwhelming. In It Follows, not only the characters are all well-written and convincing, but the movie is also really scary! The only question I have is: why haven’t I seen it before? But it doesn’t matter, I’m happy that I did, and now here is my two cents on it!

Let’s start with the plot. In a small US town not exactly identified in space nor time, we follow (!) a group of 20-ish years old friends. One of them goes out with a guy who, after making love with her, knocks her out with chloroform, ties her to a chair, and tells her that he passed a curse on to her. A shape-shifting monster is now following her (slowly) and wants to kill her in a brutal way! She can only free herself from the curse by having sex with someone else… and I stop here in order to limit the spoilers.

The premise is interesting and, most importantly, the plot development and the interactions among the protagonists are all well written and credible, they will keep you interested all the time. The dialogues are all spot on, both the music and the silences are used well, and the monster is wisely utilized both in the scenes in which it appears, and in those in which it may appear. Forget the thousands of jump scares of It!

Anyway, I think that the better way I have to convince you to watch the movie is to refer to the things that reminded me. There’s Carpenter in It Follows: not only Disasterpeace’s  soundtrack is reminescent of those composed by the Master of Horror, but the autumn street full of dried leaves and the unsettling killer that follows the characters without ever stopping are reminiscent of Halloween (1978). There’s Wes Craven: for example, the Daniel Zovatto character reminded me of Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). There’s Romero, with the zombie-like slowness of the monster. And It Follows fits into a series of recent great horror movies such as The Babadook (2014), The Witch (2015), and Get Out (2017) for its attention to details, its rhythm, and the excellent technique (all these movies are of a quality that normally is not associated with monster-movies). It also reminded me of Drive (2011) by Winding Refn and Nocturnal Animals (2016) by Tom Ford!

If the references above ring a bell, then give a chance to It Follows. I am sure that you will find at least some of its aspects intriguing, as they are all well crafted and well-thought-out. The only thing that I found less polished is the lack of depth in analyzing the issues touched by the movie, such as that of the sexual relationships among those adolescents who seem a bit lost in a world in which it seems that they have nothing to do at all. On the other hand, this levity may be a strength of the movie rather than a weakness… what do you think? Ciao!

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External links:

• The movie trailer su Youtube
• The movie page on Internet Movie DataBase
• Movie review on Dead end follies
• Movie review on Oh! That film blog
• Movie review on The movie blog
• Movie review on Keith & the movies
• Movie review on The entertainment nut
• Movie review on Idols and realities
• Movie review on The Gown
• Movie review by RedLetterMedia on Youtube