The horror genre is often a place for productions that are low on ideas. That's not an insult, but it also can't be disputed that many horror movies set out to shock, scare and gross us out with little regard for any meaning beyond that. Script, story, and character development are often pushed aside in favor of seeing just what a chainsaw or a butcher knife can do.
There's a place for those movies, and lord knows I've enjoyed my fair share of them. Then there are the horror movies with bigger fish to fry. Original ideas with purposeful direction and a message, whether it's obvious or meant to be debated. Real performances from real actors, with cinematography and a score that would make most big budget movies blush.
It Follows, the 2015 sleeper hit written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, falls into that category. It's one of my favorite horror movies of the 2000s because it's so unique, so original and so well done.
The basic premise is that there's an evil entity that will pursue you with single-minded intent until it kills you, or until you pass the curse along to someone else by sleeping with them, whichever comes first. In that way, it's the best case for abstinence I can think of, because is it really worth the short-term thrill of sex to be put in the crosshairs of a relentless killer that only you can see?
For a couple of male characters in the film, the answer is an emphatic yes, which says a lot about what men actually care about. To paraphrase the meme, "Guys literally only want one thing and it's f****** disgusting ... and it will hunt you until the end of your days and kill you gruesomely."
The setting of It Follows is purposefully vague. It's set in Detroit, but the time period can't be determined because we see characters watching ancient TVs but also using these futuristic clamshell smartphone-like devices. The movie doesn't waste any time explaining it, and it's all the more brilliant for it. The moody, synth-heavy score helps with that, as well. It feels like something John Carpenter would have cooked up while Ronald Reagan was in power, and it just works.
It Follows is not your typical horror movie
It Follows makes you ponder existential questions much more than your run-of-the-mill horror fare. Would you pass the curse along to someone else, knowing that you would be condemning them to a life of fear and/or the same impossible decision? Or would you spend the rest of your days running and fearing every movement out of the corner of your eye?
Taken as a straight horror movie, It Follows is a singular experience. The only movie released since that stressed me out as much was Uncut Gems, albeit for very different reasons. Once you learn the premise, that this thing will walk towards you no matter where you are, and it could take any form at all, from loved ones to naked strangers, you then spend the rest of the movie leaning forward in your chair and scanning every pixel of the screen to see if something is approaching. Is a crowd of people just a crowd of people, or does that woman walking towards me not look quite right? This is a movie in which Jay, the main character played brilliantly by Maika Monroe, and the audience, can never relax for a single second.
Monroe deserves special mention, because she's become one of our standout modern scream queens. She really burst onto the scene in The Guest in 2014, then six months later absolutely owned It Follows. The camera spends a lot of time up close on her face and body with one vulnerable shot after another, and the way her horrified reactions and emotional baggage that weigh her down as the film goes on come through are really remarkable.
Monroe has gone on to star in Watcher and Longlegs, and she flipped the script with her recent role in Hulu's The Hand That Rocks the Cradle remake. As far as I'm concerned, she's right there with Samara Weaving as a versatile scream queen that deserves much more recognition for her work.
A lot of horror movies gleefully depict sex, even if many of them ultimately view the act of getting it on as a sin worthy of being murdered by Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. Horror is a horny genre, but I can guarantee that nobody leaves It Follows and makes for the nearest motel room. Monroe and Mitchell properly convey the emotional weight of sleeping with someone, to the point that the sex scenes themselves aren't at all titillating. The way the participants act afterwards says it all.
The final shot of It Follows opens Pandora's Box. After Jane and her longtime friend Paul sleep together late in the movie, he cruises past a couple of sex workers in his car, presumably to pass the curse on. As the movie ends, the two of them hold hands, but only just barely, with neither looking all that happy or in love. Just behind them on the sidewalk, positioned directly between them in the frame, is someone (or some thing) following.
I love when a movie invites conversation the second it ends, and It Follows really does. Is this a statement on the futility of love? Does it mean that once we lose our innocence, we can never get it back? Is sex the end of friendship? Are our youthful fantasies doomed to end in disappointment? All these questions and more beg to be answered as the final credits roll, but the movie leaves the audience to come up with their own answers.
It Follows is so good even after repeat viewings, and apparently we're getting a sequel sometime next year called They Follow. Be sure to get your tickets, but maybe don't bring a date.