"It Follows" a non-reboot horror movie review

….or the creepiest afterschool special ever!

“It Follows”

Open on a girl sprinting from her house and running about the neighborhood. Nothing is chasing her. She jumps in her car and drives away. Later she is at the beach and calling her dad sobbing.

Jump cut to her corpse on the beach the next day in a mangled contortionist position.

We are introduced to college student Jaime, or Jay as everyone calls her. She is prepping for a date with her man, Hugh. While on said movie date, Hugh sees some girl that Jay doesn’t see at all. He freaks and they decide to bail. This leads to driving around, dinner and parking lot sex. You know the stuff all college kids do. Well that is until Hugh doses Jay with chloroform.

 

Jay wakes up tied to a wheel chair in an abandoned building. Hugh is there frantically walking around with a flash light looking for someone. He explains that someone/something is following him. It started after he had sex with someone else. Now it will be after Jay. He tells her that this person/thing will constantly follow her. It will always know where she is too. However, it will only ever walk. He tells her to pass it on to someone else via sex as that is the only way to get rid of “it.” He also imparts that if it touches you it will kill you. Plus! If it kills her it will come after him again. Hugh knows a lot about all this now doesn’t he? Then we see a naked lady walking up toward the empty building. Hugh and Jay both see her. He repeats what he told Jay. They both freak out as the naked walking lady enters the room. They freak out as this silent nude approaches them both. They decide then it is the proper time to escape.

Jump to Hugh dumping Jay in the street outside of her house and driving away. Then the movie slows down a bit as it becomes the search for Hugh. Jay enlists her friends to try and find this Hugh guy. Nobody is following her. This all seems like crazy talk. A few days go by and Jay is in class. Out on the quad an elderly person in their underwear is walking toward her classroom. Nobody on campus notices this person. Jay freaks out and bails from class. The underpants person is still after her! Oh no looks like Hugh was right. Now Jay must figure out what to do and how to stop the “it” that is following her.

It doesn’t sound like a lot is going on here, and there really isn’t. The plot is simple. Do it and get an “it” or entity that follows you and wants to kill you and everyone else in the sex chain. Yeah it does make for an allegory for STD’s or one really wicked after school special. Sounds really dumb, but it works really well and makes for a good bit of creep.

“It Follows” is not scary at all. Sure there is one jump scare that you can see a mile away, but that is it. There is one shot of post mortem gore, so it is also a very bloodless film. However, the story it tells is  both a bit horrifying and disturbing.

If you don't have an "IT" after you ...then you don't see them.
Like this big creepy guy behind her.

Why?

An ever present post sex entity is following you. You never know who it is or will be when it gets near you. It can look like anyone. Then there is the whole blank stare, silent, unseen by everyone else persistent walker makes for a good bit of eerie.

The fact that this follows you and will always follow you until you do the dirty with someone else. Then they get an “it” until they die, then “it” is back on you again. The never knowing if/when the walking entity will reappear is creepy.

Knowing that to pass the “it” to someone else marks them for death makes for a great bit of psychological madness. Sex equates to death in this film.

How to stop from dying via angry revenge sex entity?

Relaxing day at the beach....but who is behind you?

Well…become a huge whore and bang as many people as possible to condemn them all and buy yourself some more time. However, you might end up with the HIV, the Herp or what have you and then you have the “it” and an STD to worry about.

Then there are the unknowns about the entity. We learn it has to get to you, but cannot open doors, but it can smash them (and windows open). Does that mean one could shut themselves in somewhere and be safe? A self-imposed solitary confinement may keep you alive, but at quite the cost to your sanity.

Maybe get a boat and go all Waterworld to survive? Not a great choice either as you still have that isolation, but just on a huge open body of water.

What about flying to another country? Will the entity follow you across the ocean?

“It Follows” is the first horror movie I have seen in ages that left me with questions upon questions along with a general creepy factor. Well done “It Follows!” Your low budget, lack of gore, simple and yet allegorical plot have left me with a  horror movie that was pretty creepy and had actual topics for discussion afterwards. That really never happens with horror movies.

Low budget.
A metaphor that doesn't beat you over the head.
Scary without being scary.
Good job "It Follows!"