Fantastic Fest ’14 Review: IT FOLLOWS

Sometimes it’s impossible to ignore buzz.  A lot of people have trouble distancing themselves from preconceived notions about a film be it the talent involved or the chatter online or the marketing.  I tried so hard not to let the hype of It Follows that trailed from earlier screenings influence how I felt about the movie, and that’s why it took me so long to review it.  The overwhelmingly positive talk resulted in a severely underwhelming experience, and I didn’t quite know if I was upset that it didn’t hit any expectations or if it was really as poor as I thought it was.  So was it that bad?

High-schooler Jay (Maika Monroe) decides to sleep with a new guy on an odd first date.  It was a mistake.  She wakes up shortly after to the guy giving her instructions on something he’s passed along to her — something disguised as someone will be slowly following her, and her only hope is to pass it on to someone else through sex.  Even that isn’t a guaranteed solution, but she’ll die if she doesn’t.  With help from her sister and friends, Jay tries to find escape the situation and the solution, but it may be impossible.

There’s not much in the way of story to the movie, it’s more just a slice of suburban life by way of a horror movie.  The whole thing is about the pressure of teenage sex and it’s about as subtle as a brick wall to the face.  This is from David Robert Mitchell, the writer/director of The Myth of the American Sleepover.  This is more of an extension of that style of film with similar dark tones and an aimless, meandering pace.  This is a horror film from someone who has no desire to make a horror film and it shows when none of it is taken seriously.  The entity in the film is like a supernatural STD that could have been amusing if handled as a dry comedy, but it’s so straight faced that it’s not even fun to watch.  The film is just plain boring for the most part, and the pace had me begging to just get to the point and be done with it.  The ending is murky and the film ends unresolved to any satisfaction, leaving me wondering what exactly the point was.

I did like a few suspenseful bits that were more than just a little reminiscent of early Carpenter.  Maika Monroe stole my heart in The Guest and then held on to it during It Follows.  She’s a doll, and she’s so compelling to watch.  The other big win for me was the score by Rich Vreeland.  It’s a bizarre choice as this is Vreeland’s first film score and is most notable for his incredible music in the video game Fez under the moniker Disasterpeace.  The music occasionally drifts into video game synth sounds, but is refreshingly strange, retro, and is the only really unique feature of It Follows.

There’s an audience for this flick, and I can understand why the buzz is so positive.  It Follows isn’t like anything else these days, and fresh voices tend to make some people stand up and cheer.  The problem for me is that I didn’t like the voice telling the tale!  It Follows feels almost like a parody of horror films and I found myself more uncomfortable than frightened.  Mitchell uses nudity nearly all of the time the It is around.  I don’t think I’m alone in thinking this was a comical, juvenile choice that’s among many.  Maybe Mitchell and the film are just as naive as the kids involved, and maybe that’s the idea, but I doubt it.  The film’s dumber than it wants to be.  I’m interested to see how the general public receives the movie and I wouldn’t discourage they attempt it.