Movie Review: IT FOLLOWS

[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tyMi1Hn32I”]

Horror fans know that it has become increasingly rare for a horror film to scare them anymore. Many have given up but there are some that hold out hope. It doesn’t help when a film that tours the festival circuit gets tons of praise that, when finally released, feels like a bit a disappointment to those fans that were expecting another classic, a new movie that they could wholeheartedly recommend to anyone to show them the best of the genre. Let’s get it out of the way, It Follows has been so hyped up as the return of American Horror but I assure you it is not but shouldn’t be shrugged off as pure hype either. In fact, the last time I heard that term was Hatchet and I was disappointed in that film as well (Hatchet II was better).

Maika Monroe plays Jay, a young woman who fantasizes about finding her dream boyfriend to go to movies with, share ice cream and have a meaningful romance. When her date at a movie decides to leave before the film starts and drive elsewhere, we know where this is going. After the deed is done, we find out this wasn’t an ordinary sexual encounter. Something happened. Something was passed onto her like an STD but with the warning that she just needs to have sex with someone else to get rid of whatever it is – think of the cursed VHS tape from The Ring (or Ringu). He also tells her that something will follow her with the intent to kill. It could look like a stranger or someone she knows but whatever she does, it, will, follow. After we find out that there is definitely something that is chasing Jay and it is invisible to everyone but her, it adds another interesting dynamic. Jay teams up with her friends to try to figure out why this is happening, try to track down the guy that gave it to her and how to stop it.

The film starts off with one of the most amazingly constructed openings in genre cinema. Combined with the music, the manic girl trying to get away from something and the 360-degree revolving camera movement that introduces us to the environment we are in, the film makes an impact right out of the gate and the audience still doesn’t know what the hell is going on. Much like Dario Argento, writer/director David Robert Mitchell is ready to attack all your senses right out of the gate with the opening scene. The music (which I’ll get to in a moment) is loud, menacing and unrelenting. The framing of many shots is thought out in a way that almost harkens back to the best part of Paranormal Activity, it is designed to make your eyes search for something, anything, that could be a threat. It let’s your imagination build up and think you are about to see the worst. Then, it cuts to the aftermath. Again, this is one of the best scenes I have seen in genre cinema in quite some time.

The first half of the film feels like a successful horror film with no resolve while the latter half feels like the cash-in sequels. While I have heard people compare this to John Carpenter’s Halloween, probably because of the combination of the outstanding score that accompanies this film in addition to the small town feel in relation to all the teenage characters, the film feels more like it owes more to Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. Honestly, the first half of this film definitely feels like it could’ve been the new A Nightmare on Elm Street. By the time the film gets to the final act where some of the teenage characters are walking through a desolate portion of Detroit to the final battle in a Recreation Center, that’s where the film is just going through the motions and is very self aware that it needs to end. It’s almost as if the film, midway through, picks up a butter knife and begins to cut into its own scalp by making repetitive sawing motions to crack through its skull and by the end battle, it grabs its brain and throws it up against the wall. What’s worse is the film also doesn’t think that viewer that is watching it was smart enough to figure out who the last person “it” was imitating and shoves a shot of physical evidence in your face. The roots of a horror classic are in this film but it just doesn’t get enough water to grow or maybe the pot wasn’t big enough.

Mitchell writes his characters pretty well though, which is definitely a strength. As cookie-cutter as some hardcore horror fans may claim Scream to be, there was no doubt that its teenage characters were smart and engaging. I don’t mean to compare Mitchell to Craven but they definitely seem like they are on the same wavelength when it comes to teenagers and their conversations. The teenagers are practically on their own with very little parental supervision but they are not irresponsible, they know what they are doing and are trying to figure out their lives. We don’t learn much about the relationships of these kids and their parents. Hell, two of the characters – Paul and Yara – seem like two homeless kids that don’t belong in the houses we see them in yet are just there. There is definitely an underlying feeling of abuse, trauma or dysfunction when it comes to the parental aspect of the film but it never gets explored, even though it had plenty of time to be.

The best thing about the film is the score by Disasterpeace (in fact, I’m listening to it as I write this review on Spotify). The score is scary and genre-aware and, in this writer’s opinion, smarter than the film it accompanies. The way it is executed provides a commentary on horror film scores in its own right. We’ve all heard the dissonant high strings (ala-Psycho) or piano in that rhythmic “stabbing” pattern but when this score does it, it harkens back on the familiarity of the fears we experienced in past horror scores. Before you know it, it wears its love for 80’s music on its sleeve while not being pandering (ie. “Title” – the piece that plays before the end battle). The score is a mixture of digital paranoia & chaos mixed in with nostalgia and true inescapable horror.

Writer/Director David Robert Mitchell crafts a genre film that hits all the right notes yet gives up after a few chapters and decides to go the Cliff Notes route instead. I applaud the director for creating an interesting entry in the horror genre and while the film is a mixed bag to me, the concept is so strong and so different and interesting that I hope he returns again after he has read the rest of the book.