WHATS THAT BEHIND YOU!!!!
That is this movie in a nutshell. It's an easy scare, but it is one they do very well.
NO SERIOUSLY, WHAT IS BEHIND YOU?!?!?!?!
There are a lot of things I like about It Follows. The whole movie feels like a throwback to old 70's-early 80's horror movies. It helps that the film was shot in econmically depressed Michigan with homes that typify that time period. In fact, there is a general longing in this movie for a time that doesn't exist anymore. Most of the characters are just out of high school (I think, they look like they could still be in high school) and yet at some point in the movie, each of the main characters takes time to ponder on when they were younger and things were more simple. And that's what really sells the scares in this movie. Everything is so simple. The cinematography is crisp and smooth, and the film score perfectly sets the mood. No seriously, I just listened to the movie soundtrack while writing this and my heart is racing.
There are no big stars in this film, in fact the only two faces that may seem familiar are:
Keir Gilchrist, who won our hearts as Marshall, the adorable and gay son on The United States of Tara.
And Jake Weary, who (looks like a younger Joshua Jackson) you may recognize from Chicago Fire, Pretty Little Liars, Fred: The Show, or in Zombeavers out in theaters now **reviewed by our own Justin Lockwood here: http://geeksout.org/blogs/justinlockwood/monster-nation-zombeavers
The basic plot is this, girl meets boy, girl has sex with boy, boy gives her an STD in the form of an unrelenting entity that will follow you until it kills you, unless you sleep with someone else and pass on the STD.
Again, like the classic horror movies of the 70's and 80's, the only way you die is if you have sex. What was just one of the many rules for surviving a horror movie, has become the main rule. It was why everyone died in Friday the 13th, and was the number one rule listed in the movie Scream:
And with it there is some serious social commentary that runs just beneath the surface. The loss of innocence, the casualness with which young people have sex, and the consequences of having unprotected sex are all questions this movie asks under the guise of scaring the shit out of you. Through the movie we discover that sex has a lot of dangerous power, and some characters are left wondering if it was worth it. There is a moment in the movie where the main characters discuss the time they found a stack of pornos when they were kids, which led to their parents having the "sex talk" with them. They do this several times in the movie, reference a moment growing up, where they started exploring their sexuality.
One element about the "creature" that is somewhat jarring, is that while it can appear as anyone, whether it be a stranger or a loved one, they are wearing rather revealing clothing, or none at all. I can't say that the nudity is ever titilating or sexual in nature, but rather its disturbing and unsettling in each instance it happens.
As I was sitting in the movie I was reminded of two different comic books that were similar in nature.
One being from Image Comics: "Girls" by the Luna Brothers:
In which a community is attacked by a "group of naked, flesh eating, egg-laying women"
And the other from Fantagraphics, "Black Hole" by Charles Burns:
In which a town deals with the aftermath of a STD that "causes grotesque mutations in teenagers".
Both books deal with the consequences of unprotected sex in different ways. And while It Follows is just a scary movie, it's an interesting examination of our "post AIDS crisis" era, where HIV is considered a managable disease that kills fewer and fewer each year.
Of course, you can just enjoy the fun scares and avoid any post cinematic navel gazing all together. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
