It Follows

MV5BMTUwMDEzNDI1MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzAyODU5MzE@._V1__SX1859_SY893_I’ve been looking forward to this movie for several weeks, and no lie, both because it seems like the only horror movies lately have been possession oriented and also because it doesn’t seem like any at all came out in February as is good and proper. And then lots of other people saw it before I did, and I’ve already been reading and internalizing reviews, which I hate it when that happens, but here we are nonetheless.

It Follows is a very succinct title, in that it gives you like 80% of the knowledge necessary to understand the movie. Because there’s this person-looking thing, right? Different people at different moments, but always there (and only you can see it!), walking toward you. Always. Which means you can drive away and escape, right? Yes, but you have to sleep or let your guard down sometime, and it doesn’t. It only, y’know, follows.

What’s great about this movie is the lessons in fear that we have all learned over the past thirty or forty years of film-making. Because, I think anyone reading this knows full well that Michael Myers, for example, has never run a yard in his life. But he’s still just a slasher in a mask, whereas this thing was a little bit terrifying. In the audience, without the slightest inkling of a stake, I could not stop myself from looking for every single person walking with purpose toward the camera (or the heroine), because until they identified who else could see the walker, it might have been… the follower, I guess.

So, that’s that, pretty much. If you like quiet, moody, atmospheric dread that does not hold your hand and lead you from plot point to plot point, where even the frequent nudity is more terrifying than titillating, this movie is for you. Not quite nightmare-inducing, but definitely nerve-wracking. I dug it. Also, a quick spoiler-filled social commentary paragraph in the first comment.

3 thoughts on “It Follows

  1. Chris Post author

    So, the rest of this comment needs a big spoiler to make any sense, and not having known the spoiler in advance made on of the early scenes far more effective. Therefore, fair warning, go see the movie first if you care.

    Sex. It follows you because of sex. Apparently, whoever you first have sex with gets followed instead of you, although there’s still a danger of it working its way back along the chain to you eventually. (Where does the chain start? Why? There are no answers. I cannot decide if that would make a good sequel, or if “no answers” is the whole point. I lean toward the latter, but it’s hard to be certain.) There are paragraphs or possibly entire sociological papers worth of expansion on this point, but in a nutshell: I was completely fascinated by the drift between the 1980s and now. In the ’80s, sex is bad for its own sake, and you get killed for having it. In this movie, and in at least a couple others I’ve seen during the course of this decade, more than a generation later, sex is not bad per se. But the wrong sex with the wrong person puts you on the hook for a lifetime of looking over your shoulder, waiting to see if you’re doomed or not. And yet, the metaphor didn’t feel heavy-handed at the time, you know?

    Seriously. Good movie. I’m quite interested in a director’s commentary for it, or at least a spirited discussion with people who have seen it, because I have questions.

    Reply
  2. Chris Post author

    Wow.

    A) Although clearly this was much better than that, you’re not wrong to make the connection.
    B) If they hadn’t given away the biggest twist of the movie, I’d still probably watch that.

    Reply

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