It Follows Review by Dan Hunter
May 5, 2015 12:51 pm | Leave your thoughts
It Follows is a subtle yet insanely intense horror movie that is a must see for anyone who likes a good scare. It is directed by David Robert Mitchell as his debut in the genre. It isn’t your typical modern horror movie but it isn’t too far out or strange for common movie goers. It is very influenced by the eighties but without self-aware clichés and constantly winking at us as some modern throwbacks tend to do. It celebrates the horror of yesteryear while giving it a modern and fresh take.
It stars Maika Monroe a young college student named Jay who lives right near the outskirts of Detroit in a very picturesque neighborhood that looks very similar to Haddonfield from the Halloween films. She lives with her sister and group of friends who are just hanging out most of the time. They live pretty normal lives except that her mother is there but basically non-existent. She is barely seen and has no real impact on the story.
In the first act of the film Jay goes out on a date with a guy named Hugh that she doesn’t really know much about. They are at a movie when he sees a girl in a dress. But the thing is that Jay can’t see her. This makes Hugh very uncomfortable and the two leave. Then at a later date they are together and one thing leads to another and they bang it out in the back seat of his car. As Jay is waxing poetic about childhood she is grabbed and knocked out by Hugh. She awakens tied to a wheel chair with Hugh promising not to hurt her. He then explains to her that she will be followed by something that can take form of any person even loved ones. He explains that the only way to get rid of the follower is to pass it on to someone else like he just did to her. The follower can only walk just like the classic slashers could. So you could go far away from it and bide your time but it will catch up. The rules of how the follower actually works are never definite but the characters do their best to try to figure it out and beat it.
This movie doesn’t use blood or gore for scares it uses tons of suspense. It has a few jump scares but they are built up so well that when they happen you won’t be disappointed.
One of the most unsettling aspects of the film is the soundtrack by Disasterpeace. It is very eerie and adds to the unmerciful tension. It has a very old horror vibe with pieces of the Halloween and Exorcist soundtrack throughout. I would love to see more movie makers use synthesizers for their soundtracks like this one.
The atmosphere that Mitchell creates is very nightmarish with the old black and white horror movies the characters watch on their tube TV’s to the modern cars in the driveway and to the shell reader that the one character reads aloud from time to time. The panning shots that give a full of the world from the level of the characters at times can be blurry but it just adds to the dreamlike spookiness.
I would love to see David Robert Mitchell continue to make spooky horror movies. I hope more people see this and that more horror movies of this caliber come out theatrically.
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Tags: Dan Hunter, David Robert Mitchell, horror, It Follows, pop culture leftovers
Categorised in: Movie Reviews
This post was written by Leftover Brian
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