Everything great you are hearing about this hot new horror film is true. Poor Jay (Maika Monroe, who also stars in The Guest, the new thriller from You’re Next’s Adam Wingard that you should check out) has sex with her new boyfriend, but she gets more than some action. He passes along a curse that will doggedly follow her until she passes it on. The various representations of the “It” following Jay are terrifying and invisible to her close-knit, neighborhood peer group, which includes her jaded sister (Lili Sepe) and Paul (Keir Gilchrist), the boy next door with a bad case of puppy love.
If Jay is to survive, who will she pass “It” on to? Poor Paul? He might not be able to find anyone else to pass it on to. Greg (Daniel Zovatto), the hottie who lives across the street? A stranger? She better decide fast because “It” is always after her.
In his second feature, writer-director David Robert Mitchell (he debuted with 2010’s The Myth of the American Sleepover) hits on some key teen fears as he tweaks the ’80s slasher genre with yet another love letter to the Horror Master himself, John Carpenter (for others, see anything by Neil Marshall, Joe Begos’ Almost Human, anything sporting Albertus Bold titles). What could be more frightening than sex and adulthood? The young adults of It Follows are facing an indomitable stalker more terrifying than Jason, Michael or Freddy. You think those guys are unkillable; life is the most dangerous, frightening slasher there is.
With its mood established via some wickedly creative long takes and dissonant electronic soundscapes, Mitchell’s film shares little in common with the spate of Conjuring wannabes and classic remakes filling the multiplex horror roster spot. Mitchell foregoes MTV editing in favor of extended takes and incredible mise-en-scene. What is happening everywhere in the frame matters, as “It” is a constant threat.
Terror can be evoked by the approach of a main character. Aurally, Disasterpeace’s soundtrack will conjure comparisons to Drive but is really an update on Carpenter’s now classic horror movie sound.
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