As a person who's main film interest is the horror genre and as a person who sees most main horror films at the theater and on demand, I know where the horror genre stands. I admit found footage films have their issues and it is overdone but I like most of them. Sadly though, from January through at least February you are going to get studios putting out and dumping horror films on the market that they know will not make money and will have not get a good reception. You don't see horror weekly at a theater due to the fact it's a genre with a limited market and audience. A growing theme to be noted is that the best horror are the independent films or at the least the ones with the least amount of star power and budget in my eyes.
The 2014 movie It Follows has several themes. It has only a budget of $2 million and it's got a smaller release to start which later expanded to a bigger release. With a cast of people like Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist and Jake Weary, this is a cast of the not the biggest names. I thought It Follows might be a good horror movie. Good is not the right term for this. It Follows has you lost for descriptive words for all the right reasons.
After Jay Height (Monroe) goes on a first date with Hugh (Jake Weary) and after having a sex in his car, Jay wakes up underdressed and tied up in a wheelchair. Hugh claims that a curse is now upon her with a type of entity that will follow Jay until she passes it on to somebody else. Jay now must try to survive while many of her close friends are at her side.
One issue with horror nowadays is originality. Sure, we can find some good original horror films but stuff like The Last Exorcism or You're Next were toned down and not very good because of a lack of originality. Yes, It Follows is very original but it's such a different type of topic and substance to plot. We've had many horror films have sex scenes before but this film does it the smart way by having no nudity and not being very detailed in those scenes. It's as if the film is trying to say it's taboo for you to have sex and this entity is your punishment. You also have all those small time actors all delivering strong performances while making this plot very convincing. It's up to the audience to decide what this brilliant and uncanny plot actually is and you could literally have a several hour conversation over it.
If you go into It Follows expecting to get jump scares, you are in the wrong mindset. This film is meant to creep you out but not that way. Why is a girl with urine coming out of her walking towards us? Why is person with a nightgown on top of the roof? The idea of being tied up right after sex is unsettling. With nothing explained again about these elements, your mind is led to wander to interesting places. Not only that, but director David Robert Mitchell puts in this alternative/techno music that's just going to get under your skin. He also sets up scenes with interesting camera angles and big backgrounds that seems to be a clear inspiration from something like Halloween of 1978.
A theme some people who are taking about this movie are not touching upon is the idea of water. Jay goes to a beach house to get away from the curse. There is also an interesting above-ground pool "floating" scene. She also fights this entity in a local rec pool which might be the most interesting film scene I have ever seen. Maybe this entity comes from water? It's also not like water is a common theme in horror either. Very imaginative.
Shot around the Detroit area, this movie ultimately comes back to me. Growing up in the same general area and my dad's side of the family lived in these exact style neighborhood the film presents to us. Call it bias on my part but this atmosphere does add to strangeness level of the film because the houses are so dated with 70's/80's touches that are not at all modern. The neighborhoods seem isolated with a lack of people around. This is an atmosphere that nobody has ever seen before and because it's not like many horror films are shot in Detroit. Twenty years from now, I know for a fact I will be the guy checking out these film locations right by me.
It Follows is a film with no answers and even with getting that wider release, it's still not going to earn as much money as a big horror film. You do hope Mitchell and his cast all get more recognition because it is credit that is deserved. I do have a strong feel though that a cult following will be attached to this later on and that we will be calling this "Michigan Horror". It Follows is something we should follow because you have nothing to lose. A modern classic.
5/5
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