Exposes you through fear; the tension is key.

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2015)

For years, I've been waiting for a movie that properly exploits my nightmares. Horror movies in general are a tough sell for me. I find them to be fairly predictable, ridden with clichés and not remotely subtle. The threat never has any mystique, and the implications are underwhelming.
"It Follows" manages, particularly for the first hour, to tap into some kind of primal fear that I had long forgotten or at least rarely dealt with. Something needs to be said for the cinematography; it's always ominous, and every scene is laced with a darkness that reminds you never to forget about the threat.
Imagine you're being followed by something. Something capable of dealing tremendous pain and suffering through uncertain methods. It always moves at a walking pace, but it is always moving. When you're asleep, it gains ground on you. When you're standing still, its eyes are doing their best to bore into your very soul. It never loses focus. When you see it, it's unequivocally staring right back at you, slowing gaining ground. The eyes are technically human, but there is an uncanny nature to them. It wants to get you through physical means.
It's really not enough to describe this kind of tension, but that's probably the best way for me to sum it up. The music during these scenes is flawless and it plays a kind of role of its own. There were times during the first hour when the tension was wholly unbearable. It made me feel vulnerable and cold.
Unfortunately, the film loses steam in the final act. The horrific mystique of the first hour fades into a kind of peculiar mystery, and I think the ending contradicts the nature of the film as a whole; I didn't want to see a final showdown, I wanted to see how long the filmmakers could string out the tension.
I recommend watching this alone and in the dark. This is a must-see film that corrupts your sense of security and brings back the nightmares you abandoned long ago.