Like the demon that lumbers with deadly inevitability, It Follows stays with YOU...

Rating: 9/10 (12 April 2017)

The indie scene is where horror lives today. Forgot the twentieth Halloween reboot or the January dump truck that unloads all the mid-budget horror flicks that the studio wants to die quietly. The past few years have given us Oculus, The Witch, Don't Breathe, and admittedly the return of M. Night Shyamalan to elevated B-movie form. Micro-budgets and filmmakers eager to subvert the genre are giving us some of the most well-crafted scares that we've had since a creative dearth gave us seven Saw movies.
What elevates the best of the best with supernatural horror is a willingness toward social allegory. Our worst fears are the ones that hit closest to where and how we live. Cabin in the Woods and You're Next started the trend by slyly flipping the game board and suggesting that moviegoers are too clever for the same old song and dance. Enter It Follows, which takes a simple premise (a demon is slowly coming for you) and elevates it to sexual assault allegory. The demon is passed like an STD and can only be gotten rid of temporarily by passing it on to someone else. This raises questions about self-preservation. What lengths would you go to in order to prolong your life, but doom somebody else? Under the perilous and terrifying circumstances, taking up the "doom somebody else" sword isn't hard. Fear is a powerful motivator. Like an STD, passing it on won't save you though. It only ends up buying you more time. It's a hamster wheel situation. Death comes one way or another.
Shot and performed with a delicate grace, It Follows steeps everything in a palpable terror. Its anachronistic setting complete with e-readers, tube televisions, classic cars, and a complete lack of cell phones is an ever-present reminder of the characters' futility. It's a perpetual post-recession dystopia full of dilapidation, overgrowth, and despair. And backed by haunting synths, it's a pall that never lifts.
Like the demon that lumbers with deadly inevitability, It Follows stays with you. It's a terrifying perversion of the world we live in and a well-crafted showcase of what horror still has to offer