One of the Finest Horror Movies of Recent Memory

Rating: 9/10 (8 November 2017)

Just like it's antagonist, It Follows moves along just slow enough to build the atmosphere, but just quick enough to keep it from feeling like a dirge to watch. We follow Jay who unwittingly takes the curse from a handsome peer she's dating. He kindly lays out the curse to her, and shows her the Follower so she knows what to expect, and then dumps her on her doorstep and disappears, leaving her to survive this ever-present threat to her well-being, while simultaneously getting her friends in on it to help her out.
Crucially, the story knows not to reveal too much about anything. The Follower is never named, and the only things we know about it are what we're told by one of the characters, who is at best taking a good guess. This leaves a lot of wiggle room not just for the writer to shake it up a bit when required, but also for the audience to ponder long after the film has ended. What happens if you go overseas? What happens if the curse reverts back to someone who has already died? Can it climb? Can it swim? How much reasoning does it really have? And importantly, what would you do to shake it? The ambiguity is also present as the film starts to reach its climax. There's a couple of moments that are deliberately left open, and your interpretation of what happens between cuts affects how you view the movie's final act. For instance, Jay sees a group of three guys on a boat and swims out to meet them, but we cut before any implied sexual activity. Did she go through with it, or did she change her mind? Depending on which interpretation you take may lead you into different avenues with the film's ending.
On this point the film has a lot to say, but what that is exactly is also open to interpretation. Horror movies are at their best when they have a metaphorical or satirical element. It Follows absolutely has some of these elements, even if they might not be that obvious. Even when viewed on a surface-level basis, It Follows is a strong film, but when you start to delve deeper and pick up on all these tiny little details, a new narrative starts to emerge. What does the Follower represent? Is it a sexually transmitted disease like HIV? Is it a metaphor for sexual maturity? Does it mark a loss of innocence and running away from responsibility? Does it try to say something about abuse, and how the abused often become the abuser? Is it an article on promiscuity? The fact that this movie can touch any and all these themes at the same time is a display of expert writing and attention to detail.
Talking of detail, there's so much here once you start to scratch the surface. The use of colours, clothing, and the symbolism of water are all extremely important in picking up on the subtler themes. The Follower, in all of it's seen guises, appears in white, either in underwear, nightwear, or completely naked. No-one is seen in red until they've contracted the curse, and blue is a prominent marker for innocence. Water, also being blue, proves to be a big thing in the movie. It both precludes the Follower and marks as it's weakness. A number of scenes take place on the beach or by the shore, whether it's the girl's last stand at the beginning, or the last place Jay and Hugh go before doing the deed. The pool in the back garden is a comfort of simpler, more innocent times, while the pool that features as the stage for the climax hearkens back to Jay and Paul's first kiss when they were kids. The draining of the former and the colouring of red of the latter are sure to have some kind of deeper meaning behind them, depending on which subtext metaphor you like the sound of most.
As if the writing and direction wasn't enough display of It Follows being a mastercraft, it has style out of the wazzoo. The cinematography is on overdrive, always aware of the angles it's creating and the frames it lives in. It focuses on the foreground while making an effort not to obscure the background and whatever may be lurking back there. Attaching the camera to the foot of a wheelchair so that it shakes and shudders as the chair does is disorientating, and a full circular rotation around a high school hallway reveals new details with each pass. Even when the cinematography isn't being obviously clever, it composes each scene in such a way that is oddly pleasing to the eye, while also maintaining it's dreamlike surreality that builds the atmosphere. The combination of camera placement, lighting, and colour give the movie an aesthetic quality that's often worth framing.
The music deserves mention as well. Composed by Disasterpeace, it has a very John Carpenter feel to it, while also not feeling dated. It's not full-on 80s synthwave, but it errs pretty closely. Themes weave in and out and prove to be such an important ingredient to the film's atmosphere. Like any good score, it highlights moments and builds suspense, but without feeling cheap. It's melancholic and disturbing in equal measure. Just listening to it while sat alone writing this review made me feel unsettled, like something was going to creep up on me, and yet I enjoyed the music separately so much that I put it on repeat.
It Follows is absolutely one of the finest horror movies in recent memory. It picks atmosphere over cheap scares, it's expertly written with a mind for themes and ambiguity, it's beautiful to look at and entertaining to listen to. It doesn't pick substance over style, but keeps both to the benefit of each other. Fantastic movie, would recommend, will watch again. 9/10.