It will Follow you Home

Rating: 10/10 (13 April 2015)

While mainstream American Horror continues to disappoint in many of the same ways it has been for decades, the last couple of years we have begun to see what looks like a promising new wave of Horror directors emerging from the New Zealand, Australian, UK and American Indie Movements. Adam Wingard (You're Next, The Guest) and Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) have put their knowledge of modern horror to use, creating genre-inverting horror comedies that manage the tricky task of being funny without diminishing the scares. Even more promising is the work of Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) and Ben Wheatley (Kill List, A Field in England) who draw on the history of film to move the medium forward. Both groups are similar in that they are film literate but the distinction of where they are pulling references from is important. We have seen a few films in the first group enter the mainstream consciousness (Scream, Cabin in the Woods) but none that I can think of from the latter (maybe studio's think they are doing this by remaking classic horrors?). It Follows, the sophomore effort from writer/director David Robert Mitchell falls decidedly in the latter group. Harking back to the films of John Carpenter without feeling derivative, It Follows is a statement of how far Horror has come, and the promising future it might have.
It Follows is not a film which contains any major plot twists or surprises, however, it is impossible to talk about the film without in some sense spoiling it. My quick review is that this is a great film and one not to be missed. For those of you who like to go into a film fresh, stop here and go watch the film, and then read my review.
Maika Monroe (The Guest) plays Jay, a long legged blond from the suburbs, who, after sleeping for the first time with her seemingly nice boyfriend, is drugged and passes out. She wakes us tied to a wheelchair where a frightened Hugh (her boyfriend) informers her that she will now be followed by something. He doesn't know what it is but he knows it will follow her, never faster than walking speed. He got it by having sex with a girl who had it, and now he has passed it on to her. "It could look like someone you know or it could be a stranger in a crowd. Whatever helps it get close to you." You can travel to buy yourself sometime, but it will always be slowly following. He advocates passing it on to someone new, which will be easy, he reminds her, because she is a girl.
There has been a fair amount of conversation regarding what It Follows is actually about. Clearly it is commenting on sex, and because of the nature of the curse, many have been quick to conclude it is a film about STD's. While a Cronenbergian reading is interesting, I think this is ultimately wrong. This reading doesn't even work plot wise; what STD is cured by having sex with a new victim? Viewing the film as an STD metaphor is also to ignore the multitude of ways sex is explored in the film. Sex is not just seen as a potentially dangerous activity, it is also portrayed as a weapon, as comfort when afraid and as a way to express one's inner feelings. While I can't claim to know exactly what It Follows is about, I do not think it can be reduced to just one thing. The film explores a complexity of ideas, many of them not reducible to a single over-arching reading.
Putting aside the high-concept plot of the film, It Follows works incredibly well on a surface-level viewing. The film will suck you into its dreamlike reality and make you care about its sympathetic and well- rounded characters. It Follows moves at a relatively easy pace, but the haunting atmosphere and pounding electronic score will leave you twitching in fear and anticipation. The dread of the unstoppable and unrelenting force pursuing them is never lost on the audience. Rather than settling for cheap scares, the film creates a building tension which it maintains for almost the entirety of the running time. Rarely is there time to breath, this is not a film for those who like their horror films at an ironic distance. It Follows is remarkably terrifying, a horror that will follow you home and leave you shaken for days.