With so many boring horror films out there, It Follows is a real treat

Rating: 9/10 (6 August 2015)

If it has weak moments, it's after the pool scene. Although, those scenes do give it some more depth, things to think about. That's the great thing about this film's writing. It's just so logical. It's so common in horror, especially horror as creative as this, to have a lot of characters making stupid decisions or leaving the audience to wonder what the hell is going on or why it's happening. That's not the case with It Follows.
This movie works on different levels. On a completely real world level, this well- directed, very well cast (as in, the characters look real, they're not celebrities), well- written, and well-shot movie, it is totally plausible and scarier for the fact that it plays so well with the thriller trope of somebody in distress, terrified by something others don't see, believe, or understand (Orphan, The Good Son, many horror movies where the parents don't believe the kids). It also works on another level. This could all be inside the people's heads. Sure, that theory is kind of debunked with chairs being thrown. But, when it bleeds, only the effected one can see it. That's another thing. Can the last person that effected one had sex with also see it? It's brought to our attention when Jeff, formerly known as Hugh, is afraid that he sees it, a girl who turns out to be just a stranger walking by. That's part of the great tension in this movie too. It could really be anybody. This movie has stripped bare some of the greatest elements of horror and made them even scarier. There's even less comfort in having your friends there to protect you now. You may be safe now, miles away, but it's still walking, and it'll make it to wherever you are by nighttime.
This movie has a great soundtrack with detuned attacking tones that almost give the film a 70s horror vibe while still staying fresh and creepy. Possible homages to other horror classics that this film brings to mind itself: The Exorcist, with a certain something dripping down the leg of one "girl". The other is Halloween with almost everything on TV that the main characters watch being some retro horror film, although that could be a coincidence.
It's surprising. You get crazy visuals like a zombie-like girl dripping with her own urine, a very broken leg, some very intense incest(?), but it never feels like it's there to shock you or make you scream. This film isn't cheap. It has some jump scares but none of them are really "false" in the sense that what's revealed after the scream isn't scary. It's that you don't see anything that's scary. If Bruce the Shark takes a bite out of your boat, which do you think is scarier to find next when you look out at the sea? A great big shark coming toward you? Or waters completely still. The latter is the great strength of great horror movies like Jaws and It Follows, and, from what I hear, The Babadook (which I hope to see very soon). What a great movie this was. It was superbly entertaining.