tight, ambiguous, expertly directed horror

Rating: 10/10 (21 March 2015)

It Follows doesn't use crap jump scares, nor the sort of Stupid Horror Movie Characters (to take a page from Ebert's Movie Glossary) and work to annoy the viewer or just be there for a certain 'demographic'. The film doesn't even feel like it takes place in this decade, though it very well may; the cars, the settings the styles, even the music, and the latter sounds like riffs from some obscure-but-magical genre treat from the 1980's. In the way it presents its characters and situations, it has a (modern) timeless quality of young people trying to figure out who they are, their loves and friends, who other people are, and... all it takes is the screws on the wheels of trust.
It Follows is about Jay (Maiyka Moore, an actress I hope to see more of very soon), who has been dating a guy named 'Hugh' (Jake Weary) for a while. They finally do 'it' on a date, and Hugh-Cum-Jeff reveals that he has passed on 'It' to her. He didn't really mean any hatred or ill-will by it - if it wasn't her, really, it would've just been someone else - and now "It" will follow her unless she passes it on to someone else via sex, otherwise 'It' will kill her, then kill him, and go on down the line.
Where did 'It' come from? Is it some sort of supernatural-alien-otherworldly entity? Who knows. All that is of concern to Jay is that a) "It" cannot be easily killed or out-run, and it certainly isn't the Stephen King 'It' (though parallels about the fear of the unknown can certainly be drawn), and b) it's real, and it's if she and her friends don't destroy it (two of who may or may not sleep with her, out of chivalry more-so possibly than romance), it'll ruin them all.
It Follows is the first great film, horror or otherwise, of this year. The newcomer writer/director David Robert Mitchell delivers paranoia drenched from every scene of this work, and his camera, editing, music, pacing, and his choice of actors (the minor roles as much as the major ones) give this pure tension and horror. It's a horror-show that occasionally does throw on some gore, but only when it really counts and matters, like if a supporting character gets offed (I won't say who, don't worry), but it's purely about creating mood and unease. It's rare to get a film where you don't know what can come next, and it being exciting and terrifying without irony.
Going in I was also worried that the movie might be some kind of rabid anti-sex statement due to how 'It' is passed, but it's not that at all. The filmmakers are just concerned with making things as intense as possible with, mostly, by letting things play out in real time, relatively few cuts, and naturalistic acting and writing (but in good, relatable, un-cliché ways). In filmic language, It Follows is a precise, foreboding study of the power of foreground and background: who will be IT next? Every person walking could be 'it', or nothing at all.
The lack of any full on explanation of the origins of this entity or presence or undead killer makes things all the more horrifying; and even after its not shown to be in-the-head of the main character, it turns still into a tale of a walking, living-breathing nightmare, again punctuated by that sinister synth score creeping up on the viewer like the 'It". Comparing this to early Carpenter and Polanski is not without hyperbole - in boilerplate log-line-language it's Halloween and Repulsion, but it's still more unusual in presentation, effective, and expertly, shockingly astute in its direction, especially with the dollop of ambiguity. If anything, this is the antidote to dumb slashers where characters are killed off due to "Sex is Bad". It turns that convention on its head by having something that can't be easily explained away with a bad childhood or tragic drowning or other. If anything, this 'thing' is closer to a shark.
Go see this movie, preferably on as big a screen as possible, and with a significant other to snag on to your arm tight.