A tense and unique horror film.

Rating: 4/10 (11 March 2015)

It Follows tells the story of a a sexual encounter gone bad. While this whole premise feels familiar in one way or another, director David Robert Mitchell manages to inject enough originality and genuinely disturbing images into this scary and tense horror film that is bound for cult glory. The film follows (no pun intended) Jay, an all American girl from the Detroit suburbs who dreams of meeting "the one" and having a summer love. As one would expect, it soon turns into a hellish nightmare that ends with a looming, potentially deadly force lurking behind every corner of her life. The film takes twists and turns throughout the way, but the best part about this film is the sense of dread in every scene. It weighs down as heavy as bricks until some truly disturbing visuals make this film go from dreadful and suspense filled to absolutely horrifying. The suspense builds and builds with this film and when it finally releases the tensions with a scare, it becomes almost unbearable to look at the screen without your hands in front of your face. The performances in this film, outside Maika Monroe, are pretty flat. This surprisingly doesn't really affect the film as bad as you would think. There's enough of a good performance coming from Monroe to carry this film to the finish line and then some. My only gripe with this film is that it is really ten minutes too long and feels as though it starts dragging in the second act. These scenes that slow it down are not necessarily bad or poorly done, it just feels as though Mitchell could have maybe left a bit more on the cutting room floor. In retrospect, this is a minimal problem. This is a horror film that is scary and truly unique. In an industry that produces crap films with cheap scares, it is very refreshing to see one that actually takes the genre seriously and delivers some serious scares. It is definitely worth watching and I highly recommend it.