Pretty good, but not a modern masterpiece

Rating: 7/10 (6 May 2015)

It Follows is one of those films that has excellent word of mouth. You read a recommendation here and there and you suddenly find your interest piqued at the idea of an innovative horror flick, especially these days when you can't swing a dead cat without bumping into Paranormal Activity 7 or Saw 12. I rarely watch horror flicks, but this one had me intrigued, so I went.
Every horror show has a gimmick. The one here is that there's something that follows youngsters who have sex. For people who are complaining that the concept makes no sense, may I remind you're sitting in a theater watching a horror film? As with many a horror film, the film opens with The First Victim, fleeing in terror from something only she can see. As she sits on the beach, there's an impressive shot of what she thinks she sees. We look in the distance, but we can't make anything out. It's a shot that in retrospect reminds of me Antonioni's Blow Up with the photographs. We try to make something out, but we can't. We think we see something, a shape, but we don't. We cut to the main character, Jay, who's preparing to go on a date with a cute guy. She meets him, they have sex, and like a true gentleman he knocks her out afterwards and she wakes up strapped in a wheelchair. We haven't known Jay for very long, but I don't think it's a stretch when I say this isn't what's she's into. He tells her he's not going to hurt her and that there's this thing which will follow her. It changes shape every time, depending on who it preys on. It used to follow him and now he's passed it onto her. Naturally, she doesn't believe him, but when she's sitting in class, looks out the window and sees an old woman wobbling toward her, she flees and together with her surprisingly helpful group of friends she tries to get rid of her pursuer.
I really like the fact the filmmakers realized that scary things can happen in daytime as well. When every horror film from here to Tokyo seems to take place in a world stuck in perpetual nighttime, that's a breath of fresh air. The fact that 'it' only walks towards it victims lends the film a lot of extra creepiness. Consider the scene where the old lady walks towards Jay in the school. It's filmed in broad daylight, there's zero jump scares and yet it's probably the scariest scene in the film. These are the things that make the film feel fresh.
However, I wouldn't go so far as to proclaim It Follows to be a modern horror masterpiece. It adheres to too many clichés for that. Consider the film's reputation. I went to see it, because I got the impression it was not just any old horror flick. What does it mean when a film isn't just a horror film? That it breaks new ground, avoids genre clichés and so on. So, when you find out that it adheres to quite a few of them, it's automatically doubly disappointing. You're impressed by the film's setup and some of the frightening scenes and then the characters start to behave like too typical a horror film character. For instance, why would anyone slowly walk towards the place the killer was last seen? You've got the group hiding in a beach shed while the 'thing' is banging on the door from the outside. He blasts a hole through the bottom part of the door and thennothing. Out of nowhere, Jay has the bright idea of slowly crawling towards the hole to investigate. Why would you even entertain the notion that that's anything remotely close to a good idea? It's just making the characters look stupid for the sake of a jump scare and that's what's annoying; not the scares themselves, but the fact that the characters have to behave stupid for the filmmakers to employ them.
Also, there's some consistency issues regarding the thing that follows. Now, I'm not usually a stickler for such details, much less in horror, but the film lays the groundwork so clearly that you can't help but notice. The rule is that the thing follows you at walking speed; it's always walking towards you no matter where you are and it has zero facial expressions. But then there're times when we see the thing just standing around, walking at different speeds or making a scary face. It may not seem that big a deal, but it's the rules the film is based on. You'll automatically try to think with the characters, trying to figure out the best course of action, but when the thing 'breaks' the rules or introduces new ones, you kind of feel cheated. At least be consistent in this regard.
Other than that, though, It Follows is worth watching. It's not just good horror, but it also plays with a lot of conventions often seen in horror like sexuality. For instance, the world these characters inhabit is jam-packed with couples and thus potential victims. Everywhere you look, it's people in groups of two. Also, everyone (especially Jay's nerdy friend, Paul) wants to get laid. And of course, the fact that you get chased and killed by having sex is an obvious reference to all those nineties horror flicks that had horny groups of youngsters and one psycho killer. If two of them had sex, they'd end up dead for sure. I also love how everyone talks about their parents, yet they're nowhere in sight. All that aside, though, if you're glancing at modern horror and thinking to yourself, 'man, can I have just one decent horror film, please!?', then It Follows is the answer to your prayers.