A little tease of a movie

Rating: 5/10 (26 February 2017)

The premise is actually very refreshing and promising. It invites all sorts of delicious possibilities that a true horror fan, one who doesn't need to be smacked upside the head, can appreciate. A girl has sex with her new boyfriend, who then for no explanation knocks her out and ties her up. My eyes start to roll as I assume I've wandered into a torture-porn horror flick, but NO. He drops the bomb: there's a thing chasing him, but that has now ended because he just passed it on to HER. He explains he had a fling a few weeks ago and ever since this entity has been stalking him; It can take the form of any person, strangers and loved ones alike. Its most distinguishing feature in all its forms is that it walks slowly, deliberately, and directly towards you at all times, never taking its eyes off you.
The only way to get rid of it, he tells her, is to have sex with another in order to pass it on. It walks, slowly, so it's easily outran, but the thing is that it never stops ... NEVER. THAT is the core of true horror, the torturously slow inevitability of death.
Unimaginative minds could see this as a shallow plot, but no - as the pieces fall into place you realize that this is really one hell of an idea. First, a few key pieces: 1) the thing cannot be seen by those who have not at one time had it, 2) Once you've had it, you can always see it, regardless if you're the one it's after or not, and 3) if it succeeds in killing its target, then it kills the person that had it prior, then the one prior to that, and so on and so forth.
You must have sex with another in order to escape it, but at the same time you know that you're basically handing over a death sentence to whoever you sleep with. Kind of heavy for anyone with a conscience. This explains so much of what can be taken as bad acting in the beginning: mainly why the boyfriend didn't seem very enthusiastic during the act with our protagonist. Dude looked like he was being inconvenienced by having that beauty love him.
Secondly, you realize that whoever you have sex with needs to pass it on. If they don't then it's back to you. SO you can't pick just anybody out of desperation, whomever you pass it onto needs to be attractive, easily able to bang somebody else down the road. This also means that you're forced to have that awkward "Hey btw some monster will be stalking you from now on, best to have sex with someone else as soon as possible" after-sex talk.
With these pieces in play, we're all set to learn more about this thing! Can it be killed? If so, how - bullets? Drowning? Fire? Electricity? Or perhaps logic: What would happen if the current target has sex with a past target, and the past target is killed before they can pass it on? As the IT circles back on its past targets it will inevitably come to a gap caused by already killing the repeat target. What does it do then? Does that end the curse, or does it simply hop the gap and go to the next closest in line? Where did it come from, HOW FAR BACK DOES THIS THING GO?! I mean its origin story could've been EPIC.
These possibilities, along with the usual enticing possibilities that come into play once it's known the thing can take the form of people you know and love, are never truly explored. The closest we get to fulfilling any of this potential is a son humped to death by his bare-chested, alcoholic mother (The thing of course) - which I got to say was pretty effectively chilling.
Only one imaginative idea was tried in killing it; they set up a trap at the local high school (college?) swimming pool, encircling it with all sorts of plugged in appliances. I thought that was brilliant, and was on the edge of my seat to see how it would play out. I mean, could this thing swim? Is it possible to electrocute something in an Olympic sized swimming pool? Well, we're never shown because the thing starts walking around the pool kicking in all the appliances. Our protagonist doesn't fry, but it looked like all of them might've became unplugged when they were thrown, but who the hell knows.
It was underwhelming. The thing had never showed intelligence (or really any will for that matter) before; it mindlessly stalks its prey regardless of the surroundings. Here all of a sudden it knows of electrocution and foils the plan by throwing all appliances into the pool. It's nonsensical on another level too, because if the protagonist dies by electrocution, then it surely would no longer be possible to hump the life out of her, now would it? This felt about halfway through the movie, but it abruptly ends soon afterwards. An awkward sex scene with her platonic male friend; they're walking down the street holding hands; could that be it far behind them?; credits roll. Lots of unfulfilled potential. We never know what happened between her and those guys at the beach. Seems she had sex with one, but if she did IT must've killed him pretty quickly afterwards. A Bullet has no effect earlier in the movie, but there by the pool we're expected to believe there's a chance it's dead? And if there's no chance it's dead, then the ending isn't open-ended, it's simply nonexistent.
Not a keeper, but it exercised my imagination, and there were a number of scenes I found really lol funny. ("Be back for dinner dad!" to the naked guy standing on her roof). I suggest you see it.