Good but not that good

Rating: 6/10 (3 March 2015)

Peter Bradshaw, Danny Leigh and Claudia Winkleman are all critics whose judgements I trust and they all raved about how good this film was. As a result I was really expecting something out of the ordinary when I went to see it. However I have to say that I came out of the cinema somewhat disappointed. It's not that It Follows is a terrible film. It's actually good but it's not good enough to merit the five and ten star reviews (depending on the system used) that it's received. It's the sort of film that deserves to be discovered as a minor cult film several years after its release.
I'm also puzzled by the fact so many reviewers have said it's one of the few films that they have found genuinely frightening. I wanted to be scared, I really did, but all I experienced was a minor frisson. Several things mitigated against this film working for me. There's a lot of shaky cam and it doesn't work in all films. Sometimes it does work in favour of It Follows but there are several 360 degree pans which are so out of focus as to take you out of the film. Blurring can work quite well in horror but here it would have been more effective to be in focus more often. It's the same story with the music, an electronic soundtrack that sometimes works well but at other times is just plain annoying and distracting.
Homage is paid to several other films and often to the detriment of It Follows. There's a very clear reference to Halloween in the setting and the music. There's a pivotal scene set in a swimming pool at night which puts you in mind of Let the Right One In. This, above all, lets the film down. Where the pool scene in Let the Right One In is dazzlingly disorienting and genuinely frightening, the one we get here is rather pedestrian both in concept and execution.
It's a pity this film has got such good reviews because it deserves to be seen as a minor horror that tries for something different and often achieves it. A more modest reception is what it really deserves. The way it plays with time so that you can never be sure when it's supposed to be set is quite brilliant and really adds to the unsettling atmosphere throughout. Often the look and feel of the film reminded me of David Lynch and I spent a lot of my time wishing Lynch had been the director because I'm sure he could make something really frightening of this material.
A good film and worth seeing but my advice is to lower your expectations if you've been reading the better reviews it has been given.