Unique

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2014)

Unique. That is the word that first comes to mind after a screening of David Robert Mitchell's It Follows which has now shown twice to accepting audiences at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It Follows is the story about a sexually transmitted haunting. Let me repeat that sentence so that in sinks in a little bit. It Follows is the story about a sexually transmitted haunting. The haunting is all too real for teenager Jay (Maika Monroe). After a brief sexual encounter with a new boyfriend, Jay is haunted by ghosts that only she can see. Their intentions are not clear, but an opening scene of a disfigured young girl on the beach reveals to the audience that the ghosts are violently inclined. The carrier that inflicted Jay with the haunting reveals to her and her inner circle that the ghosts will be relentless until they kill Jay. He goes on to disclose that the ghosts can only walk to their prey. So if you can run, drive or speed away from them it might buy you minutes, hours or even days until they catch up. The only way to pass on the haunting is to have sex with another and this knowledge torments Jay while intriguing the two male suitors that are part of her friendship ring. Whether Jay can pass on the hauntings enough so that she herself is safe and whether her friends will play a part in her survival is the crux of the film that hearkens back to the glory years of horror where blood and guts were not paraded out in gore porn glory. Director David Robert Mitchell confidently maintains the integrity of the story without the lure of upping the body count for the purpose of appeasing a microwave horror generation that wants its blood and wants it thick. In fact, the body count is so low in It Follows that a leper can count them on one hand. This lack of blood and guts however only adds to the atmosphere that is thick and complimented by one of the best musical scores for a horror film that we have relished since the early John Carpenter years. The idea is truly original and its execution is brilliant in its simplicity. An experiment which attempts to destroy the ghost reminded us slightly of 1981's The Entity (in which Barbara Hershey was raped by a sexually abusive spirit) but It Follows maintains its originality to the end. In a Hollywood world where horror films are stereotypically deformed serial killers who randomly kill high school students on the brink of sexual revelation, It Follows is a breath of fresh air that is worthy of a high recommendation. Unique indeed.