Very Effective

Rating: 8/10 (17 February 2015)

Remember that creepy old guy in the black hat from that Poltergeist sequel? Imagine those scenes but with the relentless unstoppable menace of the Terminator, played out in a strange dreamy 80s atmosphere with John Carpenter style music. That's a pretty accurate description of It Follows.
Its unique enough to be interesting, and definitely scary enough to be memorable and talked about. Is it good enough to be great? I'm not so sure - I kept thinking of all the interesting avenues the story could have gone down, but it seemed reticent to really explore its own idea. Even the most obvious idea of a long, decent chase/following scene was missing. In place of more plot development, we get lots of long takes and panning shots to build the sense of menace and intrigue. Its creepy, but after a while I felt like I had adapted a little too well to the style and would have preferred more substance instead. There are to few genuinely scary moments when there could have been far, far more.
I still respect the idea and the effort - and do love the movie - for me its just one of those films where I really wanted it to be great, to do justice to the strong idea.