Sexually Transmitted Ghost

Rating: 2/10 (6 April 2015)

It Follows is a low budget horror movie that has been getting major attention recently. Not just because of its impressive box office numbers in limited release, but also because some claim it is actually a great horror film. Originality does not necessarily mean quality. This film is a prime example of that. The story rambles on and is meaningless. The film is a giant waste of time, and more importantly, a waste of money. The following is my review of It Follows.
The film was written and directed by David Robert Mitchell. This is his first major film. The story is pretty straight forward. A ghost haunts people who are given this being. The ghost is passed from one person to the next through the act of sexual intercourse. The story happens upon a young girl who gets this ghostly being after having sex with this guy she has been dating a few times. She then starts to freak out and starts seeing people that others do not. While the idea is good, the story overall doesn't explain much past the general outline of the film. The characters are weak and even more stupid than we expect in a horror film. Mitchell gets credit for being original, but outside of that originality, he brings us another really bad film that indie fans love to eat up. If he decides to stick to this genre for future films, I will give him another chance. I just hope it is better than this awful film.
As for the directing side of things, this is one of the brighter spots. The film looks really nice for being filmed on a small budget of two million dollars. Doesn't look cheap like you would see on a sci-fi channel film. Outside of this though, don't expect anything good from the film. The acting is of course downright awful. This is not an area I will attack the film on because horror movies generally have awful acting. The film is generally silly and would be a good film to poke fun at with a group of friends. If this was the goal of David Robert Mitchell, he succeeded big time. From his stupid story that explains nothing and only takes up your valuable time, to the random scenes in the film that make no sense at all, his efforts in both writing and directing aren't anything even average. The film simply looks good, that is clearly not enough to give him credit on, or enough to save this bad film.
The IMDb page for this film does not even mention a composer for the film. After some light digging, I was able to find out Rich Vreeland is the composer. He goes by the name of Disasterpeace for his music. Fitting, because the score for the film was indeed a disaster. The score as overly bombastic and very meaningless most of the time. I love scores, and really love scores for horror movies. At times you will find a hint of Halloween, and at other times Knight Rider. The composer was all over the place for this film. It adds nothing good to the film, and only hurts it. I won't trash all of the work Vreeland has done in his career, but in this case his work was simply awful.
In closing, the film was overly hyped because of its originality and because indie fans love eating garbage up like this. The honest truth is that this film is bad. It certainly isn't worth any price your local theater could be charging to see it. As I mention above, this might be a good film to watch with some friends as you can trash it and make some good jokes at its expense. Outside of that, this film is a clear pass for even the biggest horror fans.
2/10