Review: It Follows

by A.J.

It Follows

I must sound like a broken record (or corrupted mp3 file) when I say that quality horror films are few and far between. A good horror film can keep you on the edge of your seat, thrilling you with clever scares or unnerving imagery. But any horror fan knows that in searching for a good horror film, you’re going to see a lot of bad ones. Unfortunately, It Follows falls into the latter category. 

This film has a familiar beginning, though skillfully done: a teenage girl in red high heels bursts out of her house and runs out into the street then to her car. She runs, but doesn’t get away. There is definite skill in the staging, and it was clear from the outset that this was aiming to be a low-key, subtle horror film, but something was amiss with that opening scene. The random teen girl being menaced in the first scene is not just a horror movie cliché, she, and those red high heels even more so, are a signifier that It Follows is a film that will emphasize style over substance. That would be forgivable if It Follows was engaging and scary. However, It Follows also emphasizes style over scares.

The premise of this movie is intriguing and fresh. After having sex for the first time with her older boyfriend, young Jay (Maika Monroe) is attacked by him, drugged, and tied to a chair. He explains to her that he has passed to her a ghost that will follow her until it catches up with her and kills her. If it does, the presence will go back to following him. “It” can appear as anyone, even people she loves, and though it moves slowly it won’t ever stop following her. There is nothing she can do to get rid of it, only pass it along to someone else. Though clearly aware of the allegorical implications -- STDs/AIDS, or adulthood/maturity, both of which amount to decay and death to a teenager -- the film never fully embraces this subtext, insisting that the theme is open to a broad interpretation.

It Follows steers clear of some horror movie clichés (there is almost no violence or blood), but falls into others (Jay’s "nerdy" friend is characterized by big glasses and reading Dostoevsky's The Idiot). There are, of course, a few pop-up/startle scares. The climax is capped off with a creepy and memorable visual element. However, too many times I noted that while what I was seeing looked creepy, I wasn’t actually creeped out or scared. Is that figure in the distance behind Jay “It” or just a normal person? Speed walking or a light jog in the opposite direction is all it would take to diffuse the situation. 

At certain points It Follows moves too slowly, and the non-scary scenes fail to build dread and danger. The "scare" scenes, or potentially scary scenes, are separated by scenes of Jay and her friends talking like they are adults on True Detective. They wax poetic about the line between the suburbs and the bad parts of town, but those ideas are not explored any further. The one consistently effective element of It Follows is the haunting synth score by Disasterpeace.

I very much enjoy slow-burn horror films (Audition, John Carpenter’s Halloween,  and Val Lewton/Jacques Tourneur movies are some of my favorites). Because these films typically have low budgets, they avoid effects-heavy set pieces in favor of a grand, thrilling finale. The most successful examples make up for a lack of spectacle by building atmosphere and tension and creating full characters. It Follows clearly aims to be like the classic slow-burn horror films from the late 70s and early 80s, but ultimately it falls short in those crucial areas of mood and character and instead fills the time with dull teenagers talking to each other in rooms. 

Horror films can be flawed and still be successful. A good horror movie can have flimsy characters, plot holes, contrivances, it doesn’t even have to make sense (I’m looking at you Suspiria and Hausu), but it must spook, unsettle, creep, disturb, or unnerve. It absolutely must scare and, even more importantly, entertain. It Follows did not have me anywhere near the edge of my seat. Instead I was slumped back, my mind wandering to memories of other horror movies.