So, is this year’s critical darling as good as the hype? Well, I haven’t stopped thinking about it in several days, so that’s a good sign.
It’s been pretty well established at this point that the slasher movies of the 80’s are built on the fear of sex. Hence, you have any sign of promiscuity dutifully (and brutally) punished, and the virginal “final girl” as the lone survivor. In many ways, It Follows continues that tradition. The entire film is drenched in sex. It’s in the gaze of the male characters, in the prostitutes the central party of teens passes on their journey into the seedier part of town, in the disheveled nudity displayed by so many of the villain’s myriad forms. Hell, it’s 2015 and nudie magazines make two separate appearances, once in conversation and once on-screen. More importantly, it’s literally the crux of the entire plot. Jay is a girl in her late teens who hooks up with a guy she recently started seeing, only to discover that her sexual encounter has cursed her with an evil apparition that’s only goal is seemingly to pursue and eventually kill her. She can pass the curse along by having sex again, but that will only work until the spirit dispenses with her new partner and comes after her again. With these simple rules established, the movie spends the rest of its energy on creating tension and delivering scares. We don’t get any mythology or motivation for the antagonist. There are no long-hidden ancient texts or creepy old gas station attendants to dispense exposition that our heroes can use to orient themselves and devise a plan. They have to improvise, and run, and wait. And that’s not the only departure from horror movie tradition.
It’s true that the subtext of the film is fear of sex, but it is a far cry from the Puritanical punishment of those aforementioned slasher films, where we are almost encouraged to cheer on the killer. The horror of It Follows embodies the personal anxiety that comes from worrying what will happen if you sleep with the “wrong” person, and if that decision will screw things up when you finally meet the right one. We are absolutely meant to feel sympathy for Jay, as evidenced by the fact that we spend virtually the entire film with her. This is helped by the fact that Maika Monroe is really damn good in the role. Between this and The Guest, she’s starting to become a can’t-miss horror asset. Her reactions are wholly believable, and even when she makes some decisions that could only be described as cruel, you completely understand where she’s coming from.
If you are only a fan of horror that comes with a massive body count, or creatively gory kills, then you’ll probably find this one too slow. I found that it actually reminded me how constant gory kills can relieve tension, rather than adding to it. The terror of It Follows comes from the single-minded intensity of its villain. It can be deferred, and it can be rather easily outrun, but it can never be escaped. It is inevitable. That is a realization that dawns on the characters and the viewer simultaneously, well after you’ve started scanning the periphery of every scene for signs of danger. There are times in the movie when Jay sees the titular “it” and no one else does. There were also multiple times where I saw it, making its steady march towards our protagonists, and nobody on-screen noticed. Even the director and camera operators seemed oblivious, which is a neat trick if you really want to sew anxiety among your viewers. This thing is so persistent it doesn’t have time to wait for the camera to find it, much less hide in somebodies closet to set up a jump scare. It just follows.
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