Indie horror It Follows is simple in it’s execution but a bit complicated in it’s innovative idea, combining the sexual angst of teens with a ridiculous premise and somehow making it work through director David Robert-Mitchell’s atmospheric and effectively creepy style. Shifting the focus to the viewers’ imaginations and curiosity, using our own minds to scare us half to death, rather than relying to much on blood, gore, and cheap scares is an admirable move and it pays off by the tonne here.
Shot in the suburbs, It Follows uses settings that should be safe – friendly neighbourhoods, small cinemas, public swimming pools – and turns them into tense, unpredictable scenes with a victim-stalking demon; it takes a film which could have easily felt cheesy into really terrifying territory.
The film focuses on Jay (Maika Monroe), a likeable teen who takes big steps towards adulthood as she loses her virginity in the backseat of a car to a seemingly trustworthy Hugh, portrayed by Jake Weary. Hugh drugs Jay post-sex and straps her to a chair in an awakened warehouse. Up until this point, the film plays similarly to a moody coming-of-age teen drama, with only slight nods to it’s actual genre. Flipping us into a ghost story, Hugh tells Jay that by having sex with her he has passed on a curse, but rather than maliciously leaving her to figure out everything on her own, he shows her – giving us our first look at the shape-shifting, snail-paced killer.
The way the curse works is quite simple: a demon-slash-killer, who only she can see, will forever by stalking her, following her – albeit very slowly – in the hopes of killing her. If she let’s the demon touch her (that is, kill her) then the curse reverts back to Hugh. The demon can take form of whoever it wants whenever it wants, but it’s easy to spot as it stares straight at it’s victim while it slowly stalks closer and closer. Running from the demon is no problem – if you’re awake and alert – but wherever Jay goes it will continue to follow her until she can have sex and pass it on to someone else.
The film picks up once Jay starts noticing the pursuing demon, with Mitchell switching to wide angle shots to often show Jay and the demon at the same time. The terror of having this slow-moving but intimidating ‘thing’ unrelenting in it’s desire to ‘get’ her is far scarier than any jump Mitchell could throw in.
Music is used to great effect here; electronic artist Disasterpiece) takes an artful approach with scratchy synths and deep, foreboding bass to strike quickly whenever the demon appears or is expected to appear. It’s much better than having short bursts of violin-driven screeching whenever an intended scare jumps out at the audience. Mitchell has a good sense of atmosphere, and he seems to realise that you don’t need to try and scare the audience; they’ll do it to themselves.
The nature of the curse does force the movie to become repetitive towards the end, spinning us in circles with no promise of closure or proper insight into the complete workings of the premise. The ambiguity does lend itself to an even more effective tone though, and closes It Follows as one of the best indie horrors to come around in years, adding to the thought that even a little innovation is enough to entirely blow past the majority of formulaic ghost stories.
Review Score: THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Duration: 100 minutes
It Follows it out in Australia now and is screening exclusive in Dendy Cinemas
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