It Follows

So I'm realizing a trend with the horror movies I'm watching. They're very much Indie films more than they are horror films. They're very artsy with their style and execution, and while they no doubt have a creepy vibe to them, they are not your stereotypical jump scare movies. They rely more on building suspense and making my mind wonder about what I need to avoid to never be haunted like this in my real life. In the Witch, it was pretty easy, just don't live by the woods where a witch might live. But the haunting in this movie has a little bit bigger of a price to pay.

It Follows is a story centered around a young girl named Jaime (or Jay) (played by Maika Monroe). Not gonna lie, you don't really learn a whole lot about Jay. She's a girl in college, she has a core group of friends, and at the start of the film she's seeing a new guy that seems promising.

But things go sideways quickly when Jay and her new boyfriend Hugh (played by Jake Weary) have sex. Hugh then reveals that he has passed along a curse to her. Jay now has a ghost or a monster slowly walking towards her. Hugh tells her to keep running away from "it" and try and "pass it along" as soon as she can. He also tells her that if it touches her, she will die so she needs to keep moving.

What follows is Jay's subsequent haunting by "it" and her deciding what she's going to do about this thing following her. Does she find someone to have sex with to pass it along? Is there anyway to stop it?

So I'll talk about the things I liked first. Above all, this movie knows how to do suspense right. This is a very artsy film and the way the cinematography contributes to the suspense of finding "it" onscreen or not is absolutely masterful.

If you read my review of The Witch, you know I am a wimp when it comes to jump scares but I do have a desire to expand my horror movie horizons. Two things I enjoy in a good horror movie is 1) the story, and 2) the use of supernatural or just plain horror elements to create a creepy atmosphere. It Follows does that creepy atmosphere incredibly well. You will be spending the majority of the movie watching the background, looking for "it". And lot of times you will see it. More times, you'll see it and the characters won't. And the only people that can see it are those who have had it passed to them. The movie is pretty deliberate when it shows "it" and when it doesn't and it gives you that hair raising feeling on the back of your neck. It's really well done.

And that tension was built in the film pretty damn well. The music is minimal and it doesn't rely on loud and quick jolts in the music to startle you. The whole movie relies on you being very observant of whats going on in the film. I mean you're just looking for random people walking towards the characters, walking at a very slow methodical pace towards the main characters and it's eerie. It is very well done.

 The movie also has a somewhat (though somewhat inconsistent) 80's vibe. It's done in the music and some of the cinematography in order to produce that nostalgic feeling from old 80's horror movies. I've given it some thought and though it feels a little contrived, I think I like it.

But the 80's vibe and the eerie tension building does give way to something that I both enjoyed, but also didn't like so much.

Because of the way that the tension gets built up, and the way it's kind of paying homage to old horror movies, there are a lot of moments where I was yelling at the screen for the characters to not do something that normal people wouldn't do. Part of this is due to how vague the rules of "it" are left. Sometimes it relies on physical space, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it can be hurt but sometimes it can't. But I think on one hand it really works because it's providing a perspective that brings the audience in a figurative glass case where we can yell at the screen all we want but the characters will never hear us. Looking at it that way, that is a really interesting way to chill your audience.

However, there are moments that don't make a whole lot of sense and the characters are harkening back to the characters of the 80's who were kind of dumb and would walk into situations just to get that scare or chilling murder. Like I said, I'm kind of torn on it. On one hand, I like the way it builds tensions, but on the other hand it really diminishes the characters. And unfortunately these characters need some work.

As I'm writing this, I'm trying to think up the names of as many characters as I can think of. The most I can think of are Jay (because she's the main character), and two of the guys she has sex with in this movie, Hugh or Jeff and Greg. The only reason I know those two is because I was yelling at the screen for how dumb these characters are.

But Jay has a whole posy that follows her around including her sister, another friend, and a guy who clear has the hots for Jay (played by Keir Gilchrist). I could list off their names but I don't really know if it's worth it. And that was the biggest issue I had with the film. The characters in this movie are not only dumb, but they have little to no personality and their dialogue is horribly written. I don't necessarily think they're bad actors, I just think they had a dog shit script for a movie that put all it's creative thought into how to make a slowly methodical walking ghost be scary.

Part of this is due to the independent stylistic decisions made for the film. I feel weird because these independent horror films are really right up my alley, but this one kind of bugged me. I really liked the cinematography, but the dialogue seemed a little more artsy than I'd prefer. It didn't seem consistent with the 80's homage that it was trying to execute and I felt like I was watching all the boring music sequences from Drive where Ryan Gosling is just staring out into nothingness while artsy music plays in the background.

Again, it feels weird to say that because I'm so not for your stereotypical horror movie cliches and actually have been preferring the indie films. The weird part about it is that I feel like there could have been more. I could have used more smart use of "it" and I would have been cool with the movie toning up the scary moments. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean jump scares. I just think "it" could have been used a little better. A lot of the movie is creating a sense of anxiety that anybody walking around in the background could be "it" and it cranks up the anxiety you might have. So a good portion of the film is that in between time and if you're gonna have that in between time I think the movie could have beefed up the dialogue a little bit, done some more with the characters, and dialed down the staring into nothingness indie tone.

A part of me feels like this movie was originally meant to be a short film and then it got expanded into 100 minutes. But I feel like if the characters were better, I would have wanted to see more or I'd be interested in a sequel. But as it stands, I really disliked the ending. I'm glad I checked it out and I do appreciate the tension and scares that I got on this good ol Hallows eve, but I don't know if I would put this on the top of my list of favorite horror films.

At the end of the day, It Follows is a fun indie film that utilizes suspense, tension, and some well placed scares very well to create a unique look at the horror genre. The movie falters a little bit with its underdeveloped characters, stiff dialogue, and underwhelming ending, but I think it's surprisingly good despite being a heavy handed metaphor about sexually transmitted diseases.

I think I would recommend it, but I do think there are better films out there.

But what did you think? Any more recommendations on scary films that don't rely on jump scares? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your requests via Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!