It Follows

Year: 2014
Genre: Horror
Directed: David Robert Mitchell
Stars: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Baily Spry, Debbie Williams, Ruby Harris, Leisa Pulido, Ele Bardha
Production: Northern Lights Films

The first thing you notice about the world created by It Follows is its chilling sense of timelessness. Characters watch old black and white films on cathode tube television sets, drive old Plymouths and read Dostoyevsky off of clamshell e-readers. No one owns a cellphone yet everyone wears jeans; their are fallen leaves on the ground, yet the kids make a day at the beach. Nothing makes sense.

The "It" in It Follows is a ghostly entity that's glacially paces towards its victim in a never stopping march; taking the shape of random people to trick its prey. The young Jay (Monroe) is only the latest target of the entity, receiving it from her latest date, the resident bad boy Hugh (Weary). Only those who were stalked by the entity can see it and the only way to get rid of it is to simply pass it along through sexual intercourse. Jay's only allies are her friends Paul (Gilchrist), Greg (Zovatto) and Yara (Luccardi) and sister Kelly (Sepe) all of which can't see the demon but to varying degrees start to believe she can see something the others can't.

Life's a b***h, and then you get herpes

With a cursory glance of It Follows many (and have) written off the film's demon as a representation of STIs. The promotional campaign for the film even sells it as a sleazy retro throwback to the Halloween (1978) era. Yet beneath the coy insinuations and remarkably modest displays of teenage sexuality, the film seems to be belaying a deeper message that goes beyond horror movie archetypes and backseat nooky. Could the demon perhaps represent something much larger and infinitely scarier?

The denizens of the film seem to be a lost generation of unsure and interminably bored youths. Apart from a few brief moments, no adult seems to be guiding our protagonists in any meaningful way. Hugh at one point longs to "trade places" with a five-year-old whose waddling along in front of doting parents. "He's got his entire life ahead of him," he says bleakly. Through the subjective lens of Jay, her sexual awakening is akin to experiencing this regret; a burden passed on to her by an older man that may just ruin her life.

The horror of It Follows horror is not provided by schlocky gore or cheap scare tactics but brought to the surface by an impending doom. The loss of innocence felt by nearly all the characters forces them to think critically about the problem of the monster which can come at anytime and in any form. This nebulous idea has allowed many to mark the monster as a symbol for everything from STIs, corruption, depleting resources, addiction, corruption to even fiscal irresponsibility. The demon will follow you and follow you until you pass it on or die from it.

Speaking of fiscal irresponsibility; the entirety of the film is shot in the State of Michigan on the outskirts of Detroit. To instill a sense of gloom and doom, nearly all the homes are eerily empty bungalows and all other structures reek of industrial decay. Even the idyllic cabin by the lake where the teens escape has a faded quality that heightens the sense that the characters are lost in an ever crumbling nightmare.  It's a world of a hundred indecisions and squandered opportunities and as a former resident of the Mitten State, I immediately responded to the mis en scene.

It Follows is a superb horror film whose nebulous ambiguity may frustrate those not attune to director David Robert Mitchell's peculiar machinations. It's a waking dream of ruin, decay and the broken promises of youth. Even if you go in insisting the film is about a walking, zombified STI, you'll still find lot to like. The beauty of It Follows is it's like an inkblot test for horror aficionados and popular audiences; it only gives answers to those who seek them.

Final Grade: B