THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The worst thing about knowing when something is after you is when you’re not sure when It Follows.
PLOT
The film follows carefree university student Jamie ‘Jay’ Height who lives in Detroit with her unnamed mother (Debbie Williams) and younger sister Kelly who spend a lot of time with their friends Yara and Paul. She goes out with a guy named Hugh and when they have sex for the first time, he incapacitates her with chloroform. When she wakes up, she finds herself tied in a wheelchair. Within this situation, Hugh explains to her that he’s passed on an entity that will follow her until it kills her and will return to previous pursuit like him. It is invisible to those not infected and the only way to delay its pursuit is to pass it on to others via intercourse. He is proven right when Jay sees a naked woman slowly walking towards her. When he takes her back home, she reports him to the police but are unable to find him due to living under a false identity. One day in class, she sees an elderly woman in a hospital gown walking towards her, causing her to leave campus. She does tell her friends what she experienced and decide to stay the night at her home to protect her. Predictably, the entity follows her to her home and dawns multiple forms of a tall man and a different half naked woman. Jay is able to escape its tracks for the moment when running to the public park. When she tells her situation to Greg, who noticed the commotion, he offers to help find Hugh, whose real name happened to be Jeff. When they find him, he admits that he got the infection from a one night stand, hooking up with a woman he doesn’t remember. He still insists to pass it on and drive somewhere remotely to buy herself more time. Jay and her group would drive to a lake house that belongs to Paul’s family and despite being so far from it, the entity catches up and takes multiple forms when attacking; It changes from the form of a child and even Yara itself. Terrified of not stopping it immediately with a gunshot, Jay drives away which causes her to crash. When recovering at the hospital, she passes on the curse to Greg but when three days go by, he doesn’t seem to believe in it as he has yet to see it. By the time the said amount of days have passed, Jay having checked out of the hospital, sees the entity in the form of Greg go to his home and then taking the form of his mother before killing him. When seeing that, she drives to the lake and spends the night outdoors. By morning, she passes it on to three other guys on a boat. When returning home, Paul, who openly has a crush on her, admits he’s willing to have the infection pass on to him if it comes back. She refuses, but it gives him the idea to lure it in a swimming pool to possibly electrocute it. Jay and her friends go to a public gym that has a pool and set up electric devices plugged in by extension cables. Jay swims in the pool and lures it out, now taking the form of her deceased father, but it proves its intelligence by throwing some of the electronics in the pool. She avoids electrocution however and Paul is able to apparently end the conflict by shooting it down three times, accidentally grazing Yara in the process. Jay confirms it to have died when seeing its blood flow through the pool. Feeling comfortable enough to live freely, Jay chooses to have sex with Paul who would later drive through town and pass through sex workers as possible assurance to avoid being on the top of the list should the entity come back. The film would end with another person following Jay & Paul walking down the street together.
THOUGHTS
It’s definitely hard to maintain a good spark out of horror with each bit of success for originality, when the 21st century of Hollywood is all about nostalgic franchises. Writer/Director David Robert Mitchell shows creativity when least expected by making a horror film completely different from what we’d be used to. The anachronistic setting gives an unpredictable atmosphere for what goes down. This whole new fictional entity that I would call ‘the follower’ for sake of differentiating it from other films, is indeed a unique kind of creature because it choose to take multiple forms is one simple & effective way to bring psychological torment as it walks slowly like a slasher. It’s even stronger than one would think when it kills the cold open victim Annie, who likely slept with Hugh/Jeff before he went to Jay. Seeing how disfigured it look before the official story gets going, you accept we’re in for a different set of danger. The cinematography by Mike Gioulakis is what truly brings the creature to life compared to the many actors who play its disguises. Each wide shot, panning shot and tracking shot are all impressive ways to display it can get everywhere, creating an claustrophobic atmosphere where you can’t guarantee how safe you are. I know I a lot of people have told me how intense it was seeing the Follower appear as the tall man, but I was really on edge when seeing it pull Jay's hair while still invisible in the eye of everyone else. Considering that this thing is so contagious where you’re bound to die and have to delay the inevitable by passing it on, it’s hard to not think about STDs. And with such a comparison, you deduce how this is about what happens you lose your innocence and how you bring firm determination when wanting to live another day. This is the theme I picked up on when following the path of the leading scream queen. Maika Monroe gives a strong performance as Jay because she is in fact someone who lost her innocence and must now fight for her life in order to maintain some form of normalcy. What happened to her can be identified as sexual assault because even though she consented with having intercourse with Hugh/Jeff, she is still mentally violated because she didn’t know what was gonna happen to her afterwards. She’s not prepared for it like she should and despite this, she’s capable enough to overcome the odds and feel that the fight for her life is over. When we first see her, water is shown to be her safe space which is why she enjoys swimming so much, which also became quite the advantage in the long run when confronting the threat. If there is any bright side to her journey, it’s that she didn’t go through it alone. Knowing this is another nod to the aftermath of sexual assault because there will always be a support group willing to lend a hand after such a traumatic event, where in the film’s case is during. Jake Weary indeed makes Jeff an asshole since he wasn’t upfront to Jay of what she was walking into, but it’s also hard to deny that since his actions were done out of fear, it also paved the way to defeat the follower. And on top of that, he apologizes for what he did because he’s not proud of it at all. Apologies don’t undo the actions, but at least there are people who confess regret in situations like this. Greg wasn’t a close friend to Jay, but Daniel Zovatto makes clear he’s one who means well compared to Jeff since he was willing to have the infection be passed on to him just to see if it was all real. And he gets a terrible demise since his naked mother was the last thing he saw before he died, but what mattered at that point is that he gave Jay more time. Going into the inner circle, I was like so in awe with Olivia Luccardi because of how her character Yara is proven to be a good friend when sticking around to protect Jay much like the way Lili Sepe makes a good sister out of Kelly. What she does different to get my attention is when she reads quotes from Dostoyevsky which set the tone on how the story progresses. Every time someone hears one, it gets the ground going to decide what goes next and it's done very fluently. Now what is there to say about Paul exactly? It's one thing to point out how much he simps over Jay before the plot gets going. The more I think about it though, I believe Keir Gilchrist still makes him a nice guy because each time he spoke to her, he cared just as much as the girls. He was always in awe of her because he admired how carefree she was in taking life one day at a time and gained confidence thanks to her when wanting to protect her. She gives him a chance in the end due to appreciation on how far he went to save her, despite winging it for the most part. And it was a big deal for them to have sex afterwards because they're not sure if it is over. But I respect on them asking each other if they feel any different as I take that as another nod to when people lose virginity, which only makes me sure Paul was a virgin beforehand. Even though they're not sure what to believe until the sequel They Follow, at least they try to loosen the restraints they had to regain the feeling of normalcy. But when trouble comes their way, I'm sure the group will do their best in holding their ground again. This movie is always intense, but there were still a few moments I can’t help question about upon re-watching. For example, why does the follower choose to not pursue Jess at the theater? It literally followed him and chose not to kill him in public? It may be invisible to those un-infected, but I don’t think it’d care if it were to do what it wants/needs. Jeff may have been scared of the entity as he rightfully should, but if he’s gonna go out of his way explaining Jay how to confront it, he could’ve at least put her clothes back on. I don’t hate Jay, but it was so reckless of her to drive away without her friends when she couldn’t circled back in time to avoid the entity. The accident would’ve not happened if she did that. And I know Paul was thrown off like I was when she chose to pass on the infection to Greg instead of him. But he should consider she was trying to save his life instead of prefer who she’s more intimate about when she clearly wasn’t into Greg. Lastly, it does seem like Paul went to a prostitute after he slept with Jay, but why didn’t Greg do this? If he really wanted to look out at her, he should’ve passed it on to someone who would’ve guaranteed continuing the cycle. Ignore this, then you’ll still be in awe of what this movie is all about. In short, It Follows is an impressive horror film for finding a new path to get under your skin. If you’re looking for an alternative route of body horror, this is the one for you.
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