It Follows
Directed by David Robert Mitchell
Distributed by The Weinstein Company
I’ll put the “It Follows rises above the limits of the horror genre” line aside early—It Follows is a fantastic movie.
It Follows is based around the concept of a sexually transmitted ghost. On paper, this sounds like a pretty bad gimmick, and one that could threaten to sink the movie pretty quickly. Luckily writer-director David Robert Mitchell shrugs the gimmick factor off and manages to create a cast of characters that progress and grow under the weight of the monster.
It Follows sets up some basic rules around the ghost immediately—it will follow you at a walking pace constantly, until it reaches you and kills you via ghost sex, and it can take many forms. Much is left unexplained however, including an origin story for the ghost.
Whatever “it” is, its presence suggests a darkness in suburban teenage sexuality—something feeding off the unanswered questions and awkward confessions of teenage love.
Jay, the main character, realizes her feelings for a childhood friend and is forced to confront the moral implications of passing the ghost to others. Her actions are informed as equally by the pressures of the ghost as the boredom of suburban Detroit and her attempts at intimacy. The fact horror takes the backseat to well-written teen drama is one of the main things the film does well.
Visually, the film is stunning. The cinematography looks less towards dark and shifty American teen horror and more to films like Upstream Color or The Tree of Life in its lazy afternoon-sunlight depiction of suburbia. One scene, set in a public pool, has the camera constantly jumping from underwater and land shots, lit by the floodlights in the pool. The scene is terrifying, as the ghost has almost caught up with Jay, but the scene’s beauty distracts from the scares.
Equally impressive is the film’s soundtrack, supplied by Disasterpeace, a Californian producer notable for work on video game soundtracks. The music creates a palette for the film of warped, dreamy synths and pulsing drum machines. It certainly has the capacity to scare and slowly drum in the ghost, but at other times it is dreamy and futuristic sounding, not unlike music from Boards of Canada or Brian Eno.
The horror of the film is interesting. It comes mostly from the knowledge that the ghost is indestructible and always following. It usually doesn’t jump out at the characters or even appear more than slightly concerned with capturing its target, but rather walks. It walks and walks, and although the characters can drive for hours, the ghost will eventually catch up at a steady pace. It’s a classic, terrifying slow-zombie formula and in this case it works.
“Are we in a golden age of horror?” I jokingly asked a friend I saw It Follows with, discussing it along with 2014’s The Babadook as recent successes of the genre. For those like myself who are quick to sweep the genre under a rug, It Follows is a great film to remind what can be done with horror. The film raises questions, scares the viewer, and is a brilliant audio-visual experience.
