A.C.’s Review: Currently
surprising Hollywood is the success of an “indy” small budget horror
film called IT FOLLOWS. It has done so well that it has expanded to more theaters
since its opening week.
The
premise of the movie follows Jay. A young woman who after an evening of
consensual sex finds herself chloroformed and tied up by her boyfriend
in an abandoned
factory. He has done this to keep her still so he can explain the
“rules” of what is about to happen. Through sex he has passed along the
for lack of a better word …a curse. He tells her she will be soon
stalked by a supernatural entity that can assume shapes
of people familiar and unfamiliar to her. It will keep coming for her
until it kills her but because it can only walk she will be able to out
run it but it will always follow. Sure enough the entity appears and the
two quickly escape and the boyfriend runs
off to leave Jay to deal with the curse. One of the rules is that she
can be rid of it if she passes it along to the next person she sleeps
with.
The
rest of the movie deals with Jay’s stalking by the malevolent creature
as a small band of friends try and protect her as they search for the
boy who “infected”
her and seek a way to defeat the terrifying creature as “It Follows”
her.
Anyone
going in expecting a slasher type, high body count will be
disappointed. This is old school horror much like the original John
Carpenter’s Halloween that
relies on suspense over graphic gore.
Enough
good things cannot be said about the cinematography and the atmosphere
that the director brings to this movie. Set in a midwestern suburb there
is such a
sense of dread and creepiness in every scene that the tension is
inescapable. The opening scene is especially effective taking place out
on a nearly deserted street at dust sets the feel for the rest of the
atmosphere to come. Even events that take place in
bright sunlit scenes are inescapable from the forebodingness. Also the
story seems to take place during what I would guess to be an October
“Indian Summer’ with trees a blaze in autumnal colors while characters
are still making use of the swimming pools and
beaches. It gives such a totally unique feel to it.
Also
there is a bizarre “out of time” element to the whole proceedings. It
takes place in present day but there are a lot of old vehicles to be
seen, people watch
televisions from twenty years ago (no flat panels to be seen). Early
in the movie Jay and the boyfriend go to an old school type theater
that isn’t a slick multiplex. All in all visually
this an extremely well-crafted movie.
Not
everything is roses and sunshine though. There isn’t much character
development in any of the supporting characters that make up her group
of friends but that
is a small quibble compared to the biggest flaw of the movie and that
it the music.
There
are times when the music is used incredibly to help enhance that
feeling of dread I was talking about above…but more often than not the
director goes overboard
with it either being too loud or as an attempt to be “stylish” as he
plays it over scenes of the characters doing thing so as not to have
dialogue. At times it’s so overbearing that it calls attention to itself
and can take you out of the movie.
Best
Scene: Jay and her friends seek refuge at a Lake Michigan beach house
and are terrorized as the entity follows them in its relentless pursuit
of Jay.
A.C.’s Rating: Matinee
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