Director : David Robert Mitchell
Starring : Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe
Studio : Animal Kingdom, Northern Lights Films, Two Flints
Distributed by : RADiUS-TWC (United States)
Captive Cinema (Philippines)
Release Date : May 17, 2014 (Cannes)
March 13, 2015 (United States)
Plot: After a sexual encounter with a man, a young girl is haunted by a supernatural entity that takes different forms and won't stop until it kills her.
I've first heard about this horror film last year, alongside Unfriended (2015). After hearing rave reviews from critics, I really got excited and was looking forward to see this film.
A lot of critics were making comparisons of the film with Jennifer Kent's horror masterpiece The Babadook (2014) which was one of my favorite horror films of all time. So I was so curious if the film was really worth the hype.
So here's my movie review for the horror film It Follows.
Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead!
The film centers on Jay (Maika Monroe), a young college girl. She's currently dating a guy named Hugh (Jake Weary) and eventually ends up having sex with. After their sexual encounter, he incapacitates her and informs her that he had just passed a curse to her- an entity which can only be seen by those with the curse will pursue Jay at walking pace. If it catches her, it will kill her and then go after the person who passed it to her.
This premise uses the theme of having sex with a stranger as it's starting point. It captures the horror of having sex with someone you barely know and ends up discovering that you've acquired a sexually-transmitted disease from him/her. This is one of the things that really made this film stand out from the rest of the horror films out there.
Unsettling Atmosphere All Throughout
The film opens with a girl being followed by an unseen entity. She ends up getting killed horrible after the entity pursue her in a beach. Here, the movie starts to set up it's unsettling tone.
The film uses a lot of 360 degree pan shots, which gives the viewers a wider view of the settings. Every turn of the camera adds dread to the scene. It's as if the Entity will pop up somewhere in the background, walking towards Jay (Maika Monroe).
Sometimes the Entity would just show up walking in the background while Jays isn't aware of it. This adds up to the suspense of the story. It's as if you want to shout and call out to her and tell her to turn around to see the fucking creepy girl walking towards you!I must say that the setting of the film- Detroit -also adds up to the atmosphere of the entire film. From shots of the quiet rows of houses in their neighborhood to glimpse of urban decay, these things adds up to the spookiness of the whole movie.
Then, there's the retro styled soundtrack of the film. The sound really puts me on my toes as if something would pop up out of nowhere. It gives a really creepy but fun 80's vibe to the film, similar to soundtrack of the movie The Guest (2014).
At one point of the film, Jay and her friends agree on sleeping together at their house. Until they heard a noise coming from the kitchen, as if someone tried to break in. When Jay went to check on it, she found a naked lady pissing on herself, whose arms are tied in the back, full of bruises, staring blankly at her. Then, it slowly walked towards her direction. She ran upstairs anbd hid inside her bedroom. Her friends were able to relax her, and as she lets them enter the the room, a very tall man with black eyes came inside right after them!
This scene was my most favorite part of the movie. I totally freaked out when
I saw the tall man enter the room. It was alll of a sudden. I was caught of guard of what was about to happen. Luckily, I managed to stopped myself from screaming inside the theater and saved myself from further embarassment.
One problem in this film is that it starts off really good. The first half of the movie was really terrifying. The first half, which focuses on Jay's realization that the curse was true, made it more interesting. I really loved it.
But then, the film starts losing it's way back as the story progresses. The tension slowly faded. The scares were't as good as the first part.
This is one of the most common problems in horror films today. They start put really good but ends up like a mess. The film's latter part wasn't able to sustain the level of scares and dread.
Verdict:
Although the film's latter part wasn't able to live up to the expectations set by the first half, I must say that this film is still an enjoyable horror movie. It plays on paranoia and mounting dread, making it different from the rest of the horror films we've seen before. Plus, the scene of the Tall Man itself was worth the price of admission.
I'm giving it 5 out of 5 stars.
It Follows Official UK Trailer #1 (2015... by sparkanime
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