I feel like I had been waiting for a long time to see It Follows. Truth is, it really hasn’t been that long. I stumbled on a copy at a local movie rental place for 6 bucks, so I thought, why not? Everyone was raving about “It Follows” on the Internet and I just had to see it. I originally planned to watch and make it a part of my 31 Days of Horror for Rage of Rayzor back in October, but here we are. It Follows could pop up during 31 Nights of Horror here at the Horror Syndicate in October.
There may be spoilers ahead, so you have been warned.
The movie begins with a frantic girl running up and down her street out of her house. Then she runs back into her house and the back out and gets in her car and drives away. My wife and I looked at each other and said slowly, “Ok?” Then she is sitting on a beach calling her father. She also, had high heel shoes on, which was odd. She dies, but how?
From there the movie becomes a little more innocent, following a girl named “Jay”. She is hanging out in her, as my wife noted, “dirty pool” and her sister has some friends over. Jay goes on a date with a guy name Hugh. The are standing in line waiting to buy a ticket to see a movie. The play a game, “who would you rather be”. When Hugh guesses a girl in the yellow dress for Jay. She does not see the girl. Hugh freaks out and they leave. Eventually the two have sex and “It” is passed to Jay from Hugh. This is where the movie takes off, kinda.
Rather than spoil the rest of the film, I will go on and talk about the elements.
The film has and overall feeling of creepiness, it feels eerie and you are constantly looking over Jay’s shoulder to see if “It” is coming. The movie had a really strange feel, you could not place the time period, it looked 80s, but it seemed to be set in a more current time. The creepy feeling from the score also gave it a more “retro” horror film feel. In some ways, there were times it looked like Dario Argento’s films could have influenced the film maker. Parts of the score felt like they were out of an Italian horror film, watch the trailer and you will get it.
I overall enjoyed the movie.
It did seem to drag a little and there were some things that are confusing, leaving questions. But I don’t want a sequel. The score and the eerie feeling that surrounded the film, were brilliant.
Original? Somewhat, “It Follows” reminded me a little of the Ring, in that there is something coming for you and you know it is coming. There is no escape. But also, somewhat similar and another film, possibly Final Destination, when people escape “Death” is continues to stalk them. Maybe that is a stretch.
I am going to recommend “It Follows”. It was a good horror film and for sure can give you the creeps. It would be a good date movie, this has “date movie” written all over it. Does it live up to the cover review? Yes, it is one of the most striking American Horror films in years. I think there is something happening, something over the past 7 years or so, horror, good horror is coming back. “It Follows” proves this.
IMDB.com rates It Follows at 6.9, and I rate it 8.2. The question, will It Follows make the Top 100 Horror Films list?