It Follows breaks the basic rules of horror - and it totally works
REVIEW: When the characters in It Follows break the most basic rule of horror movies, you know you’re in for something genuinely new and chilling.
Leigh Paatsch
Don't miss out on the headlines from Leigh Paatsch. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It Follows (MA15+)
Director: David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover)
Starring: Maika Monrow, Jake Weary, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe.
Rating: ***1/2
Pass it on, or pass away
IT is Rule 101 of sex in horror movies: you do it, and you’re doomed.
The hauntingly uncomfortable new American chiller It Follows adds a number of cleverly creepy clauses and conditions to this time-honoured cinematic statute.
In the mysteriously underpopulated outer suburbs of Detroit, a pretty young woman named Jay (Maika Monrow) has contracted a curse.
After sleeping with her new boyfriend (Jake Weary), Jay discovers she is now the sole target of a strange entity that is tracking her every move.
Only she can see the unnamed being, which can assume the form of any person of any shape, size or age.
The entity can only be identified at close quarters. It walks slowly and deliberately in the one direction, and will not stop until it has completely invaded its victim’s personal space.
After a few close escapes from certain death, Jay learns a whole lot more about her paranormal pursuer.
No matter how far away she places herself from the entity, it will always find her.
More importantly, there is only one possible way for Jay to get rid of the thing: she must sleep with someone else.
However, should a new target of the entity end up dying, then the curse reverts back to Jay.
While some viewers may feel It Follows takes an inordinate amount of time to bed down all the interlocking bits and pieces of a creatively constructed premise, the wait proves to be well and truly worth it.
Writer-director David Robert Mitchell is on record as saying he intended It Follows to be seen as “a beautiful horror movie,” and there is indeed a strange allure to both the look and feel of the movie that is difficult to resist.
Mitchell resists almost every current convention in the horror playbook, and It Follows reaps some big dividends for daring to be different.
A majority of its most impacting scenes take place in broad daylight, or well-lit rooms. There are no sudden surges of volume on the soundtrack, or sucker-punch close-ups that guarantee an easy jolt.
This admirable restraint masks a supreme confidence in the material that demands and deserves your complete attention.
Here’s hoping others in the genre take a lead from It Follows.
For more reviews, news and pictures of all the latest movie releases, FOLLOW Leigh Paatsch on SOCIAL MEDIA by clicking on these links below :
Originally published as It Follows breaks the basic rules of horror - and it totally works
Mad About the Boy is best Bridget Jones film since the first
Bridget Jones has lost a husband and gained a younger lover but Renee Zellweger brings heart and humour to Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
Timely take on Munich Olympics terrorist crisis
The edge-of-your-seat factual drama September 5 takes viewers behind the scenes in one of the Olympic Games’ darkest hours with a message that still resonates today.