Friday, May 08, 2015

It Follows (2014) - Film Review

Right, I'll kick off my blog with a brief review of the great little horror flick IT FOLLOWS.

This is the type of horror that's much closer to my heart than all the gore and torture of late, ie it's subtle, understated and has a sense of creeping dread and death.

I'm also pleased that this type of feature seems to be having something of a renaissance over the last couple of years, with films such as The Conjuring and Sinister being able to hold their own against  the likes of The Exorcist and The Changeling of old.

Cut to the chase, this is a relatively simple story of a curse passed from person to person via sex! So in one way it's a big cliche of a horror film - ie, teen sex = death. Then throw in a Ring/ Ringu twist, whereby you need to pass it on to someone else ASAP, and in black and white it doesn't sound terribly innovative.

But wait....David Robert Mitchell and a relatively unknown cast, headed up by Maika Monroe (Jay) and Keir Gilchrist (Paul), do a fantastic job of wrenching up the tension, chills and paranoia. The curse itself is a relentless, speechless, unstoppable force, which leans towards being a succubus or incubus - but without the seduction part, eg just skips straight to the dry-humping and leg snapping!

The 'creature' (with its clothes optional approach to fashion!) is a lurking malevolent spectre, which only the cursed (and us of course) can see. It's there in the background. It's out of focus over someone's shoulder. It looks human but, just like Jay, you know instantly that thing is bad, bad news as it slowly but surely hunts and wears you down.

It Follows is kind of hard to pin down as genre. Horror? of course. But some of the tropes of the slasher and ghost story are in the too. Like Billy in Black Christmas and Michael Myers in Halloween, there is no motive here, no reason, just a pervading sense of inevitable doom.

There's no need to come up with allegories or anything smart about this. It would be easy to I'm sure, but just enjoy it for what it is: a super creepy, low budget, modern spin on horror conventions.

Both cast and crew deserve the plaudits It Follows received on the festival circuit, so it's only fitting this is going to reach a wider audience now. With any luck other genre directors and filmmakers will take heed that less is so much more!!!

/ 5

Check out the trailer here:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.