It Follows

An old-school picture. It works on so many aspects (characters, dialogues, music, building-up of suspense and fear) newer horror films often fail to properly handle. How could I not appreciate this flick? A pity the creators haven’t played a bit more with the pursuers’ look, but apart from that, I’m delighted with all the rest. Interestingly, D. R. Mitchell managed to create this wonderful horror film without any jump scare – and with a brilliantly built-up atmosphere! [KVIFF 2014] (20/06/2018)

Halloween for the XXI century. Unlike Carpenter’s masterpiece, Mitchell doesn’t bring anything particularly new or refreshing to the table, the power and effect of It Follows comes primarily from the way it returns to the prudent and old-fashioned representatives of the genre – there’s no need to create a cool killer and attack the viewer with exhibitions of style, it’s enough to highlight the most natural human needs, making you nervous with the sensation that your space will be breached by an indomitable, mysterious intruder. A very well cast and very beautiful Maika Monroe, a great retro music score and lots of creative awareness, all producing an attractive film space without any concrete period definitions (the cars speak of the 80s while the clothes and the design of the houses are almost identical to the present), without deviating formally from the “slasher” plane towards broader intellectual lines, which the premise smartly attacks. I would have liked a tighter ending, but it does keep its coherence and ambiguity. 85% and the fifth star is because no other horror movie from the entire decade deserves it more. (22/03/2020)

The film follows its inspirations quite flamboyantly, but it's also not afraid to go its own way. Therefore, the only thing that really comes to mind is why the adults in the story are glossed over with such vigor and why we don't know more about the gentleman in the photo - in that case, it would have been a decent crawl at the end and not just a flowing breast-stroke. (14/08/2015)

Two decades of my favorite genre on one plate. Intense music and street Steadicams of the early Carpenter, sometimes escalating into giallo-like psychedelics, working with the mystery of a hidden horror like a modern version of The Ring, while preserving the narrative logic and believable behavior of the characters. Moreover, the horror is spread by sex between attractive teenagers led by a pretty, delicate blonde, and is not a form of pleasure, but an act of guilty suffering. In addition, we get to enjoy the dark setting of the ghost-town parts of Detroit. It Follows is a delicacy for genre connoisseurs that could have been the best horror-movie event of the decade had the brilliant blend of historical directions been crowned by a visionary outlining of a new path. ****1/2 (21/04/2015)

One of the weaker cinema visits this year. I didn't research anything about It Follows beforehand, I didn't even watch the trailer, so I had no expectations, but it's not a very scary horror experience, much less an orgasmic one. On the plus side, there is a fairly original theme and a decent soundtrack that is solidly thumping in places, but I can find a lot more minuses here. The biggest downside is the ending, which explains absolutely nothing, says absolutely nothing, it just pisses me off. Then there’s the visuals, the film literally looks like a Czech film, it has no visual or make-up effects, there’s only normal people – even the negative ones – only without clothes. Moreover, the landscape, the furniture, everything looks purely Czech, from which I deduced, that the film was not at all demanding to make, any skilled Czech director could have made a similar thing without any problem, probably only the soundtrack would not have been so impressive. The film is also quite long, in places it looks more like a drama, there are only about three good atmospheric scenes and to make matters worse, there is also the absence of jump scares. (only the scene in a swimming pool was a pleasure). An attempt to set a new direction, but for me rather unsuccessful. 55% (01/05/2015)