It Follows

IT FOLLOWS

With a musical score and visual style that evoke the vibe of the best aspects of John Carpenter's early films, the 2015 project It Follows (written and directed by David Robert Mitchell) tells the tale of Jay, a young woman who lives with her mom and sister in a suburb. Jay sleeps with a guy who claims his name is Hugh. The dude then presses a chloroform rag to Jay's face and knocks her out. When Jay awakens, she's tied to a wheelchair in a crumbling abandoned parking garage, and Hugh explains that he has to show her something. He says that he's passed something on to her, and soon a “thing” (that can look like anyone) will be following her with the intent of killing her. He encourages Jay to sleep with someone else to pass “it” to that person, and he notes that whenever it kills someone it then goes after the previous person in line; no one who has ever encountered it is ever safe. The thing shows up in the form of a nude woman, and Hugh wheels Jay to his car and speeds away. Hugh advises Jay that the thing is “slow but not stupid.” Hugh dumps Jay in the street outside her abode, where her allies (sister Kelly and friends Paul and Yara) rush to help her. Thus begins Jay's ongoing waking nightmare.

At first skeptical of Hugh's story, Jay goes about her normal life until she spots an eerie old woman relentlessly walking toward her. Jay flees and next encounters the thing at her house, at which point she's utterly convinced of its reality (though her friends and sister don't believe her). Neighbor Greg drives the group to the abandoned house that Hugh had been renting, and there (within the pages of a pornographic magazine) they discover a photo print of “Hugh” with a classmate who sports a letterman jacket. Jay recognizes the school and in a yearbook finds her assailant, whose real name is Jeff. Jay and her posse go to his house, where (out in the yard) Jeff spouts more exposition and advises Jay to buy some time by driving somewhere. Greg takes the group to an isolated beachfront property where his dad used to take him hunting. There Kelly, Paul, and Yara become convinced of the thing's reality when it (invisible to all but the afflicted) attacks Jay from behind; Paul breaks a chair over the entity, which shoves him back with preternatural force. Greg (who had been off peeing and missed the assault) remains the only skeptic after the group escapes. Jay takes off in Greg's car, crashes, and winds up in the hospital where she sleeps with Greg to pass along the curse. To describe the plot from this point on would be to deprive a first-time viewer of some of the story's best frightening moments.

With an oddly-paced third act that's laced with a large degree of ambiguity, It Follows is not a perfect film, but it's an enthralling ride that pulls you through a tension-filled journey that largely takes place in an environment generally associated with safety and the American dream (the suburbs). Jay and her friends are pleasant characters to spend time with; there's a bit of business involving a fart early in the narrative that reveals how comfortable these kids are around each other, and it's a fine moment of levity to balance out the grim tone of the prologue (which reveals what can happen when the thing catches up to a victim). The soundtrack features synthesized rhythms that are as driving and unrelenting as the antagonist. It Follows is a singular project that filled me with dread the first time I watched it (at the movie theater in the spring) as I rooted for Jay to find some way, any way, to escape the seemingly unstoppable entity. Having just revisited the story on Blu-ray, I can testify that It Follows is even better the second time around, and I imagine it'll hold up to repeat viewings over the years ahead. The “monster” of It Follows is wholly unique and thought-provoking. I look forward to whatever cinematic yarn David Robert Mitchell spins next, and I hope he remains in the horror genre (his debut film, The Myth of the American Sleepover, is a straight-up ensemble drama). It Follows: utterly marvelous.