IT FOLLOWS. (2015) WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY DAVID ROBERT MITCHELL. MUSIC BY DISASTERPEACE. STARRING MAIKA MONROE, KEIR GILCHRIST, LILI SEPE, OLIVIA LUCCARDI, DANIEL ZOVATTO, JAKE WEARY AND BAILEY SPRY.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Apart from the ending, I bloody adored this creepy-as-hell horror film. It was based on a nightmare of the director's, in which he was followed by a terrifying, unknown and unstoppable force. Or, if you're a fan of THE SIMPSONS, some sort of non-giving-up-school-guy, haha.
The film had already been out a couple of years when I finally got around to seeing it, but it's definitely a case of better late than never. I'd be gutted to have missed out on seeing this one and, trust me, I most certainly will be watching it again.
Okay, so there's this cute-as-a-button American college student called Jay, see? And she's very bold and does the one thing her mother undoubtedly warned her against. Before the mother took to the drink, that is. Jay sleeps with a guy she barely knows. Well, that's not the end of the world, is it?
Hmmm, well, it wouldn't be, I suppose, except that the guy, Hugh, has the nastiest of ulterior motives for bedding Jay. He's been 'being followed' by someone or something supernatural, see, and the only way to rid himself of whatever 'it' is, is to sleep with someone else and pass it on. That's how he picked it up in the first place, through sex. The dirty sleazebag!
Anyway, Jay's nightmare with this paranormal entity pretty much starts immediately after the sex with Hugh. Several times, she sees that she's being 'followed' by various people, a creepy old woman in a nighdress, for example, and then she does the one thing that people being followed tend to do. She runs. Whatever 'it' is, it's inexorable, certainly, but it's also slow enough that you can escape it. At least, for now...
There are some absolutely terrifying scenes in Jay's house that had me hiding behind a cushion. Like the breaking of the kitchen window and the appearance in the house of a strange, demented-looking female who sends a petrified Jay hurtling for the (relative) safety of her bedroom. 'It' can take the form of literally anyone she knows, so no wonder she's reluctant to answer a knock on the door, no matter how insistent.
Jay really is the dumbest heroine of a horror film yet though, it must be said. After a scary near-miss with 'It' in the middle of the night, she heads straight for the darkened park to hang out by the haunted swings. Christ Almighty, give me patience. Hasn't she seen any horror films herself?
Another time, she drives to some isolated woods in the dead of night and goes to sleep, not safely enough inside her locked car but outside, on top of the bloody bonnet, where anything at all can get at her, the feckin' eejit. Seriously, if horror movie heroines are going to be that stupid, they don't deserve to make it all the way to the end of the film. Jeez Louise...!
Jay's pals Yara, Paul and Greg and her sister Kelly are extremely obliging when it comes to helping their beautiful friend/sister in her hour of need. The two guys are just dying to get the ride off her and they each offer to have sex with her on the pretext of taking the curse away from Jay and onto themselves. Such a noble sacrifice they're prepared to make on behalf of a damsel in distress! Yeah, right. And cats can fly. It might just be bad news for any guy to whom Jay says yes, though...
After a terrifying, heart-stopping beginning and middle, after all the creepy ghost-people or whatever they are that have been following Jay around non-stop, the swimming-pool scene near the end left me baffled, annoyed and feeling let-down. Don't ask me what those dumb-ass teens were trying to do because I haven't got a clue.
I don't want that lame ending to spoil my pleasure in the film, though. Up to that point, I was almost wetting myself with fear, haha. It is a blood-freezing concept, after all, the notion of someone or something hideous and horrible following you and not giving up, no matter where you hide. The director was definitely onto a winner with this idea.
Some folks think that the film's whole concept is a metaphor for HIV/AIDS, and how sleeping with someone before you really know them, like Jay did, just leads to sexually transmitted diseases.
It could be that, certainly.
I remember the wise words of Trisha Goddard, who was the queen of the morning chat-show on UTV until Jeremy Kyle came along and started telling everyone watching how to live their lives right. On the subject of unsafe sex, and I think I agree, Trisha used to say:
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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