Reply to Topic
Not a perfect film, but still a refreshing horror flick that stands out from the typical modern horror film.
It Follows is the story of Jay Height, a pretty typical teenage girl. One night she goes on a date with a guy, and eventually has sex with him. The guy then knocks her out and ties her to a wheel chair and takes her to an abandoned building. When Jay awakes, she is of course terrified. The man goes on to explain that something is going to follow her and that he passed it on to her. If it kills her, it will kill him too and go down the line killing the others. The only way to get rid of it is to pass it on to someone else. This is the main dilemma of It Follows and talking any more about the story may ruin it, so I’ll leave it at that.
This is a very interesting concept for a horror film, and it works well. The story is interesting and keeps the audience guessing as to what will happen next. It Follows is a very slowly paced film, and that is partly what makes it great. It takes it’s time establishing the setting, the characters, and the mood. So many horror films today rush past good storytelling just to get to the “scares”. But It Follows takes time to develop the mythos and mystery of “It” to keep the audience intrigued. The characters in It Follows are probably better than the characters of most horror films today, but don’t expect brilliantly rich and complex characters. Another thing I liked about this film is that teenagers are portrayed very well. They’re not a bunch of overexaggerated buffoons who party and drink constantly like so many other movies. In fact, these characters are fairly quiet and calm, and one character in particular is constantly reading a book, which is not normal for a horror film. There’s never any typical horror movie stupidity, everything that the characters do seems rational and realistic. For once, I think they did a very good job of keeping the teenage characters
realistic.
Let’s talk about mood and atmosphere a bit. When I went to see this, I was expecting a lot of jump scares. But this isn’t that type of film. Yes, there are a few jump scares, but it’s not what the film relies upon to be scary. A lot of what makes this film scary is the tension and suspense that it builds. Where is it? When will it come for me? Am I safe? What is it? These are the questions that the characters and the audience have during the film. The sense of unknowing and the feeling of constant dread keeps the film moving. I’ll discuss how mood and atmosphere are conveyed visually and through music later in this review. But for now let’s move on to acting.
Maika Monroe plays Jay and she does a good job. She delivers her lines well, but what really stands out about her performance is her facial expressions. She shows fear very well and seems genuinely scared when she needs to be. You can also see her pondering the situation at hand many times during the film, and shows an internal conflict simply within her facial expressions. You can see that she’s hard pressed to make a decision many times in the film and that she’s fighting with herself on what to do. There is one scene where she is particularly compelling, and that is the hospital scene. She has a look of pure terror and hopelessness during this scene and it is astounding.
Keir Gilchrist plays Paul, a childhood friend of Jay. This is the same young actor from It’s Kind of a Funny Story and it’s nice to see him in another film. He does a good job here with what his character is given. He’s a very quiet character, and you can see that Paul is trying to hide some of his emotions in many scenes. Gilchrist does a great job of playing someone who has an inner pain that they just don’t want to show, but still comes out at times whether they want it to or not. I hope to see this young actor in more films soon.
Let’s talk about camerawork. The camerawork in It Follows is probably the best I’ve seen in 2015 so far. This is a very beautiful and colorful film, and it is really quite a thing to see on the big screen. Houses and streets are lit perfectly to create the right mood. Characters are sometimes put in the middle of the frame, causing the audience member to look in the corners and sides of the frame for anything that could be watching. Sometimes the camera itself makes the audience member uncomfortable, making it seem at times as if something is watching the characters. There is usually a lot of empty space in the frame, creating a feeling of loneliness and hopelessness. There are also some very impressive camera movements in the film. There are at least two occasions that the camera sits in one spot and rotates showing you the environment bit by bit and showing you something more with every turn. This is a very impressive film visually and I am very pleased with the way they used the visuals to instill fear in the audience member. For once we have a filmmaker who would rather use clever camerawork to scare than blood and gore. I hope to see more horror films that use these clever techniques in the future, because it works.
Let’s talk about music and sound. The score is very reminiscent of an 80’s horror film. The techno-synth score by Disasterpeace is cool and memorable, and also fits the film very well. It is used to create mood and atmosphere and it completely works.
As much as I liked this movie, I still had a few problems with it. First of all, I think they show “It” too early in the film. I think leaving some of the mystery as to what “it” is would have been better and would have created more tension, but it’s not a huge problem. Second, the film doesn’t really know where to end. The ending seems to drag on, and it seemed as though they didn’t know where to stop. There’s a big climax and then it just kind of keeps going. The ending isn’t bad parse, but I think it could’ve been fixed and tightened up a bit. Other than these two problems, I didn’t really have any issues with the film.
In conclusion, It Follows is a good horror film with an interesting and unique story. It’s a refreshing thing to see a horror film that relies on suspense and tension rather than jumpscares and gore. Could this be the beginning of bringing the horror genre back to the glory days? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s a start. If you are looking for a good horror film and are tired of the crappy horror movies that are being pedaled out to the masses, then go
see It Follows.
__________________
Through the darkness of future past
The magician longs to see
One chants out between two worlds:
Fire walk with me.
Through the darkness of future past
The magician longs to see
One chants out between two worlds:
Fire walk with me.
