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As promised, I'm going to review the 2014 hit, It Follows. Within it, a young woman named Jay (Maika Monroe) becomes the victim of a relentless, transforming entity after she has sex with her boyfriend (Jay Hugh). Initiating a series of destructive and terrifying events that jeopardise Jay's life.
Positives
The film was made using a minimal budget, as, to be honest, the majority of horror films are (its estimated to be around $2 million). Yet it rarely ever becomes apparent. Most notably, the acting did not seem to suffer whatsoever, and this film discovered an array of talents.
I finally found out the name of the infamous 'Girl in the yellow dress' who is portrayed by newcomer Bailey Spry. Her character, actually named Annie, only appears in the film for just over 3 minutes, yet her scene is strikingly impacting and perfectly sets the tone for the remainder of the film. Within this space, she manages to combine curiosity, dread, fear, depression and a sense of normalcy in quite a subtle way that she comes across as one of the most authentic teenagers and opening victims in a very long time.
However, she's massively outshone by Ms. Maika Monroe, who portrays the leading lady, Jay, who is strides beyond everyone else in regards to acting here. Just like with Ms. Spry, she manages to create a teenager/young woman who actually seems like an accurate representation of her age group, for she isn't just some perpetually moody and aggressive hermit, but instead she's a bit insecure, a bit vulnerable, yet she's also charming, quite witty and deeply considerate of others. In other words, her character stretches past the usual stereotypes in portraying teenagers, and instead she depicts a normal human being. Additionally, she manages to strictly adhere to her character's traits even when she's being tormented, she still remains quite reserved, quite vulnerable and empathetic to the needs of others throughout. As a result, she's extremely convincing and portrays someone who, if she doesn't become remembered as one of the greater scream queens, most certainly should be.
The other cast members are pretty good too, I don't remember any of them being amateurish (even though quite a few made their acting debut with this) yet none of them particularly stood out either, but that was always going to be difficult considering they had to share a lot of time on screen with Ms. Monroe.
The writing is certainly terrific too
not only does David Robert Mitchell, who also serves as the director, manage to create authentic and believable teenage characters, but he manages to construct one of the most horrifying and truly terrifying villains that horror has seen in a very long while. I really did like his reasoning that he wanted to create something that was the product of one of the most (well, at least meant to be) safest and intimate things within life that danger is never meant to come into. This is also one of those cases where not knowing anything about the creature hugely works in the film's favour (like with 'The Thing' although I still maintain that that film left way too many unanswered questions 
) for all we end up knowing is how destructive it has the potential to be, and that it's always lurking somewhere nearby, and the still and listless expressions and mannerisms the creature itself employs was also another stroke of simplicity, but genius on his part. He also plays with several other conventions and tropes of the genre, and shifts them to match his own narrative, for example, instead of having absolutely no one who believes the protagonist, they begin as sceptical, before fully believing in what Jay is enduring and assisting her in overcoming it, I liked that a lot more than I probably should have done, but it is something that is so rational, yet is almost never used by other film makers for whatever reason.
The direction is just as on par with the writing as well, he manages to generate consistently good performances from a hugely inexperienced cast, yet he also manages to create and sustain a sense of fear and anticipation for the duration of the film, mostly from only slightly odd things, for example, when Jay notices 'It' taking the form of a naked man on her roof, it sounds quite campy/comical, but I was genuinely terrified when I saw it, and a lot of circumstances similar to this create similar responses (did anyone else almost have heart failure during the giant man scene)
. Mise-en-scene is also used to good effect here too, almost always in the form of foretelling, characters tend to wear red before 'It' makes an appearance, or it's at least a prominent colour in the prior scenes. I read something about the ball being significant too, but I can't really remember that one as much, but it does demonstrate how carefully crafted and thought out this entire film was. It's worthy of being a classic alone for being so terrifying yet having a body count of... 2
Finally, the score I really believe that this is the best horror score since the likes of Halloween and Suspiria although I wouldn't say it was as good as either of them... only just 
. However, it heavily contributed to creating an atmospheric and creepy ambiance, and it had a retro/vintage feel to it that was perfect within the context of the film that's filled with anachronisms due to setting being extremely obscure. I'll leave my favourites here though, because there's no way I can convey how brilliant they are! I was also genuinely quite shocked that this didn't receive a best score nom at the Golden Globes, it's about time they nominated something a bit out of the ordinary.
Negatives
I can't think of much really, the effects looked a little bit outdated at times i.e. the broken leg at the start, but with such a minimal budget, that's easily forgiven.
That's little else to say in this regard, although I wouldn't necessarily say this is an absolute masterpiece of the genre and of cinema, and nor would I say it's my favourite horror film either (although it's definitely up there) although this is just a subjective view really.
Conclusion
Best horror film of the decade? It probably takes one of the top spots so far, it could even be one of the best horrors of the millennium. Yet either way, this is very well directed, very well written, professionally performed alongside a brilliant score, and is certainly worth a watch whether you enjoy horror or not, because it looks as though this will become a horror classic in years to come!
As promised, I'm going to review the 2014 hit, It Follows. Within it, a young woman named Jay (Maika Monroe) becomes the victim of a relentless, transforming entity after she has sex with her boyfriend (Jay Hugh). Initiating a series of destructive and terrifying events that jeopardise Jay's life.
Positives
The film was made using a minimal budget, as, to be honest, the majority of horror films are (its estimated to be around $2 million). Yet it rarely ever becomes apparent. Most notably, the acting did not seem to suffer whatsoever, and this film discovered an array of talents.
I finally found out the name of the infamous 'Girl in the yellow dress' who is portrayed by newcomer Bailey Spry. Her character, actually named Annie, only appears in the film for just over 3 minutes, yet her scene is strikingly impacting and perfectly sets the tone for the remainder of the film. Within this space, she manages to combine curiosity, dread, fear, depression and a sense of normalcy in quite a subtle way that she comes across as one of the most authentic teenagers and opening victims in a very long time.
However, she's massively outshone by Ms. Maika Monroe, who portrays the leading lady, Jay, who is strides beyond everyone else in regards to acting here. Just like with Ms. Spry, she manages to create a teenager/young woman who actually seems like an accurate representation of her age group, for she isn't just some perpetually moody and aggressive hermit, but instead she's a bit insecure, a bit vulnerable, yet she's also charming, quite witty and deeply considerate of others. In other words, her character stretches past the usual stereotypes in portraying teenagers, and instead she depicts a normal human being. Additionally, she manages to strictly adhere to her character's traits even when she's being tormented, she still remains quite reserved, quite vulnerable and empathetic to the needs of others throughout. As a result, she's extremely convincing and portrays someone who, if she doesn't become remembered as one of the greater scream queens, most certainly should be.
The other cast members are pretty good too, I don't remember any of them being amateurish (even though quite a few made their acting debut with this) yet none of them particularly stood out either, but that was always going to be difficult considering they had to share a lot of time on screen with Ms. Monroe.
The writing is certainly terrific too
not only does David Robert Mitchell, who also serves as the director, manage to create authentic and believable teenage characters, but he manages to construct one of the most horrifying and truly terrifying villains that horror has seen in a very long while. I really did like his reasoning that he wanted to create something that was the product of one of the most (well, at least meant to be) safest and intimate things within life that danger is never meant to come into. This is also one of those cases where not knowing anything about the creature hugely works in the film's favour (like with 'The Thing' although I still maintain that that film left way too many unanswered questions ) for all we end up knowing is how destructive it has the potential to be, and that it's always lurking somewhere nearby, and the still and listless expressions and mannerisms the creature itself employs was also another stroke of simplicity, but genius on his part. He also plays with several other conventions and tropes of the genre, and shifts them to match his own narrative, for example, instead of having absolutely no one who believes the protagonist, they begin as sceptical, before fully believing in what Jay is enduring and assisting her in overcoming it, I liked that a lot more than I probably should have done, but it is something that is so rational, yet is almost never used by other film makers for whatever reason. The direction is just as on par with the writing as well, he manages to generate consistently good performances from a hugely inexperienced cast, yet he also manages to create and sustain a sense of fear and anticipation for the duration of the film, mostly from only slightly odd things, for example, when Jay notices 'It' taking the form of a naked man on her roof, it sounds quite campy/comical, but I was genuinely terrified when I saw it, and a lot of circumstances similar to this create similar responses (did anyone else almost have heart failure during the giant man scene)
. Mise-en-scene is also used to good effect here too, almost always in the form of foretelling, characters tend to wear red before 'It' makes an appearance, or it's at least a prominent colour in the prior scenes. I read something about the ball being significant too, but I can't really remember that one as much, but it does demonstrate how carefully crafted and thought out this entire film was. It's worthy of being a classic alone for being so terrifying yet having a body count of... 2 Finally, the score
I really believe that this is the best horror score since the likes of Halloween and Suspiria although I wouldn't say it was as good as either of them... only just . However, it heavily contributed to creating an atmospheric and creepy ambiance, and it had a retro/vintage feel to it that was perfect within the context of the film that's filled with anachronisms due to setting being extremely obscure. I'll leave my favourites here though, because there's no way I can convey how brilliant they are! I was also genuinely quite shocked that this didn't receive a best score nom at the Golden Globes, it's about time they nominated something a bit out of the ordinary. Negatives
I can't think of much really, the effects looked a little bit outdated at times i.e. the broken leg at the start, but with such a minimal budget, that's easily forgiven.
That's little else to say in this regard, although I wouldn't necessarily say this is an absolute masterpiece of the genre and of cinema, and nor would I say it's my favourite horror film either (although it's definitely up there) although this is just a subjective view really.
Conclusion
Best horror film of the decade? It probably takes one of the top spots so far, it could even be one of the best horrors of the millennium. Yet either way, this is very well directed, very well written, professionally performed alongside a brilliant score, and is certainly worth a watch whether you enjoy horror or not, because it looks as though this will become a horror classic in years to come!