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] (19/06/2018)

The theme of the film is imaginative and original (yet simple). I like how the director decided not to follow the path of bloody butchery or annoying jump scares and instead shot a horror film in the traditional sense, which is scary due to its atmosphere and shots of a slowly approaching character. The film could have been even scarier and better if it had been at least a little intelligent! The characters in the film act like idiots and their attempts to kill the enemy are ridiculous (what did they want to achieve in that pool scene?). I wonder what would happen if they went to another continent? The premise of the film is excellent and extremely scary, but it does not guarantee exceptionally high-quality horror. (08/07/2014)

The Christian fundamentalist right in the USA once again came up with a plan on how to strike a deadly blow to sin, and they realized that they should use more modern methods when addressing the young generation. So they paid David Mitchell and he crafted a script on how one's first sexual experience can unleash the worst demons and destroy those who wanted to have some fun and sin a little bit. It's definitely not clever or impressive to me. There are much better films in this genre, so why waste time with this? Overall impression: 25%. (23/04/2017)

A sympathetic horror hipster that works quite well as a "coming of age" story about uncertainty, but worse as a genre piece. The attack attempts by ghosts in make-up are stupid and bring the film down. Although Mitchell has a good sense for visuals, the design (Detroit again) works best when it comes to working with tension and space, but it's not particularly inventive (the scene on the wheelchair is explicitly amateurish). I value the effort to update and the overlap, but the result is only slightly above average. (25/07/2014)

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. (21/03/2020)