It Follows

(49th KVIFF) I’m very happy after the screening at KVIFF. Seeing a good horror movie on a big screen, in a theatre full of people who, considering the circumnstances (the late hour and the booze), behaved well and weren’t a nuisance is not something you see very often. Objectively, I could complain about it being somewhat repetitive, most of the film consists of either how they try to catch the scary spirit or of how they go from one place to another, but these complaints are very well compensated by a premise that is original and entertaining for the genre, the likeable characters (finally, teenage protagonists in a horror movie that aren’t dull chess pieces, but nice young people, and you don’t want anything bad happening to them) and how effective it is overall – the opening sequence already gave me chills, and that feeling repeated itself during the entire 100 minute run. But what’s most valuable is that most of those scenes take place during the day. The climax at the swimming pool and the scene on the beach are some of the moments I will remember at the end of this film year. I was expecting something dirtier given the theme, and more sexually explicit, but It Follows is very lame in this aspect. As the producer said, in some sense it is actually a “pretty” film – the sun shines, the music is nice and the characters love each other. Only that they are followed by a horrifying spirit. (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)

I wasn't that impressed with It Follows, but I still think it's at least an average horror film. I think it would have been better if it had been shortened a bit because not much happens in the hundred minutes that it couldn't have been cut by twenty minutes. Moreover, I think that in such a case the atmosphere could be even more oppressive. (22/07/2016)

Brilliant minimalism. How sumptuous a genre horror film can look when it sets two simple rules that it sticks to dutifully from start to finish! David Robert Mitchell has won my great fondness, mainly because he has managed to make one hell of a genre entry for two million using a specific retro-analog atmosphere and a homogenous script. And that the soundtrack is very reminiscent of Carpenter's classics or Argento's giallo pieces is probably no coincidence. (06/03/2020)

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)