It Follows - Film Review

  TheBloodyCritique’s ‘It Follows’ Film Review

It Follows is a low budget horror/thriller film directed by David Robert Mitchell and starring Maika Monroe as Jaime ‘’Jay’’ Height. After sleeping with her new boyfriend Hugh, played by Jake Weary, Jay inherits a curse passed on through sexual intercourse, the curse leads to death and comes in the form of a supernatural entity which can look like anyone, from a stranger to a close friend or family member. The entity is invisible to everyone but the victim and will slowly but relentlessly pursue them until it gets them or until they pass it on to someone else, at which point it will leave them alone, but if it gets the new bearer it will come after the previous bearer again, it’s some sort of sexually transmitted demon! I’m not the biggest fan of the horror genre in general but I loved this fucking movie! 

I loved pretty much everything about this film, it’s well written, well directed and the performances were great! I absolutely love the premise and it’s genuinely unsettling. I’m immune to horror movies at this point and the current style of jump scares, over the top gore and just the general continuous slew of sewage from the horror genre is off putting but every once in a while you get a gem like It Follows! There’s not a single jump scare throughout, it’s the idea that’s chilling, the thought of being pursued by this entity is a disturbing thought and it was extremely, and consistently, creepy, I was gripped! I haven’t watched a horror movie I’ve genuinely enjoyed for years, this is a very well made film, it flows well and it never felt forced, the idea and the laws of the idea all worked perfectly!  

It Follows has a fairly unknown cast but everyone delivers great performances and I liked all of the characters, they’re all written really well, the dialogue’s believable, as were the character relationships, I understood these characters and I sympathised with them. Maika Monroe was great in the lead role as Jay, I really liked Keir Gilchrist as Paul as well, he could have possibly been the standout performance, everyone was great though, they all sufficiently fulfilled their roles within the story, nothing stood out as bad to me, it was successful in all areas! It’s beautifully shot and it looks fucking great, I thought the retro score worked well and I really enjoyed the story, it’s poignant writing, it’s got a great build and it doesn’t dilly dally, it brings you right in, lets you know how it works and off it goes, I appreciated that!   

All in all I would 100% recommend this to pretty much everyone, it’s a modern day horror movie that was genuinely unsettling and creepy, I loved it, I was on board from the start and entertained all the way through, it’s an interesting premise and I loved the idea, there’s no jump scares, no over the top gore, no paranormal activity found footage bullshit whatever the fuck, it’s a well written, well rounded film and I’m gonna say it’s a modern masterpiece of the horror genre! If you haven’t seen it yet it’s definitely worth watch, it deserves the critical acclaim it’s received, I thoroughly enjoyed it, clearly! I go into every horror movie, if I even bother, expecting fucking dirt, getting this was a very pleasant surprise indeed! I can’t praise it enough, I’m gonna give It Follows 8.5/10.   

What’s your favourite horror film?