SILVER TONGUED SILVER SCREEN: IT FOLLOWS

It seems like we are still in a drought for horror films. We had a few good ones last year like Annabelle, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, and few others here and there but nothing like 2013 with The Conjuring, Insidious Chapter II, Evil Dead, You're Next, and Mama among others. That was a damn good year for horror. I was spoiled I think by how awesome 2013's horror output was. So spoiled that when a horror film comes out nowadays with any sorta positive hype surrounding it I get really excited!

I first saw a trailer for IT FOLLOWS way back in February and I have been looking forward to it ever since. It looked original or at least an original take on a tried and true formula. The trailer was well done with an ominous soundtrack, frightening imagery with haunting simplicity. Reviews were starting to roll in and people were saying good things. It started out with a limited theatrical release on Friday the 13th February 2015 and started getting a wider and wider distribution until finally reaching my little town. I finally had my opportunity... I apologize because this review was a long time coming.

Jay is a high school student looking for the right guy. She finds a guy who she thinks just might be the love of her life. She gives her virginity to him in the back of his car and everything changes forever. She's lying along the back seat, her world still spinning from the experience. He's fishing around in the trunk of the car for something while she waits. Suddenly a rag drenched in chloroform is shoved in her face. After a brief struggle everything goes black.

She wakes up in her underwear tied to a wheelchair in the middle of a dilapidated building. Her boyfriend is standing behind her. A figure emerges from the shadows across the room. It moves slowly. Its eyes never blink. Its expression is vacant. And it keeps coming. Jay doesn't know the figure approaching, but it terrifies her. Her boyfriend begins telling her a strange story as he wheels her further away from the ghoulish being advancing upon them.

It can look like anyone. No one can see it except for you. It won't stop coming until it has you. It was after him before. Now he has passed it on to her. It won't stop until it reaches her. If it gets her it will kill her. Then it will come for him. If it gets him it will come after the one who gave it to him and so on down the line. No one knows what it is or where it came from or where it started. All they know is what will happen when it gets you and how to pass it on to someone new. Sleep with someone and it shifts focus onto them. That's your only chance... give it to someone else.

Jay tries to fight it. She enlists the help of her friends. Not all of them make it out alive. The others can't see it but that doesn't stop it from killing them. Single minded. Unkillable. Unstoppable. Everything they try ends in failure. Jay has to decide whether to keep running or damn someone else to this unrelenting torment. And if it gets her everyone before her will die. No matter what choice she makes death will be on her hands.

This movie has a freaky premise, unique yet familiar, like a rethinking of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. Cinematography is excellent, reminiscent of early John Carpenter (my favorite! Dean Cundy is the best DP there is!). The soundtrack is weird too. I talked with some fellow horror fans and they said the music kinda ruined it for them. For me it worked. It was so bizarre and it translated through to me giving me an unhinged feeling. The distance shots of the thing approaching were unnerving and very creepy. The acting was a little sub par but that's no shocker for a horror film. I loved a many number of things in this film.

...So why did it fall flat?

All build up but no punch. The movie is masterful at setting the mood and ratcheting up the tension. And when that tension comes to a head the results aren't as exciting as the journey. The death scenes should have been spectacular. The sights of the bodies should have been horrifying. The climax should have been grotesque and bloody marvelous. Shoulda... Coulda... Woulda... but no.

That's my only complaint. I can sit through slow moments if the setup is done well and this film was set up very well. You can forgive a lot if the payoff is gory and fantastic. What's unforgivable is if you spend all that time building something and instead of bloody disturbing horrific sky-skull-scraper you get a shitty work shed. And not the cool kinda work shed with a chainsaw arm, sawed off double barrel, and a machete, but some dusty moldy practically empty- hasn't been used in 6 years- work shed.

Okay, that's way harsh, but I doubt I'll watch this movie again despite all the good things in it. I really wanted to like this movie. I was all for a twisted new take on my favorite horror sub-genre. It had a ton of potential. The only parts I'd change would be the climactic moments. Otherwise this movie is a well done, dare I say artistic, horror film. I want to recommend it but just know you do a lot of work for a little payoff.

One last thing before we go that kind of left a sour taste in my mouth... Allegories in horror films, especially slasher films, are usually if you sin (like premarital sex, imbibing, injecting, and all other manner of drug use) some big bad man is going to come punish you. Whether intentional or not, subtle or loud, these allegories are present. Here in this film it feels thrust right in your face. Don't have sex! The real badguy here is V.D. Now I'm not saying little kids should be having sex and normally this wouldn't bother me because these kinds of allegories come with the territory. But with the absent graphic violence and climactic horrific moments it comes across as if this message "Beware Sexual Intercourse" was the director's real agenda. Does he expect them to play this movie in schools? C'mon.

Overall Ranking: 5 out of 10

Nude-O-Meter: 3 out of 10