It Follows

Given the key roles both sexuality and adolescence have played throughout contemporary horror movie history, it's interesting to see them so consciously brought to the forefront like this. While I'm not entirely convinced the analogy is wholly satisfying towards film's end, Mitchell's decision to exaggerate the nervousness and giddy riskiness of young sex is a wise and imaginative one, intriguingly but not excessively probing the gender roles, gaze and generally erotic undertones of the genre. In terms of portraying teenagers, the film benefits from the same credible but dreamlike storytelling as The Myth of the American Sleepover: the interactions feel both genuine and abstract at the same time, which creates a pleasingly peculiar mood throughout. Aiding that odd vibe is a sense of dislocation - the film at times seems set in the near future, at others in the 70s, and during the cinema trip or anytime characters are watching TV some decade even earlier.

It Follows is, above all, a fantastically shot horror film. The widescreen frame is used with great skill. It requires a degree of active engagement from the audience, who are asked to constantly probe the background for the slow-moving menace (or anything that could potentially be that monster - something Mitchell plays with right up until the final shot). Long-takes and pans are both elegantly employed to create a very potent tension and unease - the prologue and the visit to the high school notably make inspired use out of space and time, playing with our knowledge of what is just outside the frame as well as what is currently in it. Shifts of perspective are also used sparingly to create a very dynamic sense during some of the scarier moments - switching between an invisible and visible follower works very well.

That said, the film also stumbles a bit during those same setpieces - the climax at the pool and the beachside escape both suffer from genre excess and awkward execution in a film where a more economic approach packs more of a punch, especially when special effects come into the mix. And while some of Disasterpiece's compositions are quite striking, I feel those faux-retro soundtracks have sprung up in a few soundtracks too many over the last few years, dulling their impact in the process.

A few minor concerns in a film that is otherwise a very striking effort at shaking the genre up. While the film don't always depart from the norms - does every horror film of this ilk require a lengthy investigation into the curse's origin? - vivid and stylish direction ensures It Follows has a voice of its own despite the formula. And boy there's definitely still something innately creepy about a monster that just walks slowly, but with such ****ing determination.