There is comfort in the repetitiveness of a genre, but now horror movies bore me. It started with Scream (back as a TV show). Those ironic movies, reworking teenage horror, flicks the Elm Streets and Evil Deads, although sugary enough to be fun, don't prey enough on my dark and vulnerable side to hold my attention.
But I was curious to watch It follows. One review mentioned nostalgic details of teenage life...
On the scare scale, It follows is a three out of five. It will not shred your nerves; scenes will not haunt you, it will certainly not follow you.
It follows is something else. It is ridiculously inventive.
Jay Height (Maika Monroe) is flowing in her backyard pool, while two neighbor boys are checking her out. Meanwhile, at a nearby beach, a girl is killed, her body left mangled. Jay looks safe; it seems she wants to float there forever, let her skin all prune up. She should have, but she has a date with Hugh. You know the drill, in horror nothing is scary as growing up, and sex is the scariest part, an inevitable act, still to be avoided at all costs.
So Jay dries herself off and later that night Jay has sex in Hugh's car, in beautiful lit and shot scene, equally menacing and lovely.
In the afterglow, Jay lies dreamily on the backseat, while Hugh rummages in the trunk for a rag drenched in chloroform.
Jay wakes up in her bra and panties, tied to a chair, in an abandoned warehouse.
It follows doesn't go there. It is not a movie that offers girls bodies as props for gore, simple flesh to vent frustration.
Her date informs Jay that he cursed her. The entity that chased him imagine creepy walkers without the decomp following you day and night, transmitted by sex, now have their sights on Jay. Till she passes it on to somebody else. Or it kills her.
It follows could have gone the moral way. Would you infect somebody to save your skin? Who would it be? But It follows is a tale about friendship.
And a coming of age story. From that initial scene, her parents swimming pool, where Jay wants to stick around in that slinky, sticky hypnotic lull, that safe cocoon will transform itself into a menacing presence. As scary as adulthood. First, in a vast ocean, the kids flee to the beach, later an indoor swimming pool at night, where Jay will have to fight for her life in a genuinely terrific scene.
Jay's friends and sister believe her immediately and try to save her. Meanwhile, they hang out, joke and laugh and make out. It is crusty, hazy, awkward and gorgeous. It follows in the footsteps (I had to go there) of Sofia Coppola or Megan Abbott's latest books.
You could Tumblr the hell out this gem of a movie.
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| Maika Monroe and Lili Sepe playing sister are both great. |
And if you watch it with your friends, maybe after, don't laugh about who scared the most. Just indulge and know how lucky you are for experiencing that delicate joy of those glorious teenage days in It Follows.
