It Follows (horror movie)

Cafe Society
1

After reading a TON of amazing press for this movie I was excited to find it playing at a theater nearby and dragged the BF to a 9:30 showing.

“Indie Horror Phenomenon!” “One of the Scariest Horror Films in Years!” “Modern American Horror Masterpiece!”

Bosh. It was bad. Baaaaad. Bad dialogue (when you could understand what the marble mouthed actors were mumbling), bad plot (STD ghost!), bad soundtrack. Some nice looking shots, taken as stills, and the lighting dude has skills, but overall this stunk.

I’m really bummed. I love horror movies and want to support local filmmakers but I can’t get on board with this one. Has anyone here seen it? Did you love it as much as the critics do? What am I missing?!

2

Haven’t seen it, but the trailer make it looks pretty awful so I’m not surprised you don’t like it. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a good movie that has a supernatural STD as the premise.

3

Saw it last night too. I didn’t think it was terrible, but definitely over-hyped…a lot.

The characters were complete idiots at points, and I didn’t really find it scary at all. Tense, for sure–but the scares never really happened (which is quite contrary to the ads/reviews I’ve seen)

4

I hadn’t (still haven’t) read any reviews or articles and I went having not seen a trailer or any clips. I didn’t go in completely cold because I was spoiled on the basic premise on Twitter. It sounded silly but the movie as a whole had so much surrounding buzz I wanted to see it. I’m a casual director collector and I like seeing early buzzed movies which peg my “Promising Director” meter.

I thought it was well-acted and very well-directed. I liked most of the characters and to me it was genuinely tense and creepy. I jumped in my seat more than once (I’m a pretty easy jumper though). The set decoration was wonderful, very subtle blending of modern day, retro and slight futuristic gadgets. The music was a big part of me enjoying the movie while I was watching it. I think I loved the music more than anything.

I just don’t think the movie was well-written. The premise was the least of it. That was original (to me anyway) at least. My problem had to do with the way too many “Stupid Character” moments, where you’re screaming at them inside your head to not do something stupid, silently yelling Are you crazy? or Are you fucking kidding me? or Really? or Have you never ever seen a horror movie in your LIFE? Plus, too many scenes were set up with no follow-through. Maybe it was a low budget thing and they ran out of money at crucial times. Last, the efforts to “kill” the ghosts using human-killing methods were too silly. I liked the characters but they weren’t the brightest bulbs.

All in all, it was worth a matinee price for me to be able to say in the future “It [future movie] was directed by who? Oh that guy, the guy who directed It Follows, yeah, he’s a good director, I want to see it. Wonder if he’s using the same music guy? Um, did he write it too?”

5

What was that device the friend had that looked like a compact, but was like a tablet/e-reader?

6

That was one of the near-futuristic references. A phone/computer that looks like an old-timely compact that my mom used to have. I loved it!

7

It’s outlandish, sure, but no more so that a ghost in the VCR or an unkillable dream monster and I liked both Ringu and the Nightmare series. I knew that supernatural STD was the idea going in, was hoping the story would make something out of that silly idea.

I’m glad you enjoyed it more than I did! Did I miss where the characters reasoned out this ghost killing tactic? I don’t understand what lead them to think that would work? There was nothing in the “rules” as explained by the guy who infected Jay or in the behavior of the “ghost” that would make that seem like a plausible solution.

The compact/kindle was kind of neat but I was annoyed that it was another prop to show that the character was “quirky girl”.

8

I don’t want to sound like an idiot, but STD Ghost?

That has another meaning besides sexually transmitted disease?

9

So… this isn’t a sequel to Stephen King’s It?.
I mean, that’d make sense. The title would work, too, in the style of not saying “[title] II”. You’d have “It” and “It Follows”
.
.

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It’s not a sequel to It! The Terror from Beyond Space, either?

10

Nope, there’s no other meaning. It’s a sexually transmitted ghost. For reals.

11

I thought it was just bad, not baaaaad. Still, it was bad enough for me to be sorely disappointed: there are so few good horror movies and all the press and hype promised that this would be one of them. Nope.

Geez, where to begin… The acting was mostly terrible. The score may have had merit in its own right, but it didn’t work well within the movie. The plot wasn’t fully thought through. Are we using open spoilers in this thread, OP? In case not…

The characters were maddeningly stupid, which made long stretches of the middle of the movie boring. After the first time or two the main girl (whatever her name was) saw the ghost STD, why didn’t she just GO SLEEP WITH SOMEONE. Seriously - I wanted to yell it at the screen. If they wanted to delay her figuring that out they could have shown her as having a real moral conflict with sleeping around - either because of sexual morality or, of course, for what it would mean for the person she slept with. Instead she takes forever and when she DOES finally sleep with someone it’s with a guy she actually likes instead of with someone she doesn’t know or care about and wouldn’t feel as guilty about passing along the disease to.

I also got tired of her doing stupid things like running away from her friends to sit in secluded places where no one is around to help her. She even drives to the woods and sleeps on the hood of her car, for god’s sake.

As someone else mentioned, the characters’ plan to kill the ghost STD is pretty stupid. All of a sudden it’s the invisible man, and if they shoot it or electrocute it it dies? (At least temporarily.)

Anyways, the GOOD part of the movie was the cinematography and many of the directorial choices. I would watch something by this director again, but just with (hopefully) a better script and better actors.

12

This isn’t old enough to be a zombie, is it?

I figured Dopers wouldn’t be enamored with this movie, but only one pseudo-like?

This is the best horror movie I’ve seen in years. Perfect use of tension, buildup, release. Definitely stayed with me. I’m looking around crowds, paranoid. Love the atmosphere of dread and helplessness. Pretty much nothing creepier to me than looking out the window into your back yard and seeing someone just standing there looking back at you. Bonus points for lack of cheap jump scares or excessive gore.

The entity, or It, is the quintessential primal nightmare monster. A relentless predator. Human, but not. It’s always just on your heels. Doesn’t matter if it’s day or night. It never stops. You can’t talk to it. You can’t hide. You can’t kill it. You can only flee. It doesn’t play cute tricks like rearranging your furniture or waiting in the basement. It will find you.

The sound track is half the reason it’s so good. Heart pounding to something that would fit right into Halloween. Love the distortion effects too. The last horror OST I liked this much was probably The Ring’s.

One problem though. About 2/3 of the way, at the beach scene, it takes a really bad stumble. The fact It caught her and didn’t kill her instantly made it much less frightening. The guy being punched by the invisible force looked silly, as did It standing on top of the house. The entire third act and the pool scene in particular just felt off. Seems to be the general consensus.

The ending was symbolic of it being death or the loss of innocence and how you should lean on others, great, but a little anti-climactic all the same. I’m not sure what they should’ve done differently while preserving the symbolism, though.

The fact It has a physical presence introduces lots of weird fridge logic. Can you trap it? I was thinking you could go to the authorities or the press and easily demonstrate its existence. Wait for it to come, throw something at it, everyone sees the object bounce off. Or the blanket trick. Or spread flour on the ground and everyone sees the foot prints. Nitpicking, though.

I think my favorite scene might be the old woman at the college, owing to its minimalism. Middle of the day, safe environment, no crazy effects, just some good music and a mute old woman shambling towards her that no one else can see. And that’s enough to be creepy as hell.

13

Orgasm phantasm.

14

The movie walked a very thin line between genius and retarded. In the hands of lesser film makers it would have been a terrible film, but it managed to be the second best horror film of the year for me (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is my favorite so far).

15

I’ve got Girl Walks in my queue and I’m hoping it’s as good as the reviews suggest!

16

STG?

17

Yeah, the whole thing is essentially an homage to John Carpenter horror flicks of the 70s & 80s and, for the most part, it works.