The Pointer UW-Stevens Point Student Newspaper
I didn’t think any movie this year would be scarier than “50 Shades of Grey,” but “It Follows” pulls it off in the best way possible.
“It Follows” is an old-fashioned creeper. So is my Uncle Larry, but he isn’t the one I recommend you see in a dark theater. “It Follows” is the kind of movie our parents went to watch in drive-ins “back in the day.” Some of you were possibly conceived while your parents were too busy to pay attention to a movie like this.
Speaking of awkward, debaucherous sex, that is what the plot is all about. A terrifying curse is passed from person to person through intercourse, and when you have it, a relentless, shape-shifting demon constantly follows you wherever you go.
That concept doesn’t sound like much, but when you see it in action, the effect is surprisingly disturbing. “It Follows” finds terror in the simplistic. It mostly relies on weird, uncomfortable music, and a frequent contrast between the claustrophobia of small rooms and the vulnerability of wide-open spaces.
In a Hollywood landscape saturated with haunted houses, haunted dolls and soon to be haunted Instagram profiles, “It Follows” looks to the style of the old to provide us with something new as it is shot entirely in sepia.
There are no flashy tricks to these scares, just a straightforward concept of inescapable dread. The monster of “It Follows” trails your every step no matter where you hide, and no matter how far you travel. It is like that weird guy at work who has a crush on you times a million.
The only issues with the movie involve stretches of slowness and repetition, along with an ending that kind of whimpers its way into the credits. However, the scares you’ll feel along the way, and possibly afterward, more than make up for any flaws.
“It Follows” will likely end as the leader of this year’s horror movies, and scores 8 foggy car windows out of 10.
Brady Simenson
Contributor
bsime172@uwsp.edu
