It Follows

[Matt Mortem]

Scariest part of the film.

YES. Damn near **** my pants.

 

[Octoberist]

Excellent post. I completely agree, but I gave it a 1/10 because I was simply overhyped by the Internet (again). It angered me how mediocre it was. I expected a game changer and I simply didn't get it.

I also don't get the allegory for STD's. I didn't get that impression at all.

My interpretation: These are teenagers who are otherwise supposed to be innocent and pure and virgin (a classic horror trope), but they commit sins, and as a result, their personal demons are following them. They're being followed by the skeletons in their closets. They're being judged by their sins. They're being reminded by what they did. The "ghosts" are like bad memories constantly reminding them, so they think they can wash the bad memory away by doing it again and making it the norm.

The personal demons themselves are distinct/unique to the individual being haunted, and they manifest themselves as deceased relatives, friends, and loved ones who are back to judge them. One example is that the ghost in the swimming pool is seen in a framed photograph towards the end, showing that he was somebody's father.

^ I love that concept (if that's indeed what it was), but I thought it was executed poorly.

Another independent movie like this that kind of follows the same tropes and concept (sort of) is Contracted (2013). That movie does not disappoint.

It's one thing to give a movie a 5/10, but to give a movie a 1/10? I wouldn't even give a nasty movie like Transformers 2 that low of a rating (4/10). 1/10 just kinda throws your argument out of the window because even if you had a rebuttal, I will keep on thinknig "you're the dude who gave It Follows a 1/10'

There are great moments in the film, even if you didn't think it worked. And the score too. I do think that it's your fault for overhyping it for yourself though. I must say, and maybe it's me, I can disconnect a bit from hype when I see a movie that's getting high praise.

 

[Warhammer]

Yeah, a 1/10 is hyperbole for a film like this. Hell, Gigli or Battlefield Earth aren't even 1/10.

 

[Octoberist]

Saw the film, I give it a nice 8.5/10.

Out of the '80s Revival Era', I would say its spiritual cousin The Guest is slightly more entertaining. However, there were truely scary moments, the acting is great, and I loved the score. I liked how it went for the less is more. No complex make-up or monsters. Just..human beings.

Though I had a debate with a friend about certain things about the film:

1. Is the younger sister of Jay suppose to be the 'Ugly' sister?

Even though the actress is as pretty as Maika Monroe, I'd argue with my friend that Paul was just has a history with Jay. And being the older sister, it's almost like forbidden fruit for him.

There is a part of me who thought the younger actress could've been played by a pretty curvier actress. A Mae Whitman type. More obvoius, but it gets the message across.

2. Is the girl with the glasses suppose to be the gross and weird one?

Another girl who is also pretty, but it's hard to say.

 

[Warhammer]

I thought the younger sister was hotter, actually. Paul was f***ing up with that.

 

[Octoberist]

It's kinda weird. I try to justify it with my thnking of 'He just wants the older sister because it's more of a challenge.'

Also, I also like the setting of Detoit. The Fall season creating that unique look that resembles 'Halloween'. the leaves on the streets in the neighborhood, etc.

 

[Warhammer]

Rob Zombie probably watched this film and thought "Damn, this is what my Halloween film should have been like".

 

[TheDreamMaster]

This was pretty good. Not my favorite film but it was unsettling, and pretty good. I liked the idea behind it and although I saw the pay-off (or lack thereof) coming, it made sense. It was worth my money.

 

[VictusMortuus]

This movie felt like a modern day Halloween. It didn't rely on blood and gore or over use jump scares. It built on the atmosphere with an excellent soundtrack and slowly developed characters. A sense of dread permeated nearly every scene that kept me on the edge of my seat. I found something incredibly unsettling about the slow, patient way the creature went after the victims, and I LOVE that the movie didn't go out its way to explain exactly what this entity is, and the ending was perfect imo. There was some predictability with the plot, but not as much as a lot of other movies. 8/10

 

[Octoberist]

Would make for a triple feature with 'The Guest' and 'House of the Devil'

 

[Kane52630]

I'm planning on doing that very same thing for October.

 

[Alien Anal]

I feel this movie isnt getting its praise enough here. This is easily one of my favourite films of the year. I cant reccomend it enough. Its much more than just a horror movie.

I came to the realisation that this film is the T2 "sequel" to the Guest in more ways than one.

 

[BatLobster]

I give this film a lot of points for atmosphere. Everything about the presentation, the pseudo-80s production design, score, cinematography, etc. made this movie a worthwhile experience for me. Performances were all very good too. The concept on paper sounds really dumb and lame, so kudos for mostly overcoming that with rock solid filmmaking.

That said, it wasn't quite as terrifying as I hoped it would be and it kind of meandered on a bit towards the end. And as much as I enjoyed a lot of the score, there were other times it annoyed me too where it was just trying to be in-your-face weird and it took me out of the movie. I also thought the whole city/suburb commentary they were going for felt a bit half-baked.

7/10 for me. Good movie and worth a watch, I'd just go in with slightly lowered expectations. I liked The Guest a fair amount more than this. I'd probably give it an 8/10 if I was grading against the majority of other horror movies, but I went with a 7 because the movie was aiming to transcend and I thought it was fair to judge it on that level.

 

[redhawk23]

My problem is that it doesn't even try to "transcend" anything. It really felt like it was just somewhat cynically pushing Carpenter-nostalgia buttons.

 

[BatLobster]

I can't say I disagree with the second part. I guess to me it feels like there's some sort of commentary being attempted, and that's probably a big part of why it has rated so well with critics but not as well with audiences.

 

[mclay18]

5/10

I loved how the director played up the less is more, and there's a beautiful sense of paranoia and a few wonderfully tense scenes. He took cues from Halloween in that respect, and that helps.

But for what it gets right, the internal consistency goes out the window with the pool climax.

Spoiler

Why does the entity now have the ability to throw hefty electronics at the heroine when said items aren't in the setting? Does the entity have the ability to conjure stuff out of midair?

And apart from Maika Monroe, none of the actors stood out. They did an okay job, but no stars in the making.

 

[redhawk23]

5/10

I loved how the director played up the less is more, and there's a beautiful sense of paranoia and a few wonderfully tense scenes. He took cues from Halloween in that respect, and that helps.

But for what it gets right, the internal consistency goes out the window with the pool climax.

Spoiler

Why does the entity now have the ability to throw hefty electronics at the heroine when said items aren't in the setting? Does the entity have the ability to conjure stuff out of midair?

And apart from Maika Monroe, none of the actors stood out. They did an okay job, but no stars in the making.

[BLACKOUT]What are you talking about? The kids had set up all of the items around the edge of the pool. They planned to bait the creature into the pool, have the girl get out and then push the electronics in. [/BLACKOUT]

 

[redhawk23]

I can't say I disagree with the second part. I guess to me it feels like there's some sort of commentary being attempted, and that's probably a big part of why it has rated so well with critics but not as well with audiences.

That is what is so strange to me: How this film has been so praised for clearing such a low bar.

What is funny is that while critics have gone crazy for the film's perceived STD themes, the director himself disagrees with the most popular readings of the film. Any time he has spoken about the film in that regard he says he didn't really have much that he was directly going for.

I think that shows. A lot of the STD metaphors fall apart when you try to map them on what actually happens in the film rather than just the basic premise. What kind of disease do you spread intentionally to survive? The disease reading might have been strengthened if the entity more explicitly took on the form of former victims or others further up the line, exploring the concept of sexual histories. A lot of health classes have that cliche of "If you don't use protection, you're having sex with everyone else that person has before everyone that they have."

 

[Rocketman]

That is what is so strange to me: How this film has been so praised for clearing such a low bar.

What is funny is that while critics have gone crazy for the film's perceived STD themes, the director himself disagrees with the most popular readings of the film. Any time he has spoken about the film in that regard he says he didn't really have much that he was directly going for.

I think that shows. A lot of the STD metaphors fall apart when you try to map them on what actually happens in the film rather than just the basic premise. What kind of disease do you spread intentionally to survive? The disease reading might have been strengthened if the entity more explicitly took on the form of former victims or others further up the line, exploring the concept of sexual histories. A lot of health classes have that cliche of "If you don't use protection, you're having sex with everyone else that person has before everyone that they have."

Yep.

I just didn't like this at all.

 

[mclay18]

[BLACKOUT]What are you talking about? The kids had set up all of the items around the edge of the pool. They planned to bait the creature into the pool, have the girl get out and then push the electronics in. [/BLACKOUT]

Oh. I forgot that part, sorry.

I'm still sticking with the 5/10 rating though.

 

[The Endless]

That is what is so strange to me: How this film has been so praised for clearing such a low bar.

What is funny is that while critics have gone crazy for the film's perceived STD themes, the director himself disagrees with the most popular readings of the film. Any time he has spoken about the film in that regard he says he didn't really have much that he was directly going for.

I think that shows. A lot of the STD metaphors fall apart when you try to map them on what actually happens in the film rather than just the basic premise. What kind of disease do you spread intentionally to survive? The disease reading might have been strengthened if the entity more explicitly took on the form of former victims or others further up the line, exploring the concept of sexual histories. A lot of health classes have that cliche of "If you don't use protection, you're having sex with everyone else that person has before everyone that they have."

If the director didn't intend it, why is it his fault and the films fault if people are over thinking it and misinterpreting it?

If the film didn't intend these things, is it fair to knock it based on your expectations due to other peoples misinterpretations?

Baring in mind i haven't seen this yet, i'm just curious as to the though process behind these criticisms.

 

[Octoberist]

Yep.

I just didn't like this at all.

This is the third on the misc films board when you stated you didn't like something in the past few hours.

 

[Asr]

Just saw this tonight and my sentiments basically echo redhawk23's. It was ok, very effective with the Carpenter-ish 80s-era throwback-style filmmaking. Would rate it 7.5/10 for its vision but 5/10 for execution. It had atmosphere & tension for sure, but severely lacked in plotting and characters.

The music was really distracting for me and was the complete opposite of subtle with blaring, stabby synths that tried to emphasize the scary parts but just fell flat. The stabby synths in particular got annoying after a while.

The amount of sex & nudity in the movie was also surprising and definitely added to the creepiness in certain scenes. Speaking of which, the lead actress had sex scenes but didn't show any (ahem) frontal nudity....I don't get why an actress would do sex scenes but not show anything.

I was shocked after the movie when I saw some kids walking out who couldn't have been older than 12, geez what's wrong with parents these days? This was definitely not for kids by any stretch and had a semi-graphic incest scene that was extremely disgusting/horrifying, along with full frontal male & female nudity (and nothing that was "hot" either, everything was creepy all the way around).

 

[Guts]

The amount of sex & nudity in the movie was also surprising and definitely added to the creepiness in certain scenes. Speaking of which, the lead actress had sex scenes but didn't show any (ahem) frontal nudity....I don't get why an actress would do sex scenes but not show anything.

I was shocked after the movie when I saw some kids walking out who couldn't have been older than 12, geez what's wrong with parents these days? This was definitely not for kids by any stretch and had a semi-graphic incest scene that was extremely disgusting/horrifying, along with full frontal male & female nudity (and nothing that was "hot" either, everything was creepy all the way around).

Not all actresses are okay with being nude on camera.

Name a better movie that will get kids to start practicing abstinence.

 

[The Shape]

Anyone know if this is getting a wider release?