A few beats later, the girl drives a car out of the garage in a hurry, constantly looking in her rearview mirror. She finally ends up on a beach at night, staring off into the distance. Someone or something is following her, but the audience sees nothing. She calls her dad, saying she loves him. Saying goodbye?
A split second later, the scene transitions to morning, where the girl lies dead — leg mangled, standing stiffly in the air above the rest of her lifeless corpse.
So begins David Robert Mitchell’s “It Follows,” a superb horror film that creates an atmosphere fraught with paranoia and looming dread. Like the best serious horror films, “It Follows” relies on subtlety: Tension quietly rumbles beneath the surface, flaring up every so often in a scene of sheer horror, before dying down to recharge.
Mitchell lets most of the individual shots linger, allowing the audience to soak in the anxiety and ominousness even longer. On the whole, he takes his time, letting each scene unfold gradually. He’s not in a hurry to tell his story, which makes the proceedings more frightening.
A majority of horror films go to great lengths to scare the audience. They employ “jump scares” — cheap, empty thrills that wear off immediately. “It Follows” is free of such scares, and even the most shocking moments never go too far over-the-top.
In the opening sequence, for example, the transition between a teenage girl sitting helplessly on the beach and getting mysteriously contorted is so jarring on its own, Mitchell doesn’t need to call any more attention to it. He lets his scary images speak for themselves and uses blood and gore ever so sparingly. We aren’t bombarded with a dozen moments of gore.
As far as plot is concerned, the less said the better, but “It Follows” is essentially an STD horror movie. The 19-year-old protagonist Jay (Maika Monroe from “The Guest”) contracts a deadly disease — a ghost? A virus? Mitchell is wisely scant on details regarding the origin and its exact mechanics: He reveals that it will always follow her, take the shapes of different people — either strangers or people she knows — to get close to her. And no matter what, don’t let it touch you.
From the suburban setting and teenage antics, to the pulsing, eerie, electronic score by the band Disasterpiece, “It Follows” evokes the style and mood of an old-school slasher film. However, the situation feels much scarier than the ones in films like “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween.” The antagonist is slow-moving like Jason and Michael Myers, but only Jay can see it. No matter how far she goes, it always finds her, and its shape-shifting abilities make it difficult to anticipate and prepare for.
Also, unlike most teenage slasher movies, Mitchell’s script never verges into stupidity. While there will always be a place for intentional, self-aware horror movies, there’s something immensely impressive about pulling off serious horror in this day and age.
Jay is a composite of numerous horror-movie character types. She’s extremely attractive — the object of numerous male gazes, like from her friend Paul (Keir Gilchrist) — yet, she also comes off as shy and innocent, intelligent and strong. Jay is a wholly three-dimensional character, and Monroe gives an authentic, understated performance.
The supporting characters like Paul, her sister Kelly (Lili Sepe) and friend Yara (Olivia Luccardi) — while not as fleshed-out as Jay — are at least likable. They’re not one-note characters waiting around to be killed. In fact, there are a number of pleasant, comforting moments between the scary ones in which the characters talk to one another as normal teenagers about normal teenage things. There’s a nice balance of terrifying and pleasant moments.
From a technical standpoint, the movie is flawless. The score is used at just the right times, accentuating the horror on screen without being too overbearing. And, oftentimes, Mitchell leaves the most important moments silent. Mike Gioulakis’ cinematography is smooth and graceful — as opposed to being grainy, like most low-budget horror films — giving the movie an almost-dreamy look.
In addition, a majority of the scenes are filmed in long-shot, emphasizing both the impending doom that plagues every frame, as well as the overwhelming isolation and claustrophobia Jay feels. Overall, “It Follows” might be one of the more aesthetically pleasing, low-budget horror movies to come along in recent years.
In the end, “It Follows” isn’t profound or groundbreaking; it contains a number of hallmarks associated with the horror genre, yet the execution is nearly flawless. It’s clear Mitchell knows the ins and outs of the genre and knows what’s effective and not effective horror.