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The Charge

"Do you feel any different?"

The Case

With so many indie horror movies getting dumped into the video-on-demand wilderness these days, it was great to see writer-director David Robert Mitchell's It Follows in theaters in 2015. Now that it has reached Blu-ray, we can all further explore everything this unique work has to offer.

Jay (Maika Monroe, The Guest) is all about her new boyfriend Hugh (Jake Weary, Zombeavers). After a night of passion, Hugh reveals his less-than-admirable intentions. Jay is now being followed by…something…and it will continue to follow her until either it killer her or she passes it on to someone else. Now, Jay and her friends try to find some way out of this unthinkable situation.

It Follows is a complex piece of filmmaking, rich with symbolism and full of subtle details. The number one question, though, is merely, "Is it scary?" That's an enthusiastic yes. The movie does an excellent job of creating a combined sense of dread and paranoia (dreadanoia?) so that the characters—and the audience—are constantly looking over their shoulders, because the creature could be anywhere. Several times in the film, we're treated to a slow 360-degree pan, allowing us to take in every detail in the environment. The whole time, viewers' eyes scan the entirety of the screen, looking for anything out of order. This generates tension, successfully putting viewers in the characters' shoes. There a few jump scares and some big set pieces with chases and attacks, but the underlying tension is what makes the movie.

Of course, likable and interesting characters are another reason the movie succeeds. The characters are in that space of late teens becoming adults, with one foot still in adolescent mischief and the other having to deal with far more serious concerns. The Blu-ray's commentary argues that the movie's central metaphor is "becoming an adult" and makes a good case for it. Maika Monroe is excellent as the "every girl." One look into her eyes, and you can just tell how much her character is carrying the weight of the world. Along for the ride are Kier Gilchrist (Dark Summer) as a nerdy guy with a crush on Jay and Greg (Daniel Zovatto, Laggies) as the hunky boy who all the girls are nuts for. What's great, though, is the way the movie does not rest on them being mere types, but digs deeper into both characters' psychologies, so they end up more like well-rounded individuals and people you might know, as opposed to a one-description character who can be only one thing.

For as much as I enjoyed It Follows, the story's many ambiguities have frustrated other viewers. Criticisms leveled against the movie generally boil down to either not knowing what the creature is, or the movie apparently not following (heh) its own rules. In several interviews, Mitchell argued against the need to explain everything, saying the movie is meant to capture the experience of being in a nightmare, and a nightmare is something that cannot be reasoned with. Still, the movie asks way more questions than it answers. Why is the creature's behavior so seemingly inconsistent? What does it want, exactly? Who's the girl at the beginning of the movie? What's the deal with the creature being on the roof? And so on. For one thing, remember that the only information we get about the creature comes from a character that, I think we can all agree, has proven not to be trustworthy. From this, if we extrapolate that the rules are intentionally flawed, that just makes the creature scarier and more unpredictable. Not only can the characters not trust their own eyes, but they cannot trust their information, either.

Just as the mythology is ambiguous, so is the metaphor. Many people have tried to sort out just what the film is trying to say with regards to teenagers and sex. Some see the movie commenting on STDs, except that one does not get rid of an STD by passing it on to someone else. Some folks have argued that it is a "fear of sex" metaphor, while others praise the movie for being sex-positive. No, the metaphor is open-ended enough so that it is certain to carry different interpretations for different viewers. Whatever greater meaning you derive from It Follows depends on what you bring to it.

Don't mistake It Follows as weirdness-for-weirdness-sake dream sequence stuff, though. The filmmakers know exactly what they're doing. Consider Jay's friend Yara (Olivia Luccardi, Feral) who acts as a Greek chorus of sorts, commenting on the proceedings by reading from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot—specifically about the inescapability of death. These scenes add some nice flavor to the overall film, and show that the movie has more on its mind than just "Oh no, something's chasing me."

It Follows is beautifully filmed, making the mundane suburbs look off-kilter and even a little magical. These evocative visuals shine on Blu-ray, with rich detail, natural skin tones, and deep blacks. The audio, most notably the retro synth score by video game composer Disasterpiece (Fez), is powerful and immersive as well. The commentary track is a roundtable discussion from various internet critics who've praised the film. There's also an interview with Disasterpiece, the theatrical trailer, a poster art gallery, and an Ultraviolet copy. This is a decent set of extras, but I wonder if more could have been done, especially considering the absence of writer-director David Robert Mitchell.

Love it or hate it, one thing's for sure—after watching It Follows, you won't be able to stop thinking about it. For that reason and many others, it's my pick for best movie of 2015.

The Verdict

Not guil…wait, do you see that?

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