31 Posts Of Halloween: It Follows

 It Follows is a horror film that came out in 2014. This movie for the most part is pretty good, but there are a few flaws in it that are noticeable.

The movie is about a teen gal named Jay (Maika Monroe), that after a sexual encounter with a boyfriend a being starts to follow her, and if it gets to her, it will kill her.

The movie is simple enough, and is very straight forward with it's premise. This is a plot driven film, with little character development. 

The creature itself is not really scary in appearance, but it can change how it looks to try and get closer to you. 

The more I think about this film, the more I start to think that it has some elements of Gothic literature in it. First though, I should note that gothic literature came out of the Romantic period as more of a dark side to the time. Some common elements in gothic literature are: damsels in distress, supernatural beings, old architecture, dark atmosphere, mystery, strong emotion, and situational horror. 

So one by one, I'm going to break down how It Follows is a gothic movie. First off is the damsel in distress. What is a damsel in distress? Typically it's a women that is in trouble, and needs to be saved from something. So does Jay fit the bill for being a damsel in distress? Well, she is being hunted by a supernatural being that wants to kill her. So, I would say yes, yes she is.

Is their a supernatural being in this film? Well of course it is! Whatever It is, it is invisible and goes after those in line that it's supposed to kill.

How about the use of old architecture? Well the movie takes place in Detroit, and it occasionally goes into older sections of the city. So, yes it gets a check mark for this one, but only nearly.

Does this movie have a dark atmosphere? Yes, because the filmmakers decided to go with a darker color scheme, for the overall tone of the film. Even though many horror film have a darker color scheme, it is still considered gothic.

Is there mystery in It Follows? Again, the answer is yes. The supernatural being in this movie has no real backstory for it.  We don't know why it's killing people, we don't know what it is, and we don't know how it came to be.

Is there strong emotion in this film? You guessed it, the answer is yes! The reaction that the characters give to the events as they unfold is more powerful, as the film goes on. 

The final piece is situational horror, and does the movie have this last part in it? The final answer is yes, yes it does. The movie is not a slasher, nor a haunting, but the horror happens only through the decisions of those that are being hunted by It. There is no real backstory to the thing that hunts Jay, but it was through her actions (and that of her boyfriends) that led to It following her, but this could have been avoided. It was only through the situation, having sex with her boyfriend, a choice that led to It hunting her down.

I'm going to say after all of that, that it is safe to say that this movie is a gothic movie, that is partly inspired by gothic literature.

The music in this movie really captures the tone that the film was going for and it truly builds up a tense, creepy atmosphere. 

There are some flaws with It Follows though. Some of the dialogue is weak at times, the movie can feel a little long, and some of the choices made by Jay are really dumb and not very believable. Other than that, the movie is not that bad.

So all in all, I would recommend seeing this movie, but this one is a movie that you would only watch around Halloween.



final score: 3/5