It Follows Blu Ray Review

Director: David Robert Mitchell

Cast: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto

Certficate: 15.

Running Time: 100 minutes.

Special Features: Gallery, Trailer, Interview with the film’s composer and a feature commentary.

The premise of It Follows is simple – there’s an STD (that’s a Sexually Transmitted Demon) going around town. The symptoms don’t include the usual intimate itching, but rather a malevolent force that sinisterly stalks you until either it catches and kills you, or you pass it on. So it’s a horror film that encourages promiscuous sex, a genre-turning move as it’s usually these folks that are the fodder for the killer.

The heroine of the piece is Jay (Monroe), a young girl who finds herself the unwitting hostess to ‘it’ after being seduced by the previous incumbent. As she finds herself being mercilessly stalked by an ever changing, always just around the corner demon, Jay and her friends must band together to try and stop ‘it’ getting her. The group of friends features all the usual suspects you expect to see in a teen film, the sister, the brain, the ladies man, and the friend-zoned best friend. Monroe follows her eye-catching turn in The Guest with a well thought out and believable portrayal of current victim Jay.

Whilst watching It Follows it’s hard to believe that this is only the second feature from director David Robert Mitchell, harder still is that this is his first foray into horror. We spoke to Mitchell around the cinematic release and he revealed a strong fascination with the genre as a child; this shows through in every frame. Genre fans will notice elements of all the greats, Kubrick, Carpenter and Craven, It Follows easily sitting alongside their most famous properties.

The whole film feels ethereal and dreamlike, which given the idea came to Mitchell in a recurring childhood nightmare, is to be expected. Much like dreams the film has no sense of time, and instead has a strange fluidity to it. The appearance of items from various time periods confuses us further, there’s something about the film’s environment that isn’t quite real, but that just makes everything even more enjoyable. This isn’t your usual slasher flick, it’s more artistic and thoughtful than that, and will easily find itself on the to-study list on film courses throughout the world.

The cinematography is stunning, perfectly encapturing the changing of the seasons from summer to autumn. The almost always-moving camerawork is dynamic, creepy and almost an additional character. As is the films score composed by Disaterpeace. Electronic in design, the score has two very distinct and different sides to it, there’s the wistful and innocent theme for main character Jay, as well as the jarring and heart-shredding shrill screeching and pounding noise associated with ‘it’.

It Follows starts strong and shocking, the pace holding up as it progresses, peppered with unexpected moments and scares that will have even the most hardened of horror viewers jumping out of their seat. Unfortunately the film loses itself a little towards the end, the final showdown proving to be a little confusing upon later reflection, but thankfully this is a minor flaw that will pass most audience members by.

Special features include a short but interesting interview with the composer of that impressive score, the trailer, a gallery (which isn’t really a gallery at all) and a commentary with an interesting choice of commentators. Usually the cast and crew of the film provide commentaries but It Follows instead has Mark Jancovich and Danny Leigh discussing their views on the film. This commentary is much more about the film’s hidden meanings and interpretations than the usual ‘this day was really tough on set’ anecdotes. It’s interesting and informative and a must-listen-to for any budding media studies students out there.

It Follows is a dreamlike, timeless horror film that has already garnered a cult status during its cinematic release, now available in the home entertainment arena it seems its tribe of fans will only increase.

It Follows is available to bu on DVD and Blu Ray now.