A great deal of buzz has sprung up around David Robert
Mitchell’s independent horror film It Follows and it’s easy to see why. The director successfully creates an
atmosphere of dread that hangs over his sympathetic protagonists and the
premise is one that lends itself perfectly to be exploited and explored within
the horror genre. However, in the end
the movie fails to be completely successful as it plays fast and loose with its
own internal logic, providing key pieces information seemingly from out of thin
air and leaving out others in an effort to be ambiguous, only breeding a sense
of frustration in the end.
Jay Height (Maika Monroe) is a young woman living on the
outskirts of Detroit who’s just started dating Hugh (Jake Weary), a
relationship that progresses to the point where they make love one night in the
back seat of his car. This proves to be a big mistake as he tells her
afterwards that she will be cursed with seeing a figure that will relentlessly
follow her with the intent of killing her.
It may be a stranger or it may appear to be someone she knows and the
only way she can rid herself of this is to have sex with someone else.
As I say, the premise is an intriguing one and turns the
hoary horror film trope of the sexually promiscuous girls being those most
likely to be killed, on its head. Here, Jay
is forced to indulge in questionably moral behavior in order to save
herself. This will come at a dear price as
Hugh’s advice concerning how to get rid of this curse initially seems faulty,
causing her to become sexually promiscuous which in the process damages her
self-esteem as well as altering other’s perception of her while saddling her
with the guilt associated with dooming her partners. Monroe is quite good throughout, conveying
not simply the horror whenever those following appear but also the
deterioration of Jay from psychological and emotional points of view. Her turn elicits great sympathy, which keeps
us engaged even during the movie’s sloppy third act.
What’s so frustrating about Follows is that its first hour
shows such promise that when it starts to go off the rails an ever-growing
sense of disappointment takes over.
While Hugh was probably told by a previous partner the ins-and-outs of
this unique STD, it seems far too convenient that he has this information and a
greater explanation of the condition’s origin would have been welcome. Equally troubling are inexplicable wrinkles
in the rules that have been established.
That Jay cannot initially shake the disease is inexplicable as is the
resolution. While it’s refreshing when a
movie allows viewers to bring their own interpretation to bear on a film,
another clue or two is needed here to ground any sort of reading of it. Follows isn’t purposely ambiguous as much
as it is a movie that, in the end, lacks clarity.
I suspect that Mitchell’s intent, as he also wrote the
screenplay, was to examine the difference between indiscriminate, anonymous sex
with that based on a genuine emotional investment between its participants.
That would go a long way towards explaining the ending, however there are many
more themes that are mentioned and seemingly abandoned. Death, rot, decay and abandonment are all at
play here as adults exist in only a cursory way, the television in the Height
home only displays cheap horror films from the 1950’s and when Jay and her
friends venture out of their neighborhood, they journey to run-down parts of
town with Detroit – a barely living dead city if there ever was one – serving
as an effective backdrop for the film’s climax.
In the end, how all of these themes tie together remains
murky. Yet Mitchell creates such an effectively atmosphere to go along with his
intriguing premise that Follows is the sort of movie that draws you back for
a second, more analytical look in an effort to find a narrative bridge or two
that will make it all more cohesive. Whether
they exist or not, I’ll be able to say better after this weekend. Suffice it to
say that Mitchell has my attention and I’m eager to see what he might pull out
of his hat the next time around.
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2015.
