Blu-ray Review: It Follows

David Robert Mitchell has made a horror film that excels at being scary even if the film contains some half-formed ideas. Underneath some of the best nightmarish imagery in years, It Follows delivers an oddly puritanical view on young teen sex or at least that is one take. Upon multiple views, something more ambiguous forms out of the fringes of the story. There is always sex on the outskirts of these teens lives and Mitchell has more to say here about the lose of virginity and teen sex. The film is more than just scares and that is why it is so worth owning.

After a great opening scene, It Follows is quick to get its plot rolling. Annie, a great Maika Monroe, is a young girl exploring teenage love. She has a date with boy one evening. The two have sex and all seems well until the boy knocks her out and ties her up. When Annie awakens, he tells her that he has passed an unknown force to her. This force is coming to kill her. It is slow but ever walking towards her. It can take the form of anyone to try to get close to her. Once it kills her, it will move to him and so forth down the line of sexual contacts.

First off, the premise is stellar. Boiled down to such simple elements, the film is nimble and ferocious. John Carpenter knew how to keep a plot simple in order to focus on the suspense and ratchet up the tension. Mitchell seems to be a student of Carpenter as he too understands this principle. When at its best, It Follows is a relentless nightmare.

It Follows is simply the scariest film of the year so far. It also contains enough ideas to keep you thinking about and coming back to the film in years to come. The film contains enough fodder for me to have nightmares for years about the monster this film creates. It Follows succeeds on so many levels that is deserves to be praised by horror fans. I will be interested to see what Mitchell does next as he clearly possesses a lot of talent and a ton of ideas.

This Blu-ray features two solid commentaires, one from a film critic and another from the film's composer. The picture looks fantastic and the sound mixing shines.

4/5