If there is anything that must immediately be said about David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows, it’s that the film is deeply evocative in the most terrifying ways. Mitchell, who wrote and directed the film, places the audience in the body of the story’s characters so effectively that one leaves the film wondering whom, if anyone, can be trusted. While It Follows is a film about sex, it is a film that accurately captures the fear of pursuit and is, ultimately, a deeply moving cinematographic work that resonates precisely because of the effectiveness of its hook: have sex with the wrong person and you will regret the decision for the rest of your short life.
It Follows tells the simple story of Jaime who sleeps with a new boyfriend, only to discover that he has passed onto her a deadly curse. An omnipresent figure will slowly walk towards Jaime, taking the shape of those closest to her. If the figure catches Jaime, it will kill her.
The simplicity of the premise allows Mitchell’s film several advantages, chief of which is the lack of the need to rely on special effects to convey terror. Too often do horror movies revel in gimmicks for low-budget scares. Worse yet, too often do horror movies revel in big budgets to generate tension and anxiety, failing to capitalize on the human elements of a story. Mitchell’s film, in comparison, eschews the notion that a big budget is the only way to affect a cynical audience. More importantly, Mitchell’s film proves that it’s possible to use a small budget to induce true terror in a viewer’s heart.
Simplicity, in terms of storytelling and film production, provides It Follows with its most effective hook: the film is preternaturally scary because of the fact that Jaime can always escape her torment. Other horror movies emphasize the helplessness of their protagonists. “There is no escape,” is an oft-derided tagline precisely because of its overuse in horror cinema. It Follows constantly emphasizes that there is a chance for escape.
In fact, so long as Jaime stays alert and aware of her surroundings, she can live a long life. Her other option, of course, is to sleep with someone else and pass on the curse. There is an addendum, the curse kills in order of transmission; if Jaime passes on the curse to an inefficient host, they will die, and the curse reverts back to Jaime.
Mitchell’s rules—the rules his characters identify in It Follows, introduce an endless supply of possibilities and moral questions into the fray. Indeed, the film is a success of production because of its direction and cinematography, but it truly affects its audience because we find ourselves asking questions of morality. That sex is the chief mode of transmission is a fact not lost on either the characters or the audience. A quick note on sex in It Follows: sex is not treated as something reverent and it’s not discussed in prudish terms. In fact, not once is Jaime victimized for her choice in sleeping with the man who infects her. Instead, sex in It Follows is treated with an almost educational scrutiny. Sex is an important choice, but far more than practicing abstinence, one must simply be careful—sound advice for audiences of all generations.
However, Mitchell’s directorial decisions, perhaps more so than his literary and moral engagements, represent the apex of his film. His camera is slow and methodical, capturing scenes and subjects in sustained long-take rotational pans that evoke the thought of spinning around in a circle.
His camera has the gusto and tenacity of a practical joker, daring the audience into a false sense of security, only to later undermine this security with pure fear. Combined with Mike Gioulakis’s cinematography, scenes with subtle impact gain immense horror, serving to make the truly frightening scenes absolutely terror-filled.
Praise must be afforded to Disasterpeace, whose ethereal synthesizer-heavy soundtrack allows each scene to be a calculated masterpiece of fear and thrill. Interesting, however, is the choice to present certain scenes without music. When the film’s tension is slow, Mitchell chooses to forgo the inclusion of non-diegetic music. Mitchell prepares his audience for tension by injecting Disasterpeace’s score as a stimulating alert. We know we’re about to witness horror —we’re prepared—but Mitchell’s film succeeds in subverting our expectations by producing a film that is genuinely terrifying on every sensual level.
It Follows exists at the perfect intersection between subversion and perversion. Mitchell, his camera, and his cast know that the true way to terrify is by maintaining simplicity.