31 (or so) Days of Terror: It Follows

Horror, as a genre, as more than once been criticized as being somewhat conservative in its attitude towards sex. This is usually framed with that old slasher movie cliche of any character who has sex being axed off relatively quickly and the virgin being the only one to survive till the end. The implication of that cliche is that having sex (and worse, enjoying it) is morally wrong and the murders of those characters who do engage in sex are therefore justified, whereas the virgin who abstains from sex remains morally pure and earns their survival. Now of course not every film that uses that trope intends to give that message, just as I doubt that the filmmakers who employ it believe sex is inherently bad either, but it is a valid interpretation and something worth considering. Especially in light of It Follows, a critically acclaimed indie that makes the "have sex, get killed" trope the driving force of its story.

You know that girl you went to school with? The one all the parents and teachers loved, and seemed to excel at everything? But then maybe she got pregnant, or caught an STD, and she got pulled out of school? And her life was ruined even though she made a mistake any teenager could make? Well, It Follows is kind of a movie about her. The film follows 19-year-old Jay, a relative sexual innocent who's ready to go all the way with her new boyfriend. But their young lust has dire consequences when he chloroforms her, ties her to a wheelchair, and informs Jay he's passed a curse onto her. Because they slept together, Jay will now be followed by an implacable, shapeshifting thing that's invisible to everyone else. There's no way to outrun "It" and "It" won't stop until it catches and kills her. The only way to be safe is to pass the curse along to someone else, to get "It" to follow them instead. Now Jay must choose; either knowingly inflict this monster onto someone else or find some way to stop it before "It" finally catches up to her. And all the while that she's deciding, and trying to convince her friends about her situation, "It" is following her just out of frame.


From that synopsis, you can probably ascertain the film is dealing with some pretty thick sexual metaphors. It's not hard to see the curse as any number of STDs, the certainty of death that comes with it may imply it's supposed to be HIV, Jay's initial encounter with "It' and its aftermath is presented as being very similar to a rape, and even "It Follows" as a title comes from an old saying about Herpes. But while that is there on the surface, I think there's a deeper level going on that shows that It Follows isn't simply a sex-negative horror film or even one at all. I brought up that example of the girl who had everything going for her but was ruined by an innocent sexual encounter gone wrong for a reason. That's very much the feel I got from Jay. The way the story is framed doesn't paint as her as being wrong for wanting to have sex, though it does show her as being somewhat naive about what having sex entails. There are visual cues throughout the beginning of the film that imply that Jay and her friends, despite being high-school seniors or older, are still mentally children. They watch cartoons and goofy B movies, play Old Maid with picture cards, seek comfort in Ice Cream, and one point Jay can't sleep and so wraps herself in a blanket to find protection from her friend. Like a scared kid who needs their parent to get the monster out from under the bed.

Jay (Maika Monroe) sees "It" for the first time.

It's only after Jay decides to find her curse-inflicter and try to stop "It" that these visual cues subside. Thematically, this is meant to show that Jay has finally put her childhood aside and accepted the adult responsibilities that come with sex. This is ultimately the story I think It Follows is trying to tell, and why it may be more positive in its view of budding sexuality than its premise would seem. Let's go back to the girl in the example. Her life was ruined because she had teenage sex and wasn't ready for the consequences. We as an audience have been societally conditioned to think this is just punishment, even though teenagers becoming curious with their sexuality and experimenting with it is perfectly natural. In this light, "It" can be seen as a personification of this conservative morality. Jay, a child, has had sex and therefore must be punished with death. And even if she passes the curse off, "It" will just come after her again after "It" kills whoever she passed it to. There is no leeway, no shades of grey, in "It"s point of view. Sex is bad and those who have sex must die.

But Jay refuses to let "It" have it's way, she refuses to let "It" define her.  And by doing so, rejects that confining, judgmental conservative viewpoint. Just because you have sex, a natural urge, at a young age without realizing all the consequences doesn't mean that your entire life has to suffer and end because of it. No, you act like an an adult, accept responsibility for your mistake, and try to learn from it. Which is what Jay does when she and her friends devise a plan to trap and kill "It", appropriately enough in a setting the dialogue describes as a threshold between the safe places of childhood and the dangerous adult world. So if anything, It Follows is actually a coming-of-age story about taking ownership of your own sexuality in the guise of a creepy 80's monster movie. And that's not even getting into the gender politics of this metaphor, given how the kind of punishment for sexuality viewpoint "It" represents allegorically is far more often inflicted on young girls but I'm not qualified to comment too heavily on that.

One of many wonderfully composed shots.

There's also an interesting water motif going on throughout the film. Pools and beaches are frequent sights, with each being ascribed to a character. The film actually opens with "It" stalking a former victim to the beach and then cuts to show her body after "It" kills her, and later one of the more intense of "It"s attempts on Jay's life happens on another beach. By contrast Jay is connected with pools, that even being the location of "It"s defeat and her introduction in the film takes place in one. This motif helps show the connection both characters have to sex, water being a common symbol of what is after all a fluid exchange. But I think Jay is connected with pools because it reflects her arc, a pool is an ocean over which people have control after all so it could be a visual metaphor for Jay's gaining control and agency over another natural force, her sexuality.

Thematics aside, It Follows is also a beautifully shot film. The use of shot composition and saturated colors create stunning tableaus, but if anything is responsible for how good this movie looks it's the camera work. It's not often you hear people praise a horror film's use of focus, but the shallow depth of field is essential to making "It" as creepy an antagonist as it is. By keeping the background blurry, the filmmakers are able to turn any indistinct figure just slowly walking toward the camera from off in the distance into a figure of dread. You may not even notice it at first, but as the shot cuts back and they've gotten ever so much closer to our heroes and are still coming you'll feel your spine coil with every leisurely step it takes. Also adding to that is the director's aversion to cuts when "It" appears. In these cases he prefers to keep the take going and move the camera follow to Jay or whoever as they run as fast as they can away from "It", but keeping that same shallow depth of field as "It" just keeps following. The music is excellent as well, with heavy synths and repeating drones to draw you in then pound you into submission when "It" appears.

If I had any criticism for It Follows, the side characters aren't very well fleshed out. The actors play them fine but the roles don't have enough substance to rise above their stock horror movie attributes (the best friend, the nerdy girl, the nice guy, etc.) The filmmakers could have done more with "It" too. As I said, it shapeshifts but some of its forms are less frightening than others. It's implied that "It" takes on the appearance of its past victims, so most of them are naked or in pajamas. I think it would have been creepier if they kept "It" to a single form, maybe still naked but subtly inhuman in certain ways since the audience never gets a particularly good look at "It" anyway. They could have played up the fact that only Jay can see "It" more too.

But these are minor quibbles. It Follows is gorgeous play of dread, both chest-tighteningly scary and thematically rich. It would be enough if it was either incredibly well-shot or just had a lot of interesting things to say about sexual politics, but that it has both just makes for a wonderfully creepy movie. Go see it while you still have a chance but maybe not on date night. It might sour the mood.

Final Score: 5/5