IT FOLLOWS (2015)

Directed by David Robert Mitchell, Starring: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Jake Weary, Daniel Zovatto, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe. Horror, US, 2014, 100mins, Cert 15.

Whilst basking in the post-coital afterglow of her brief backseat coupling with new boyfriend Hugh, Jay (Maika Monroe) is unceremoniously chloroformed by her new beau. When consciousness returns she finds herself strapped to a wheelchair in an abandoned car park. Her kidnapper then informs her that in having sex with her he has given her some kind of SSTD (Supernatural Sexually Transmitted Disease) and the only way she can rid herself of this curse is to in turn play pass-the-parcel and sleep with someone else. Until she does the dirty deed, she will be followed by ‘It’ – an entity which can take the form of anyone either young or old, complete stranger or dead relative, and whose sole purpose is to slowly and methodically follow you. If ‘It’ touches you - you die. (And here’s the small print): if the person you have sex with in order to unload ‘It’ onto them is subsequently caught and dies, then ‘It’ will turn its attention back to you... 

 

Writer director David Robert Mitchell’s second feature certainly hits the ground running with an immediate attention-grabbing opening sequence which places us slap bang in the middle of a retro Carpenter-like HALLOWEEN neighbourhood suburb. The tree-lined, manicured lawned street’s deceptive peacefulness is broken by a scantily-clad young woman stumbling out into the road. She’s obviously trying to escape the clutches of something, but unlike Carpenter’s tale that something is not wearing a boiler suit and a pale Captain Kirk mask. That something is invisible (to us at least).

Unfortunately, whilst the shadow of Carpenter seems at times to practically drape itself over this modern sexual take on M.R. James’ ‘Casting the Runes’ tale, director Mitchell isn’t able to build upon this striking beginning, and what momentum he does initially generate is slowly dissipated by a limiting premise and a weak third act. 

This is a real shame as there’s much to admire along the way as we follow ‘It’ following the sympathetic and nicely played performance of rapidly rising star Maika Munroe as ‘Jay’. Together with sister Kelly (Lili Sepe), bookish friend Yara (Olivia Luccardi), childhood-friend Paul (Keir Gilchrist) and hunky neighbour Greg (Daniel Zovatto), Jay’s core group of confidants are a likeable and believable bunch who rally round their friend when she (and only she) starts to see dead people breaking into the kitchen and peeing on the floor.

Mike Gioulakis’ 2.35: 1 cinematography pulls off some neatly choreographed full-circle panning shots whilst the drives through the suburban landscape are beautifully captured through the frame of a car windscreen. Accompanied by a haunting melodic and evocative electronic score by Rich Vreeland, when these elements gel the results, albeit fleetingly, elevate the film above its (ultimately) risible concept.

The idea that in order to escape death you need to have sex is a wry, but not entirely original twist on the usual horror film morality blueprint for teenagers that equates to: sex = death. CHERRY FALLS (2000) gave us a psycho who bumped off virgins –resulting in the local teen population holding a mass sex-party in order to rid themselves of their virginity and not become a target. The problem with IT FOLLOWS is that having had the premise explained to us via Jay’s less-than gallant boyfriend practically right from the off, the story has really nowhere to go, except for the audience to speculate how long before all these creepy incarnations eventually persuade her into copulating (and there’s no shortage of willing willies available) in order to save her own skin.

Whilst there are several well-staged unsettling early sequences set within the domestic confines of the immediate neighbourhood, the film loses ground and tension when it ventures further afield. A pointless search to find Jay’s (now ex) boyfriend wastes running time and tells us nothing new except that he seems to have largely spent his spare time jerking off to porn magazines (judging by the copious amounts of crumpled tissues lying about). A scene at a remote coastal house is clumsily executed, and an implausible set-piece in a swimming pool makes no sense whatsoever given the nature of the threat ‘It’ poses.

It’s a shame then, that IT FOLLOWS ultimately fails to follow through on its own initial promise, and unfortunate that, thanks to its inconclusive open ending, my one over-riding thought as the credits rolled was: when he was out kerb-crawling, did Paul avail himself of one of the street corner hookers or not...?

*** (out of 5*)

Paul Worts