It Follows: Mini Review...

What's it about?
Creep-inducing horror tale about a sexually transmitted demon that stalks its victims in sequence - from most recently infected down the line, killing one-by-one unless the victim can keep one step ahead. A young woman becomes the latest to inherit the deadly curse and it's up to her and her friends to figure out a way to stop it ... whatever "it" is...

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Who would I recognise in it?
Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Dealing with strong themes of burgeoning adulthood - and sexuality - "It Follows" proves to be an inventive twist on a common theme of the horror genre: if you have sex, you die. Scored with a chillingly cool synthwave soundtrack by Disasterpiece, the 80s vibe of the flick is unmistakable. Taking place in a slightly strange mix of America in the 20th and 21st Centuries, boxy CRT televisions and clunky station wagons rule your attention, while modern vehicles and a clamshell Kindle-like e-reader make the time in which "It Follows" is set seem a mystery.

Indeed, being that the film's protagonists are in their late teens - on the cusp of adulthood and stepping into the world on their own for the first time - they not only have to deal with the paranoia of getting intimate with a new lover (their sexual history unknown), but the boundaries of their established lives. Living in the pleasant suburbs of Detroit, they tell stories of their childhoods and remark at not being allowed to go beyond '8 Mile', the point at which the suburbs give way to the dangers of the city - seen here as a crumbling ruin of what once was. The encroachment of suburbia on the city (and vice versa) chimes with that of the teens' impending adulthood on their disappearing innocence.

The film deftly handles moods and feelings - that of feeling out-of-step with your surroundings, of the time you inhabit, during your teenage years (hence the mysterious time period) - but also that of whatever 'it' is. Embodied by a figure - either stranger or familiar - walking towards you at a constant pace, unseen by those unaffected by the curse, every lingering person in the background, every empty space, is afforded great menace. The appearance of the 'demon', or whatever you'll want to call it, is oftentimes genuinely creepy, each new vision bringing new mysteries to proceedings. Written and Directed with confidence by David Robert Mitchell, "It Follows" turns out to be one of the most surprising treats the horror genre has experienced in a long, long time. Exceedingly stylish, intelligent, and well crafted. Great.