Taking a couple of classic horror tropes – that old ‘sex equals death’ adage and the ‘pass-on-the curse’ frightener – David Robert Mitchell (Myth of the American Sleepover)’s remarkable film is an entirely fresh and stimulating take on sexual paranoia.
Jay is a 19 year old teenager who is in the first flush of lust with a new boyfriend. However, teen dream soon turns to living nightmare as an exploratory sexual encounter leaves her experiencing strange visions and an unfathomable sense that she is being followed. Traumatised and helpless, she must find a way of passing on the horror that seems to have befallen her.
Evoking classic horror films such as John Carpenter’s Halloween and Hideo Nakata’s Ring, It Follows is undeniably in an original class of its own, a defiantly original piece of work, visually impeccable and with enough smarts and subtext to have your head spinning for days.