It Follows is a film most people gave seen. Only the other day when I was talking about how cinema (and lots of things in life) aren’t that unique when it comes to originality. It was then I was reminded to remind you how great this movie is. If you want to click through to the explanation of the ending, here’s the link.

It Follows, however, is one of those rare beasts where people can say the style is the same or the eerie feeling is the same as something else they’ve watched. You can even say the soundtrack is kind of similar to something else, or list other films where the curse is passed on, but still, It Follows is pretty solid for being special that gives the best parts of what to look for in a horror film. It combines all the stuff you love and puts it all in one movie all at the same time.

In this instance, let’s tip our respect hat, firstly, to David Robert Mitchell and his talent and secondly to the movie itself.

Maika Monroe in It Follows, did the ending suck for you?

Firstly, this review of It Follows will feature spoilers to cover the ending of this amazing feature-length movie. I will be talking about plot points and things that will spoil the film. If you haven’t seen it, scroll to the end, watch the short films I’ve included and go watch It Follows.

It Follows— trailer

What is the Story of It Follows?

The film starts with Jay and her new boyfriend going all the way for the first time. In what would have to be one of the scariest, nail-biting scenes in any one’s top ten, her man Hugh then tells her he has passed her a lovely present.

Because Hugh has put in enough yards to care about Jay a smidge, he goes to lengths to explain the rules to her. He tells her that once she starts seeing the result of this curse, to get rid of it, she needs to pass it on too. Subsequently, she needs to have sex with someone else. Just what you want to hear after a good session of the old heave, ho with your new man.

The curse takes the form of whatever it chooses, usually people and, if it catches up to you, you die. Horribly.

Keir Gilchrist and Maika Monroe

What is the Best Scary Movie?

I’m going to start with the negatives. Simply put, while it would be nice for everyone in horror movies to believe anyone’s weird-ass story, or every cop to investigate anything someone reports this isn’t the way the world works either in film or in life.

However, what annoys me is when by the time the person, here it’s Jay, tells her story, gets her friends on her side and is actually hospitalized, the creators choose Greg to be the naysayer . Greg, the guy who offers his lakehouse to hide out at, and Greg who decides he will be the one to say Nah, I don’t believe any of this and to prove it to you, let me poke you with my penis and I’ll prove just how silly you’re being.

I will talk about how Greg isn’t a totally one dimension pound town hound here in It Follows, but initially when I saw this— that’s how I felt.

Ok and now the good stuff. There’s plenty so buckle in.

Is It Follows Scary?

It Follows is the type of teen angst movie you go looking for in the realm of Truth or Dare (2018) or for me when I watched the adaptation for Lights Out. Both of those particular films were mainly letdown. Both should have been good but weren’t. Here, it takes the premise of knowing there is something after you and makes it work. You can see it coming, lurking and catching up at all times and that is plenty scary.

This film doesn’t rely on jump-scares and while I have nothing against them personally, I would prefer to watch a film that paralyzes me throughout than see the willful set up for a big ole’ fright (like the recent The Nun 2018.)

Bailey Spry as Annie. It Follows the movie, and the ending explained on Mother of Movies.

Background Monsters ARE Scary

Some of my favorite movies are where the background is what scares you. You as the viewer can see the danger and the person in the film cannot. Quite simply one of the most effective techniques, in my opinion, there is.

Think Halloween, Hell House LLC and of course Creature from the Black Lagoon, even Jaws. All have persistent presences that lurk, are hard to slow down and have a penchant to just keep on coming for you no matter what. In the case of It Follows, you see a lone figure often, lurking, walking and mostly getting so close you can feel it through the intended victim on screen.

The music can’t be overlooked either when it comes to talking about this great film. All the tracks are from Disasterpeace an American composer Richard Vreeland. He is behind the scores from films like Under the Silver Lake and the animated series Bad Jubies. I’d much prefer the unsettling nature of his work than a big loud excessive intro prior to a jump scare. Sometimes less is more.

RELATED: Halloween review on Hubpages from Mother of Movies

RELATED: Hell House LLC is the scariest film I’ve ever seen! Have you seen it yet?

The Cast

The cast is excellent and yet none of them were well known when this was completed for just a million bucks. It’s star Maika Monroe as Jay is wonderfully understated and shows the right amount of or lack of enthusiasm, tiredness or fear. The characters themselves are in low enough numbers to be able to form connections with. I didn’t want any of them to die and despite thinking that Greg only wanted to sleep because he probably loved her long time it just gives strength to the story because it created more depth in his persona. He wasn’t just created to kill that’s all I’m saying and that happens a lot in slashers.

Overall, this is a film for people who love the unexplained mystery of a presence in a movie. Where it came from or why it was there is never elaborated on. For film lovers who love that incessant battle to survive against something that could possibly never be stopped this will tick those boxes. Cinephiles who love forces that can’t be killed and instead need to be dealt with or managed or captured will feel excited at their feeble attempts to do just that. If you were ever cursed by it, there is a high likelihood it will be back at some point as the curse reverts back to the previously infected if successful. Just to keep you on your toes and rooting for a survivor.

It Follows has it all, keep reading till the end for more information on the writer’s upcoming and recent projects.

I give It Follows

4.5 stunning silences out of 5

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Maika Monroe gets curse-napped in It Follows. It Follows and the ending explained

It Follows, The Ending Explained + Stuff People Hated

The next few points are in response to the myriad of 1-star reviews floating around the internet. They are all about the It Follows ending. These are my responses to those. If there are any you’d like to add, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Many who hated the film wanted the final reveal or any big reveal for that matter. They wanted to know why. Who was it and why was it there? Where did it come from and what is it doing now? They wanted to see the creature not hiding behind it’s mimicked form, not hidden under a sheet. Many classic movies don’t do this and are loved for it. I am one who loved The Entity (1982) and the more recent It (2017.) Neither monsters are explained as far as their origins and both are scary AF. I don’t even want to know. What if they were explained and they weren’t scary anymore?

Is It Unstoppable? It Follows Explained

The mystery of this curse also lies in why the thing chooses to take the form of people known to the victim of the person it is hunting. In the end, it chooses Jay’s dad. For me, this was simply about letting the victim know they were back in the game. Earlier, it chooses a replica of Greg and then Greg’s mom, how would you know who it wanted otherwise? How the creature kills you is also a mystery. You’d have to assume it was strong, violent and not very nice. Why did it break the girl’s leg? Because it wanted to, that’s why. And that’s cool. Unpredictable is scary too.

People were hung up on the creature being able to be slowed down by barriers, guns, walls, etc. The key here is ‘slowed down,’ not stopped. Just because it’s not shown, doesn’t mean it’s not explained. Just because you didn’t see it walk through walls, get around barriers and heal itself, doesn’t mean it can’t. I think it just means you can decide on what you think enables the creature to keep on catching up to you, know where you are and follow you until you die. You can also be scared of the things you don’t know about it.

And finally, why would the premise of a curse pass on through sex be a message from the creators to not have teen sex? Like, come on.. Since when is that ever going to happen? The role of having the teens in this film in the first place is to strengthen the storyline. Teens don’t think generally at this time of their life. They make bad choices … boom, now we have plausibility. The Writer

David Robert Mitchell – The Director

David’s more recent endeavor was Under the Silver Lake, a movie that premiered at Cannes 2018 and went mostly unspoken about. The trailer won an award but the film didn’t. Just goes to show how crazy good some trailers are, and more reason why I don’t watch them until after.

I did a bit of digging around and remembered hearing about the short film called Whisper, some time ago. It’s listed as being optioned under the title of ‘They Hear It‘ and will fall under the production umbrella of Legendary Entertainment and The Picture Company.

‘They Hear It’ will be directed by Julian Terry who did the original short film Whisper (short film playable below.) Terry made another short called The Nurse which is equally as intriguing (watch it at the end of the review.)

The Answer to My Questions

With the success of Bird Box and A Quiet Place, there is no doubt the underpinning theme of unfulfilled senses in Whisper will be something of a crowd-pleaser. I fired off a few emails in the hopes of getting some extra information about where they’re up to with the filming of They Hear It. I actually received a response from someone on Mitchell’s team with the following sentence:

“Nothing new.”

Is it sad I was excited they even responded? …probably.

Another film Mitchell is working on is a sci-fi thriller called Man Alive which will be directed by Hiro Murai (Barry 2019 and Guava Island TBA.)