We’ve had The Evil Dead, Insidious, and The Conjuring. Last year’s The Babadook smashed into theaters and became required watercooler talk for genre junkies and horror fans. BBC critic and horror aficionado Mark Kermode named it his top film of 2014. Each release came with the branded praise of being the best horror in ages, a lofty claim if it wasn’t for the bloody genre suffering from a steady stream of pandering let-downs and disappointments. Anything close to a good horror pic screams for attention, and often gets it, just by the virtue of being a diamond in the dirt.

It Follows, the latest film by David Robert Mitchell, has been called the best in ages, the best in years, and the top horror of the decade by some, seemingly forgetting its aforementioned and acclaimed brethren. Consequently, horror hyping is easy but not always deserved, and It Follows is closer to a double than a home run. If it qualifies as a top-tier horror film, it isn’t by its own merits, which impress without blowing you away.

Carefully constructed and with a strong sense of internal logic, It Follows is a clever use of genre as tactical storytelling. A virginal but very cute young girl, Jay (Maika Monroe), is seeing a new, handsome guy who has a car that makes him the automatic kind of cool. On a date that references the wonderful ‘60s caper Charade, the guy freaks, identifying a girl in a yellow dress that wasn’t there. We know what’s coming, but here’s the tricky part. What most critics will tell you, I won’t. I walked into my screening blind, knowing nothing of its premise or plot— something I do more and more. Instead of describing the particulars, I’ll say there’s a ghostly curse transmitted through sex, which is both the only way to save yourself and entrap others. We have a rulebook to follow, hardlining tense sequences of trying to work out strategies of both defense and attack. Jay and her best friends are off on a Steven Moffat adventure bore from hell’s gate, where the line between gimmick and inspired idea is thin but daring.

Literal ghost figures aside, the villain comes from universal fears. Everyone feels the fear of being followed, the sensation of an inescapable invisible presence you can’t perceive through your senses but your brain nevertheless warns you is there. Writer-director David Robert Mitchell goes further, turning our fear into a clever narrative device that allows for much in the way of inventive scares. When scouting the area for the it in It Follows, the difference between friend or foe is imperceivable, eliciting a fight-or-flight response that forces distrust in everyone. The illusion of safety pervades, with false safehouses and moments of contentedness that play on the quiet-loud habits of horror. Mitchell controls his movie with a knowingness of his chosen genre, and there are delights in how 360 degree panning shots and eerie lateral cinematography command suspense more than the jump scares of today.