It Follows

A girl is infected with a sexually transmitted haunting in the horror film It Follows. After getting intimate one night with her new beau Hugh (Jake Weary), Jay (Maika Monroe) finds herself tied to a chair and told by Hugh that he passed along an infection and that “It” will start coming after Jay, until she passes it on herself (or dies).  While initially excused as a sick case of sexual abuse, Jay soon finds herself being pursued by “It,” who can take the form of anyone.  With the help her friends, including sister Kelly (Lili Sepe) and best friend Paul (Keir Gilchrist), Jay desperately searches for a way to break this curse, before it is too late. Without a doubt, it can be said that It Follows has one of the more unique horror film premises.  The film can be described as a mix between The Grudge and John Carpenter's Halloween, while also being a bit of a safe sex allegory.  While the film does feature a few jump scares, mostly involving off-screen noises, the film uses the “Michael Myers approach” to build tension by having “It” steadily walk after Jay.  While the sight of this malevolent presence is already quite terrifying, the horror is amplified by It Follow's excellent John Carpenter-eqsue synth score. While It Follows does deliver the frights, it is not a perfect film.  There's quite a bit of downtime between the frightening sequences and I actually thought that the film peaked in the second act, with me not being completely satisfied with the climatic set piece.  Also, I'm still left scratching my head why many of these “followers” are shown partially or fully naked, other than to relate to the film's STD theme and/or add some gratuitous nudity to the film. Either way, I thought that It Follows was a creepy little ghost story. 8 | LIKED IT Screenings:

• Tuesday, September 9, 4:00pm – Scotiabank Theatre 9