Annie drives a 2012 Nissan Versa, much of the fashion seems fairly modern, and Yara reads her Dostoyevsky on some sort of miniature computer or e-reader that looks like a seashell. Get our newsletter and join our community powered by horror fans like you. It was supposed to be somewhat subtle, a thing that you might not notice the first time you watch it, but apparently Yara's "shell phone" stood out quite a bit to viewers because they keep asking the director where they can get one. The concept of home invasion is inherently petrifying because it removes the one place meant to offer security and comfort, but the entity's appearance heightens that natural fear thanks to the form it chooses; a victim of sexual assault. Yeah, ok. And death, perhaps. "It wasn't a fun kind of scare. It Follows (2014) - The arrival of a tall man Watch on Alone, Jay cautiously makes her way to the kitchen to see the damage for herself. Greg Strasz . The woman edges closer as she urinates. Lead characters wear bathing suits in one scene and chilly fall coats in the next. Between the gorgeous cinematography, bewitching soundtrack, and fresh plot devices, this may just be my new favorite horror movie. Even more impressive is the way Mitchell layers in visual complexity that offers multiple reads upon repeat viewings. Ruby Harris also portrays the entity while it is in the form of Greg's mother and Ele Bardha portrays it in the form of Jay's father. It's the precise type of scene that would otherwise allow the viewer a moment to soothe their rapid pulse. Hugh drives Jay home and flees. (Welcome toScariest Scene Ever, a column dedicated to the most pulse-pounding moments in horror. 'It Follows' is a 2014 psychological supernatural horror film that centers on a mysterious entity that relentlessly follows its victims. Jay sees the entity having sex with a dead Greg, then flees by car and spends the night outdoors. (Greg's Date (Pretty Girl in Car))-/5. Hence, the film ends with Jeff alive but, like everyone else who is cursed, living in constant fear of being attacked by It. This scene is one of the most horrifying of the movie, so visceral, so brutal, so disturbed and so difficult to mention that after my boyfriend and I walked out of the movie for the first time, we didn't even talk about it for most of our conversation. Jay, Kelly (Lilie Sepe), Paul (Keir Gilchrist), and Yara (Olivia Luccardi) break into an indoor public pool after hours. Youre trying to figure out what the time period is and there simply isnt one. Based on how confidently he knocked out Jay with chloroform, it didn't seem like his first time. In this edition: It Follows uses wide angles and a disorienting setting to unsettle before delivering a one-two punch scare for the ages. Viewers continue to debate the answer. However, what is possibly the most sinister aspect of the murderous entity is that one is never truly safe from it. It works to set the mood for the film's biggest scare, a terrifying scene that delivers not one but two potent scares without a second to spare for the audience to catch their breath. So the answer that makes the most sense, thematically, is "yes." )Writer/Director David Robert Mitchell knows how to build a chilling atmosphere. The idea of a monster that kills teenagers for being promiscuous is certainly not new. At the end of the film, as Yara is recovering in the hospital from her gunshot wound, she reads aloud to her friends a quote from a book, but she doesn't identify it at the time. Despite not having any hard evidence of this creature's existence, Jay's friends decide to believe her story and band together to come up with a plan to kill this monster once and for all. Sorry to break it to you, but there's definitively, purposefully no answer to these questions. As Jay struggles to stay afloat, her friends intervene. . stunt coordinator Craig Gubert . In an interview with Yahoo Movies, director David Robert Mitchell clarified that Hugh's understanding of the monster's "rules" are just based on his experiences, and they're perhaps inaccurate. Horror movie fans lovers, straight-up warning you there are a lot of spoilers for It Follows (2015) in this review. "[7] The role that sexual transmission plays came later, from Mitchell's desire for something that could transfer between people. That it comes from a completely different and unlikely spot in Jay's house sends the clear message that Death can come from anywhere at any time. If the entity from It Follows starts chasing you, it's probably not going to catch you today. However, this cant all be attributed to romance, and some very sinister factors have pushed them together. . Even if you try to solve it. Later, when we see things from Jay's perspective, the entity appears to be manifesting as a character we've never seen before: a middle-aged man with a beard. Greg doesn't realize it's not his mom, opens the door, and gets murdered in what's easily It Follows' most disturbing death scene. The concept of home invasion is inherently petrifying because it removes the one place meant to offer security and comfort, but the entity's appearance heightens that natural fear thanks to the form it chooses; a victim of sexual assault. Afterwards, Jaime "Jay" Height goes on a date with her new boyfriend, Hugh, to the movies. It tells the story of Jay (Maika Monroe), a college student who starts dating a kind yet mysterious boy named Hugh (Jake Weary). And what does that tell us? Not a day older. 2014 horror film by David Robert Mitchell, "An Unpredictable Release: Four Surprising Facts about It Follows' Road to Success", "Exploring the horror of 'It Follows': David Robert Mitchell interview", "David Robert Mitchell on his striking new horror film, 'It Follows', "U.K. [Crewdson's] photographs have the same kind of surreal suburban imagery that we wanted for It Follows."[11]. A FL native, Michael is passionate about pop culture, and earned an AS degree in film production in 2012. Put these elements together and youve got all the makings for a film thats not just scary but extremely unsettling. Jeffs mom is TOTALLY rocking the 1980s Mom look, and not ironically. Family Guy (1999) - S20E03 Must Love Dogs 2.5s - Oh, and cousin Greg! The entity's imagery as it edges towards Jay leaves a mark, but Mitchell doesn't give his heroine much of a reprieve.Jay cowers in her room, and her loved ones arrive to protect her, either from herself or her unseen foe. Here's every form taken by the demonicEntity in It Follows. Similarly, later when Kelly and Jay are wandering the neighborhood, theyre both dressed for at the very least pretty chilly weather. Director David Robert Mitchell Writer David Robert Mitchell Stars Maika Monroe Keir Gilchrist Olivia Luccardi That wouldn't have any immediate significance to Jay but could be one last taunt directed at its previous target. In his defense, there's clearly much more on this film's mind, thematically speaking, than just sex. Perhaps the most striking of the entity's disguises in It Follows, the tall man - not to be confused with The Tall Man villain from Phantasm - is a towering figure that terrifies Jay by appearing behind her friend Yara as she walks into Jay's bedroom. The following week, the film dropped two spots to #10 with a weekend gross of $346,005 (229,927) from 240 screens. [9] Mitchell realized that the concept he was working on was tough to describe and thus refused to discuss the plot when asked what he was working on, reasoning later, "When you say it out loud, it sounds like the worst thing ever. It Follows - whichconnects back to the original Evil Dead in a subtle way - ends on an ambiguous note, as it's unclear if Jay managed to truly defeat the entity. The set further disorients with decor from various eras- unconventional and made-up technology clashes with retro televisions that play '50s sci-fi features. At the beginning of the film, a young woman runs out of her house wearing a pair of heels, short-shorts, and a tank top. 0. The ball is covered by her hair up until the very moment he dies. Death isn't scary because it will catch you today or tomorrow. Perhaps the coolest thing about It Followsis just how little lore there is and how the ending leaves you with so many ambiguities. If any of you missed that detail, it was revealed subtly, by a photograph beside her bed. Jay gets ready for her date with Hugh, and the two go to the cinema. However, three days later, he ends up dead. Your pulse never changes during the initial viewing, and a week later, you barely remember the experience. , a column dedicated to the most pulse-pounding moments in horror. Why cant I have? They then cover it with a sheet, and Paul shoots it once more, causing it to fall into the pool. Writer and director David Robert Mitchell conceived the film based on recurring dreams he had in his youth about being followed: "I didn't use those images for the film, but the basic idea and the feeling I used. It Follows premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2014. uses wide angles and a disorienting setting to unsettle before delivering a one-two punch scare for the ages. Back home, Paul, willing to take the risk, offers Jay the opportunity to pass it on to him, but she refuses. It's the precise type of scene that would otherwise allow the viewer a moment to soothe their rapid pulse. Its well-known that during filming of The Shining (1980), director Stanley Kubrick employed a lot of techniques to keep the viewer feeling off-balance or eerie without knowing why. The next morning, she is found brutally murdered, with her leg twisted and snapped at an unnatural angle. Everything they watch on TV is either a vintage-era cartoon or a 1950s black-and-white monster movie. That night, Paul drives through town, passing prostitutes. Death, Jay learns, will creep inexorably toward her as either a friend or a stranger. Then again, certain aspects of the film are undeniably modern. It Follows: Explained (Plot Analysis And Ending) Zaraki Kenpachi September 7, 2021 The first film of It Follows was released in 2014, and many other horror movies have since been made based on its story. We probably don't need to guess what she wanted from the guys on board. A ghost? Mmm sorry but Word of God did confirm that It rapes to death, is just that the movie probably wasn't going to show it because it would be too graphic, is PG-13 if IIRC. Even from a far-off distance, the wide angles elicit an exposed vulnerability that builds dread. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Days later, Jay sees the entity in the form of Greg walking towards Greg's house, smashing a window at Greg's house and entering. This is why even if Paul sleeps with a prostitute and passes the curse on (as is hinted), the entity could always just kill the prostitute, then Paul, and eventually come back to try and murder Jay. Jay, Paul, Kelly, and Yara then come up with a plan to try and stop the entity and head to the community pool. A demon, perhaps, but it doesn't take a film student at Tisch to see that The Follower (as I'll call it) is a metaphor for something. So Yara's quote clearly demonstrates how both these works have mortality on their mind. Other horror movies make an impression. The layered clues continue if we consider that the man at the pool house looks exactly the same age as the one in the photographs. [citation needed] The film had a domestic gross of $14.7 million and an international gross of $8.6 million for a worldwide total of $23.3 million. It's easy to remember [EXTREME SPOILER ALERT] that Greg is basically fucked to death by his mom, but again, the mom detail can easily be ignored if we remember one simple rule: The Follower takes whatever form is most useful to it. Apart from the literal monster that starts chasing her, what makes Jay's date with Hugh so horrifying isn't the sex, it's the abuse. Beyond that, what exactly It Follows' titular "it" is or where it came from remains a mystery. Read More: Is It Follows Based on a True Story? Sometimes, it seems like its only motivation is to get closer to you. A malicious psychic projection born from the collective unconscious of humanity? Screaming, Jay fumbles her way upstairs and locks herself in her room. Yes, mom? Instead, Mitchell uses it to sneak in another unexpected scare. If Greg did, it was probably on accident. The film masterfully follows a less is more format that leaves a lot unsaid but tells the audience just enough to make for a truly unsettling experience. They try to calm Jay's nerves when there's a knock at the door. The only evidence we have of Paul transmitting the curse comes in the closing minutes of the film, when he slowly drives past a pair of sex workers, showing that Paul is at least considering the possibility, whether or not he actually follows through. Yara stands relaxed and sleepily in the doorway of Jay's bedroom, inquiring about the commotion. It is a supernatural being that incessantly pursues its victims at a walking pace. The actual death is very brief and is only onscreen . (Which I want. When she does this, we see that the lawns on the other side of the street are littered with leaves and the trees have started to turn. Shortly after he gets the curse, there's a scene when Greg is hanging out and flirting with a group of girls. From Greg's death, we know that the Follower finds you, and then brutally rapes and murders you. I don't, however, believe that The Follower's form when it killed Greg was simply out of convenience. And I'm convinced somebody is going to make them and get incredibly rich from doing it. It Follows is about abuse. They seem normal enough. Maybe he left? There are a few different theories at play here allow me to explain. The answer that makes the most sinister aspect of the film are undeniably modern to stay afloat, friends... Death, we know that the Follower finds you, and earned an as degree in production! Probably on accident a FL native, Michael is passionate about pop culture, and the two to. 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