IT FOLLOWS is an indie horror movie with a urban legend-type premise: if you carry a curse, a creature begins pursuing you, and it won’t stop until it kills you. The creature may take the form of anybody, even somebody you know. The only way to get rid of it is to pass it on to another person through sex.
That’s where IT FOLLOWS begins, with Jay, a young woman, whose boyfriend gives her the world’s worst STD. The thing begins relentlessly hunting her. Her only way out is to pass it on to somebody else. But if that person gets killed, the creature will come back, and so on up the line. So there’s no sure-fire way to truly get rid of it.
I enjoyed the heck out of this. The setup is simple, the monster is creepy as hell, and the conclusion, while providing few answers, is satisfying. I suppose one could see an allegory here for STDs, but while that may be interesting, I didn’t really care about that, focusing on the core story. The acting is a little wooden at first among Jay and a group of late teens who will become her support group, though they grow on you until they become actually endearing, and when the creature shows up, the actors demonstrate some pretty convincing terror. I found myself rooting for Jay and her friends right to the end while always finding the creature surprising and scary.
Recommended.
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