It’s been since the terrific, moody Swedish language scary film Let the Right One In (2008) and it’s American shot-by-shot clone, Let Me In (2010) that I’ve seen really a creepy, moody, minimalist horror flick. It Follows is a very low budget indie film written and directed by David Robert Mitchell (who?). Filmed partly in leafy Michigan suburbs and partly in ruin-porn zones in Detroit, this movie takes teen-age death fests on a new variation. Its starkly minimal production and reliance on basic drama rather than dumb-ass special effects makes it work really well. We had not heard of it, were drawing blank in this week’s movies and saw it listed with a 95 from critics on Rotten Tomatoes…what the heck…no way it can be worse than some of what’s out.
In a nutshell we are introduced to the story when a teen girl, in a state of fear is running from some sort of pursuer. Before long she is left broken on the lake front, dead from some ghoulish fiend. It’s the next victim that exposes us to the plot line. It’s some sort of “thing”, a shape-shifter and follows teens. Nobody else can see it and if it catches up, you’re dead. You can run away, drive away, shoot it, whatever, to little effect. There’s also a catch. If you get to someone of the appropriate gender and have sex, the fiend will be pursuing that poor person instead of you….talk about morning-after regrets. The central group of characters are neighborhood friends and one of the girls has “caught” the follower. Her friends set out to guard her, but, as the story goes on, evading the follower keeps getting harder. The follower exhibits in a number of forms, making it hard to be sure just when you are safe. Will anybody find out just WHY this is happening? Will any of these teens escape with their lives? Is there a way to stop this? I’m not saying; you’ll have to find out for yourself.
I liked this movie a lot. It’s really tense, even for a guy who has seen countless scary movies. The lack of FX and the implicit threat just work so much better than grisly digital freaks. The ghouls are dreary, depressed looking and sometimes naked, pissing themselves but completely lack the contrived “Walking Dead” conceit of rotting corpses. Much of the movie is these kids generating your fear from theirs, often in dismal, bombed out streets and houses in the most abandoned part of Detroit, which is not only a partially ruined city, but also mostly lacking in visible adults or parents. These areas in Detroit are like characters in the movie. It is full of loose ends and non-sequiturs, which give it a resemblance to a bad dream. I didn’t recognize any of the actors. Most of them appear to be in their late teens and do not look like preened hollywood actors. They do quite well in their roles. The camera work is seriously low budget, shaky (not in that deliberate sense, though), with grainy film and muted color. It’s like a home movie, not in a contrived way that’s a Blair Witch do-over. What it really looks like is a auteur with a good idea, ambition and very little money. The low production values, however, do nothing to diminish the movie, but actually add to the dreary atmosphere. I recommend it for people who like creepy movies.
