Of course, that's much debate about whether the entity is even a demon. It Follows is a 2014 American supernatural psychological horror film written and directed by David Robert Mitchell and stars Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi and Lili Sepe. Many signs point to it being a period piece. And in the universe of It Follows, you are LITERALLY forced to meet your maker in the most terrifying way possible. Yara stands relaxed and sleepily in the doorway of Jay's bedroom, inquiring about the commotion. Victims Annie Marshall - Bled to death after the Entity tore her legs in half. Yes, mom? When she comes around, Hugh tells her that by having sex, he has passed a curse on to her and that It will now follow her around. Almost certainly. As she bolts past another house, there are clearly pumpkins on the porch. By passing it along and abusing someone else. It will perpetually be walking towards Jay's location at all times, no matter where she is. )Writer/Director David Robert Mitchell knows how to build a chilling atmosphere. That wouldn't have any immediate significance to Jay but could be one last taunt directed at its previous target. I think thats exactly what David Robert Mitchell did in It Follows. With that in mind, let's talk about some other themes that It Follows has on its mind, beyond just sex. ), Writer/Director David Robert Mitchell knows how to build a chilling atmosphere. While explaining the death curse rules, Hugh points out a naked woman approaching in the distance, at a slow but steady clip. The next morning, she is found brutally murdered, with her leg twisted and snapped at an unnatural angle. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. It's Yara, half-asleep and perplexed by the uproar. Afterwards, Jaime "Jay" Height goes on a date with her new boyfriend, Hugh, to the movies. Box Office: 'Exotic Marigold' Sequel Topples 'Fifty Shades', "It Follows, review: 'tender, ingenious and scalp-prickingly scary', "Toronto 2014, Day One: Judging Robert Downey Jr., catching up with Locarno and Cannes", "Why "It Follows" is the best horror movie in over a decade", "It Follows: 'Love and sex are ways we can push death away', "No Safe Space: Economic Anxiety and Post-Recession Spaces in Horror Films", "Don't Let It Touch You: Watching It Follows in the Age of Coronavirus", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=It_Follows&oldid=1136363944, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2016, Articles with MusicBrainz release group identifiers, Articles with MusicBrainz work identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Lili Sepe as Kelly Height, Jaime's sister, Bailey Spry as Annie Marshall, one of the entity's victims, Debbie Williams as Mrs. 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. Alone, Jay cautiously makes her way to the kitchen to see the damage for herself. It Follows (2014) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. It has some kind of insight into determined causality of events. Her inciting consensual experience was savagely undone by Hugh's chloroforming and binding of her before she could even dress. But I do want to say that when I wrote this, I had some bigger set pieces, a few things that I sort of simplified, and some stuff that we chose to cut out because of the budget and time, so there's all kinds of fun things that could be done with this concept and story. Theyre meant to alert him in case anything enters. Next, we saw Greg's mom, who breaks his neck and then rapes him. Because subconsciously, your brain is picking up on these things but you dont know it. As Jay tries to get out of the pool, it pulls her underwater by the ankle. It's Yara, half-asleep and perplexed by the uproar. WHY?). By subscribing, you agree to the terms of our Privacy Policy, 70s Horror Movies: 100+ Scary Films from the 1970s, 30+ Horror Movies For Beginners Start Here, Turkish Horror Movies: Scary Movies Movies Made in Turkey, Bollywood Horror Films: The Best Hindi Scary Movies, 30+ Summer Horror Movies To Keep You Screaming All Season Long, 19 of Jordan Peeles Favorite Horror Movies, Best Russian Horror Movies: From the Soviet Union to Today, Best Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now (March 2023), Spanish Horror Movies: The Best Scary Movies in Spanish, Scream Queen! Most recently, Michael helped launch Screen Rant's new horror section, and is now the lead staff writer when it comes to all things frightening. Jeff initially explains to Jay that It often appears as loved ones in order to catch its victims unaware. Her inciting consensual experience was savagely undone by Hugh's chloroforming and binding of her before she could even dress. The protagonist, Prince Myshkin, is an extremely kind person trying to make his way in an unkind world. She was well-dressed, perhaps ready to go out, when IT finally got close enough for her to realize it was a threat and she just bolted, ill-equipped footwear be damned. At dawn, it is revealed that she has been brutally murdered. The title refers to the idea that people view Myshkin as "an idiot" because of his kindness, but the book argues that he's far wiser than the people around him. Jay, waiting in the pool, spots the entity and realizes it has taken the appearance of her deceased father. "[31], Following the film's success, Radius-TWC co-president Tom Quinn announced that the studio was looking into a possible sequel. "[6] On review aggregator website Metacritic, the film has an average rating of 83 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". The Follower is a punishment for that fabled, suburban image of sex, and that fear that, after sex, there's nothing left but death at your heels. Jay, Kelly (Lilie Sepe), Paul (Keir Gilchrist), and Yara (Olivia Luccardi) break into an indoor public pool after hours. The critical consensus states: "Smart, original and, above all, terrifying, It Follows is the rare modern horror film that works on multiple levels and leaves a lingering sting. What's one way that you can temporarily gain freedom from this monster? She takes her parents' car and drives to the beach, where she tearfully tells her father over the phone that she loves him. After Jay has slept with Greg, a ball is seen bouncing from the direction of Jay's house towards Greg's house. The first formIt Follows' entity takes after Hugh has passed the curse on to Jay Height (Maika Monroe) is of a naked middle-aged woman. Contents 1 Description 2 Biography 3 Personality 4 Gallery 5 Navigation Description Some films are easy to leave behind, while others follow. Before going on her date with Hugh/Jeff, Jay is seen swimming in her backyard pool. 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. It Follows is about abuse. Worried that she's suffering a mental breakdown, Jay's sister Kelly (Lili Sepe), friends Yara (Olivia Luccardi) and Paul (Keir Gilchrist), and neighbor Greg (Daniel Zovatto) rally around her. In a few brief scenes throughout the film, we see photographs of younger versions of Jay and Kelly with the same man that It looks like in the end. We just made it up. Its all on purpose, though. I don't, however, believe that The Follower's form when it killed Greg was simply out of convenience. [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 Follows is part of a wave of films in the 2010s where horror films arent just good horror films, but good films period. Because of this trauma, Jay becomes "haunted" by the event, represented by a monster that now follows her. She's the naked lady. In a way, the It of It Follows ends up being the scariest monster in horror film history, because from a certain point of view, it's real, and one day, it really will get you. For example, before Greg's death, it appeared as Greg to fool Jay for as much time as possible, and also to break his window and enter his house. The Ending Of It Follows Finally Explained. It's more often presented with a knowing wink in the context of a satiric horror comedies like Scream or The Cabin in the Woods. It's the precise type of scene that would otherwise allow the viewer a moment to soothe their rapid pulse. It was released theatrically in France on February 4, 2015 and in the United Kingdom on February 27. 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. Paul starts shooting at where he thinks the entity is, but he ends up hitting Yara in the leg. "[7] Mitchell said that while Jaime "opens herself up to danger through sex, the one way in which she can free herself from that danger We're all here for a limited amount of time and we can't escape our mortality but love and sex are two ways in which we can at least temporarily push death away. Once in the poolhouse, Jay enters the pool while the rest place a variety of electrical appliances around its edge. Highly disturbed, Jay's friends agree to spend the night to keep her company. The movie was a great commercial and critical hit. The director has stated in various interviews that he intentionally mixed in a bunch of different bits of fashion and technology from different decades, to keep the film from becoming immediately dated and to give it a bit of a timeless and dreamlike feel. "[25] Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph gave the film five out of five stars and said, "With its marvellously suggestive title and thought-provoking exploration of sex, this indie chiller is a contemporary horror fan's dream come true. Michael Kennedy is an avid movie and TV fan that's been working for Screen Rant in various capacities since 2014. (Greg's Date (Pretty Girl in Car))-/5. But what follows? At school, Jay sees an old woman in a hospital gown walking towards her, invisible to others. Featured as forms of the entity are Ingrid Mortimer, Alexyss Spradlin, Mike Lanier, and Don Hails. But then, at the theater for their date, Hugh/Jeff, Jay, and EVERY SINGLE OTHER PERSON IN LINE is wearing heavy winter coats. Instead, Mitchell uses it to sneak in another unexpected scare. The film never lays down definitive rules for how the creature works, so if you want to poke holes, it's defenseless. 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. The kitchen in Jays house is straight out of the 1970s, down to the ugly orange-and-avocado-colored appliances. There are a few different theories at play here allow me to explain. This represents the idea that sometimes, people who are abused process their trauma in the most unhealthy way possible by becoming abusers themselves. However, this cant all be attributed to romance, and some very sinister factors have pushed them together. Jay, unable to sleep, heads downstairs to watch TV with Paul. The monster in It Followsseems to enjoy using naked forms to go after its prey, which makes sense given its links to sexuality. Greg Hannigan. For most of the film, Jay is directly targeted by It until Greg, skeptical of the danger, has sex with her. Every Single Jamie Lee Curtis Horror Movie, Heres Why You Missed The Scariest Part Of It Follows. All of this, combined with carefully choreographed terror that can come from anywhere in the wide-open spaces, induces agoraphobic dread.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. All the TVs are either clunky CRT units from the 1980s-1990s or even older models with rabbit-ears and dials. Therefore, as long as Jay is alive, the entity will not come for him. 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. Heres why: In the final pool scene, the ending of the movie, Jay spots IT coming towards her. Assume that Greg's cabin is a hundred miles away from Detroit, but it still finds them the very next day. With no It Follows sequel seemingly on the horizon, that mysteryis likely to stay unsolved, but as some other instances of horror movies filling in monster backstories prove, sometimes the mystery is the better option. The set further disorients with decor from various eras- unconventional and made-up technology clashes with retro televisions that play '50s sci-fi features. Jay, Paul, Kelly, and Yara then come up with a plan to try and stop the entity and head to the community pool. It kicks in again as an almost unnaturally tall figure emerges from the dark behind Yara. Where did the entity come from, and is it gone forever? Mr. If it catches Jay, it will kill her and pursue the previous person to have passed it on: Hugh, who is passing it to Jay as leverage. If they tell you what that is all a story is about, they are very definitely wrong." 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. The plot of the film revolves around a teenage girl named Jay who is pursued by a supernatural entity after her sexual encounter. In fact, modern technology is mostly absent throughout the film except for this thing. Following The Babadook (2014), The Conjuring (2013), and Insidious (2010), It Follows is the next big thing when it comes to horror. Youre trying to figure out what the time period is and there simply isnt one. ", In terms of sequel concepts, Tom Quinn co-president of one of the film's distributors said he'd want to "flip the title" in a sequel. Sorry to break it to you, but there's definitively, purposefully no answer to these questions. Shortly after Greg is killed, Jay spots three young men hanging out on the deck of a boat. [20] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 95% approval rating and a rating average score of 8.10/10, based on 270 reviews. It certainly makes it more horrifying for me. Each of its appearances happens to fulfill a specific purpose. He then drives them away from the area, dropping a shaken and exposed Jay off in front of her house before fleeing. Perhaps their dad was an abusive jerk, and that's why it's so painful to see him again. She refuses help offered to her by a neighbor and quickly gets into her car and drives away. 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. Height's fate isn't explained in It Follows but he's clearly not in the picture anymore. Based on her delivery, Jay seems deeply shaken by whatever she's looking at. But after a seemingly-innocent sexual encounter, she is plagued by strange visions and the inescapable sense that someone, or something, is following her. Firing blindly into the pool, Paul manages to shoot the creature again in the head, and this time, it stays dead. Even though years have passed since its initial release, It Follows has stuck with us. Given that It Follows was both a critical and commercial success, should we be expecting an endless array of sequels and spinoffs, in the vein of A Nightmare on Elm Street? Height, Jaime and Kelly's mother, Ruby Harris as Mrs. Redmond, Jeff's mother, This page was last edited on 30 January 2023, at 00:15. If you havent seen it yet I recommend getting your hands on a copy, watching it, then coming back to this analysis. Similarly, later when Kelly and Jay are wandering the neighborhood, theyre both dressed for at the very least pretty chilly weather. It Follows is a 2014 psychological supernatural horror film that centers on a mysterious entity that relentlessly follows its victims. So the answer that makes the most sense, thematically, is "yes." [Spoilers for "It Follows"] Did anyone else who saw "It Follows" find it weird and confusing? It Follows is currently the highest-rated film on Metacritic, though some critics have actually found it too scary. IT cant walk through walls! but isnt it more interesting to learn this the same way Jay does by pure investigation? However, the film does offer clues as to what It can and cannot do, so lets check those out. Spoiler alert! Subtle shifts in seasons and time subconsciously unsettle as viewers cannot place when and where the narrative takes place. The way he carelessly dumps her on the street only further the assault metaphor. The abruptness of its appearance delivers another potent scare, clocking in just two minutes after the previous encounter.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. Their quiet conversation gets interrupted by the sound of breaking glass. 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Up hitting Yara in the final pool scene, the entity are Ingrid Mortimer, Alexyss Spradlin, Lanier. By pure investigation with that in mind, let 's talk about some other themes that Follows...
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