IT FOLLOWS (2014) - SEXUALY TRANSMITTED SERIAL KILLER SHOCKER.

DIRECTED & WRITTEN by David Robert Mitchell.

STARRING  - Maika Monroe as Jaime Height,  Kier Gilchrist as Paul Bouldan, Olivia Luccardi as Yara Davis,  Lili Sepe as Kelly Height,  Daniel Zovatto as Greg Hannigan,  Jake Weary as Hugh/Jeff Redmond.

PLOT - University student Jaime Height goes on a date with her new boyfriend, Hugh. During the course of the date they have sex for the first time, afterwards Hugh knocks Jaime unconscious with a drug soaked rag over her mouth.

Coming round, Jaime finds herself tied up in a disused warehouse. Hugh explains that he has been cursed and by having sex with Jaime he has now passed the curse onto her. He tells her that a shape shifting entity has attached itself to her and is now following her.

The entity can take the shape of any person, it could be anyone and can get anywhere... and it will follow her until it catches her and when it does she will die. The only way to rid herself of the creature is to have sex with someone else, if the entity then kills that person, it will resume hunting Jaime again.

The entity then manifests itself, Hugh releases Jaime and the two narrowly escape with thier lives...

And so it begins...the entity is following Jaime, getting closer with every heartbeat.

It could look like a loved one...it could look like a stranger...it could be young or old...it could look like a man, woman or child...

But it WILL follow...and it WILL kill...

DIALOUGE  - Hugh - "It could look like someone you know or it could be a stranger in a crowd. Whatever helps it get close to you..."

PERFORMANCES  - Although It Follows could be said to be part of the teen slasher genre it offers a new and unique take on an old theme. The performances of it's young cast reflect this.

Rather than the stereotypes that we usually see in slasher films, the teens here seem much more subdued and restrained. There are no wild parties, no drugs, no practical jokers, no awkward geeks or bullying high school jocks...just ordinary kids. I like this approach as it makes the characters seem more realistic and the various actors performances reflect this.  The subdued tone of the kids only serves to add to the mood and atmosphere.

Maika Monroe is great in the main role of Jaime. She's not so much "The final girl" as such, she's the ongoing victim. She's mentally tortured by the supernatural death sentence she's got hanging over her head - she's afraid, paranoid and makes some questionable choices over the course of the story. She's not perfect or particularly virtuous - she's a normal girl who just made the mistake of sleeping with the wrong boy and now she's paying for it. Monroe is a very talented young actress and I'm surprised we've not seen more of her since 2014.

Kier Gilchrist plays Paul who becomes Jaime's main love interest over the course of the film. The two are old childhood sweethearts who grew apart and have lots of nice scenes together. Paul is a bit of a 50's sci-fi fan, you see him watching old B-movies like Killers From Space at various points, he's the closest thing we get to a traditional "geek" character but not excessively so. It's just an interest and hobby the character has, it doesn't define him.

Paul offers to take the curse off Jaime by sleeping with her which she refuses. The two get together after the entity appears to have been beaten but thier ultimate fate is left ambiguous. Who is that who is walking down the street behind them in the film's final shot ?...

Daniel Zovatto plays Greg. Like Paul, Greg also has feelings for Jaime. He's a lot cockier and more confident than Paul. Greg also offers to sleep with Jaime to remove the curse, this time Jaime does take up the offer.

You get the impression that Greg isn't taking the situation one hundred percent seriously, at least in the sense that he doubts the existence of the creature, even if his offer of sex does come from a desire to make Jaime feel safer and reassured. Needless to say, Greg pays for this bravado with his life when the entity catches up with him a few days later...

SFX - This movie features little to no actual special effects as such. We never see the entity's true form, so there's no need for any prosthetics or C.G.I. creature designs. What we get instead are the various forms that the follower takes, otherwise normal looking human beings shot in ways that make them look sinister and menacing. They all look somehow "off" in some way, sometimes it's via subtle makeup and lighting...

Other times it's just by where the character is standing or what the character is or isn't wearing...

Every manifestation of the creature just feels wrong, and this just adds to the overall creep factor.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - This film takes the usual sex=death trope and runs with it. We do see sex scenes but they're all artfully shot, there's no boobs and bums to be seen here. Sex is used more as a theme rather than for cheap thrills, in fact it could be argued that the movie's entire storyline is a metaphor about S.T.D's - it's the ultimate cautionary tale about being careful who you sleep with.

The only real gore we see is in the film's first scene where we see the outcome of what happens when the entity catches up with you...

Ouch !!!

There's a bit of blood when the entity gets shot in a swimming pool, again it's presented artistically rather than gratuitously...

The weirdest scene is when Greg is killed. The creature adopts the form of his mum and shags him to death (presumably this it how it kills all its victims - it rapes them so hard that they literally break and die from the injuries). You never see any injuries on Greg, he's just stone cold dead. It's a truly twisted scene and idea.

RATING  - It Follows offers a bold new twist on a familiar theme. It's creepy, subtle, subdued and has a doom laden, menacing atmosphere. It's also beautifully shot.

It's one of those films that makes you look at whats happening in the background just as much as you're watching the foreground action.  You're always on the lookout for a figure homing into view, walking towards us. It makes for an incredibly immersive viewing experience. It reminds me in many ways of the 70's Invasion Of The Body Snatchers remake which used similar techniques to draw the viewer into the story and create a sense of paranoia.

If you're looking for a fast moving, jump scare leaden gore fest then It Follows is NOT the movie for you. If however, you're looking for something that's quieter, more atmospheric and has a brooding sense of dread then this film DEFINITELY has you covered.

Overall I'm giving this 5 sexualy transmitted stalkers out of 5. A class act and probably one of the best horror films of the 2010's.

POSTER/DVD ART  -