Dan Abel’s review published on Letterboxd:
31 Days of Horror 2021 - Film 28
"I need you to listen to me. This thing....it's going to follow you, and I passed it on to you back in the car..."
Jay is out with her boyfriend one night. After sleeping with him in the back of his car he knocks her out. She wakes up to the boyfriend pacing back and forth with a warning. Something is following him. A strange being that stalks, follows, and kills it's victims. Only the eventual victim and those who passed it on can see it and it can shapeshift into anyone. The sole way of temporarily throwing it off is to have sex with someone else, passing the burden onto them. Temporarily....because once it kills it moves backwards down the line.
I remember years ago seeing that early beach scene and knowing I was in for a trip. It's been awhile but that scene still works on multiple viewings. It Follows flew under my radar for a few years but when I finally saw it around 2017 I was floored. A killer that is passed on as what is basically an STD. It can only be seen by the potential victim and it shapeshifts into anyone it wants. The ultimate predator. Once it kills it's victim it reverses back through the people who passed it on. What a concept. I'm sure it's an allegory for something but that's not my schtick to examine. All I know is this mysterious pursuer RULES!!
Some people view the soundtrack as "trying too hard" but I'm not one of them. Not only is this soundtrack amazing, but when you consider the time it was released, it was daring. The comeback of synth wasn't prevalent yet. Once again I disagree with the haters when I say I'm so glad it's back. Milk it, overplay it, I don't care because it's AWESOME!! There is this one scene where all the friends are scared and then an abnormally tall man comes out of the darkness with a perfectly timed musical cue as he has to hunch over to walk through the door. Only the stalked victim can see this monstrous man while the others are questioning why she's panicked. How cool is that?
I love Hereditary but anytime people toss it around as "the best horror film of the 2010s" my immediate response is always "maybe, but what about It Follows? " People have seem to forgotten the revitalizing shot in the arm it gave to our genre. " It Follows " made the revival of synth soundtracks and retro pacing a viable mainstream horror formula again. It made the "unstoppable force" slasher film in the 1980s aesthetic viable again. The Jaws formula. Impending doom personified in a living thing. Everyone in the horror world knew it was forgotten greatness but no one wanted to take the risk until this film came along and repaved that neglected road. Where is the praise for David Robert Mitchell and his vision? I'll tell you where it is. RIGHT HERE!!
As much as the film wants to portray her as a good person in a tough spot our main character Jay is still just a tremendous piece of shit. Sure she is a victim herself but she'll pass on her burden to anyone, voluntarily or not. She is just as bad, if not worse than the person who gave the pursuer to her. She'll bang you without telling you the consequences or she'll take advantage of the nerd who has been in love with her for years. Anything to buy herself a few extra hours. As far as I am concerned she is a villain but this film is the shit. I wish we had more modern films on this level, but unfortunately no one else has figured out how to perfect this stuff.
