It Follows

I wish this movie were better than it is. It has this awesome reputation as a great, slow burn horror movie that uses the sex=death trope as the central premise, but in a new way. And before I shred this movie’s huge flaws, yes. It does slow burn very well. The premise of an STD death curse that you can only get rid of by having sex with someone, but that it can come back to you if it kills the person you had sex with, is a fascinating concept. And the way the monster is executed is well done too, as it’s relentless walking is chilling. But this movie is hampered by so many problems. The direction is bizarre, with long sequences of silence or an awkward nothing happening. The script has some inexplicable moments, such as when they track down the guy who gave it to the movie’s lead; rather than run or fight, he just sits with them and explains it. Or the nonsensical ending, where it suddenly can’t stand bullet wounds after shrugging off a direct shot to the head earlier in the movie. Or how it is explicitly said “if it touched you, you’re dead”; so, when it is able to get to our heroine, why does it play with her hair and not kill her? Why did it start stalking her right away and at school, but when they try to find the guy who gave it to her, the entity backs off? And then there’s the poorly explained rules. Okay, sex is required to pass it on. What if you participate in a three-way? Or an orgy? What about oral, or a handjob? Does it require there be emotion behind it, or could you bang a prostitute and get rid of it that way? That leads to the movie’s biggest failing; it doesn’t do much with this concept. The overwhelming majority of the runtime is “see monster, run, repeat”. There’s a neighbor who is a handsome young man, and he and the heroine sleep together so he can take the curse off her; meanwhile, a best friend who has a crush on her is a bit geeky, and implied he’s a virgin. There’s something there to explore about how she doesn’t want to give it to someone who isn’t likely to get laid again and pass on the curse, or the moral problem of passing on the curse at all and how it cheapens sex to a supernatural rape of sorts. This is hinted at but never explored. That’s the story of this movie: promise never explored. It could be better. It has the kernel of a good movie in there. But it just can’t find a way to make it work.