New horror movie "It Follows"

I liked all those films AND It Follows. One of the biggest fans of the film was John Carpenter, who raved about it.

 

Still doesn't take away the fact that this is a film 40 years behind in originality. The hype surrounding it is ridiculous and, as you know, undeserved given the dozens of much more impactful entries into cinema history. Just because it's an independent and quirky film made today doesn't mean it can place against the greatest period in American cinema. The problem here remains an ignorance (not yours) of the full scope of horror, cult, and other cinematic offerings on both sides of the Atlantic. This film is overrated because no one realizes that horror hasn't been Dracula for decades.

 

I consider It Follows probably the best horror movie of this decade as a serious horror fan. A very creepy, original idea for a genre that swims in derivative storytelling. Sure, if you look too closely at the plot there are some holes and contrivances, but that could be said of virtually every major action/horror movie.

 

I've got it just a hair behind "The Witch" for best recent horror movies.

 

No doubt.

 

I thought the idea was a variation of The Ring: watch a video and as a result something nasty is coming to kill you unless you pass it on to someone else. Replace "watch a video" with "have sex with someone", sprinkle to taste.

--Geoff

 

Similar premise, but It Follows handles it in a more artistic fashion. The key to genre films is not originality of the plot, it's how you operate within the established parameters of the genre, how personal and effective and uniquely you can handle well-worn genre machinations. There are a million haunted house films for example, you're not going to reinvent the wheel with that premise, but you can still make a fantastic film working within those limitations if you're an inventive filmmaker.

 

I think some modern horror movies get "excessive praise" because the genre is so stagnant. Seems like 98% of modern horror is just a lot of nothing punctuated with "boo!" moments, so when something different comes along, it gets praised more than it may deserve just because it shakes off some cobwebs...

 

Last time I was convinced to see a horror movie because of excessive praise was Cabin Fever. What a steaming pile that was. Never again.

 

Never saw that one! Not an Eli Roth fan, so I doubt I'd like it.

For a second, I thought you were discussing "Cabin in the Woods" - now that was a modern horror movie that I really liked!

 

If only there was a website where we could read more about your opinion of this movie.

Oh well...

 

For you blu-ray collectors, there are a few steelbook versions of this out or coming soon.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81-8+YSwXxL._SL1500_.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1557/26346726531_30f76200b4_b.jpg

The 80's style slasher art is okay, but I'm not overly impressed. It does look a bit nicer than the standard in that it at least doesn't have the reviewer quotes or big "BLU-RAY + DIGITAL HD" banner.

There's also some label (Kimchi?) who I've never heard of that is putting out a steelbook that looks more like the original art, but without all the hype blurbs.

Kimchidvd - The photo of the "It Follows" steelbook | Facebook »

 

... and after finally seeing it last night, I can confirm that I was absolutely right.

 

ok

 

I know this is a little off topic but I have to get this off my chest:

I just will not watch any horror related movie with scaring the living daylights out of you is the sole intention. Creepy a** music, walking slowly, around a corner, just knowing some s**t's about to happen to make you shiver like a b***h is just not something I enjoy or even dare to do anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I use to when I was younger. Seen The Exorcist when I was young and I think I suffer from post traumatic horror movie syndrome from seeing it. To this day, just thinking about it creeps me out.

Kudos to you guy's who watch them....I'll read about them and that's as far as I go anymore.

 

It Follows is available for those who have the Netflix streaming option or, in my case, your significant other has the streaming option. So I watched it this weekend. This is one creepy movie. I am not a horror film fan per se, but I'll watch almost any movie if it gets excellent reviews. For example, I do think that The Green Room and Don't Breath are both good to very good horror movies. Maybe not great, but both were entertaining.

I think It Follows is way better than either of them. It is a simple premise, but it is executed so well. And the music is super creepy. The "it" in this movie is far more terrifying than the evil in either of the two movies mentioned above.

On Rotten Tomatoes, there are 215 positive reviews, and 7 negative reviews, something like 97%. I don't watch many horror movies, but I think this is the best one I have seen in maybe a decade. No, I'm a grown adult male, so I'm not going to have trouble sleeping tonight. But it's still a fine movie. There are least 215 others who agree with me. I'm really stunned by how good this movie is. Two thumbs way up.

PhantomStranger (post #178) nails it -- he is a serious horror fan and considers this the best horror movie of this decade.

 

Glad you enjoyed it. It Follows and The Witch are my two favorite horror movies in quite some time.

 

Unfortunately, I was not bewitched by The Witch. But do vampire movies rate as horror movies? If so, I would place the Swedish Let The Right One In among the premier horror movies of the past decade.

 

My girl absolutely hated this movie and pretty much did her own MST3K running commentary the entire time. I don't think she was alone, though. When I saw it in the theater multiple people got up early and left. It's definitely not a movie for folks with a more modern mainstream horror taste.

 

i'm OK with the witch, but let the right one in is sublime. such a great movie. the (unnecessary) american remake actually wasn't awful. i consider it follows to be right up there with LTROI

 

I think those people who got up early and left had first looked around in the theater, saw that they were being followed, felt uncomfortable and for that reason left.

 

I think there's just a lot of disrespect in general from folks who are used to and expect a certain style from movies. My girl, for example, grew up with post-Scream horror and has trouble watching more classic slow burning films that are more about atmosphere and character study than jump scares, body counts, and loud musical cues. The rise of the horror-comedy has also been a factor, I'd say. Just about every time we watch horror or sci-fi together at home, I can always expect laughing or condescending commentary during neutral scenes because they're "cheesy," "too serious," or any other random reason. Campy movies are pretty much a no-go at this point because it'll turn into an amateur MST3K fest.

 

SPOILERS (in a thread full of them)

Finally saw this last night - I've deliberately avoided this thread so I could go in without preconceptions.

Overall - I liked it, I liked the idea, and it was well done. It was creepy, but it really didn't scare me at all. It was absorbing, but not frightening. It made me think - and I give it extra credit for that.

I'm still sorting through some of it, cause not everything is clearly explained or shown - which is fine, I don't like being spoonfed by a movie. I do think I'm getting a pretty good take on what is going on.

There are some major problems with the plot - I wish it had been tightened up and thought out better. I didn't mind at the time, but after watching it and then thinking about it, there were things that either contradicted each other or just made no sense - and way too much of the movie was dependent on these.

Please feel free to challenge or inform me on any of these, cause I really want to understand the film correctly.

First and foremost - How in the hell does Hugh actually know all these facts about "It" that he tells Jay? Where did he learn this? How could he possibly know that if "It" catches and kills someone, then it goes back down the line to whoever was previously cursed/infected? This makes no sense to me at all.

Why does it take "It" so much longer to catch up with some people than others? Specifically, Greg appears to be free from being followed for several days after sleeping with Jay - he keeps saying nothing is happening. Eventually it does, but at that point we have already seen how quickly "It" starts to follow. They even travel out to the country to temporarily buy some time, but "It" shows up there within what appears to be no more than half a day - if that. Basically most of the plot is about these people buying time - so time has to make sense within this plot and it does NOT.

Ok, this is my take on the ending. Yes, Jay and Paul are being followed. Jay thought about trying to give IT to a prostitute, but he did not, which if you think about it makes sense. It's a stupid idea - the prostitute would be quickly killed by "It" and then the curse would just revert back to him. So knowing that, what is the only way to keep this thing at bay? Jay and Paul decide to swap it back and forth between themselves to keep IT in a constant state of following one of them or the other but never catching either. This situation forges them together as a "couple," which is shown by their holding hands.

Now, to me, that WOULD be a very cool and satisfactory ending - EXCEPT, given the speed at which IT begins to follow a victim, these two would have to be having sex several times a day for the rest of their lives for this to work.

So basically, all of this works, IF we can account for how fast this thing begins to follow someone and how fast it's able to zero in on them after infection. The film doesn't and it really nearly destroys a really good idea.

I'm sure I've got more to say, but I'll leave it at that for now.

 

I didn't think the point of "It a Follows" was to scare you but create a sense of dread--quite a different approach and more of a Victorian horror film than "We Are Still Here". The sex aspect plays I to the Victorian elements as well borrowing from Henry James, etc. in fact, in some respects, this reminds me of a variation on "The Turn of The Screw" (via "The Innocents" since, given the approach, this is far more likely to have been the source or one of the more recent adaptations).

The dread of sex, temptation of the flesh, the contradictory nature of the social norms today and that of this ancient creature/curse, the possibility that it was imaginary (although the director elects to make it literal in the second act--not much choice given as the narrative progresses and, honestly, taking away the ambiguity of the curse does, to an extent, does make this signicantly different- some would argue lesser.

 

Another fairly good horror movie is The Eyes of My Mother: Amazon.com: the eyes of my mother blu-ray

It is a Portuguese movie, and the black-and-white fits it well. I actually had to read the wikipedia article (after I finished viewing the movie) to appreciate a detail or so, but it is really terrifying when you grasp what is going on. It was streaming on Netflix at one time.