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| One piece of critical hyperbole looms over a creepy picture of a couple on the backseat of a car in the dark on this poster for David Robert Mitchell's It Follows |
A young woman is with her boyfriend in his car one evening, but their sexual activity develops into a nightmare for her, as she henceforth gets pursued by mysterious persons.
It Follows is written, co-produced and directed by David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover (2010)).
Shot enormously deliberately and with a visual focus of energy, (cinematographer Mike Gioulakis (Reptile (2023, VoD))), It Follows seems very carefully executed and never rushed. A seemingly floating use of different techniques stamps the film as highly modern and stylishly cool while also being rife with throw-back elements, (Children of the Corn (1984) and Halloween (1978) spring to mind, among other films.) Keir Gilchrist (Katie Says Goodbye (2016)) is luminous with a star-of-tomorrow quality.
It requires a lot to get sufficiently involved in the strange scenario for the film to become truly frightening, and it is likely too self-conscious for me to ever get to that level with it. Although there is arguably some brilliance to the film's subtext that the entering into adult life is to learn and get used to sexual and homicidal lunatics lurking everywhere. The ending is not entirely satisfying. In sync with the surrounding film, the 1980s-nostalgic score (by Disasterpeace (Under the Silver Lake (2018))) is dominated by style, and like It Follows over-all, it is a matter of taste.
Watch a teaser for the film here
Cost: 1 mil. $
Box office: 21.8 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 21.8 times its cost)
[It Follows premiered 17 May (Cannes Film Festival, side competition) and runs 100 minutes. Mitchell wrote the script based on a recurring nightmare of his. Shooting took place from September - October 2013 in Michigan. The film opened #30 to a 160k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #5. behind new releases Home and Get Hard and holdover hits The Divergent Series: Insurgent and Cinderella, in 1,218 theaters, grossing 14.6 mil. $ (67 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1.5 mil. $ (6.9 %) and France with 733k $(3.4 %). The film was nominated for 3 Independent Spirit awards and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Maika Monroe (Longlegs (2024)) is back with Mitchell for sequel They Follow, shooting in 2025. Mitchell returned with Under the Silver Lake (2018). Monroe returned in Echoes of War (2015); Gilchrist in Sea of Fire (2014, TV movie) and theatrically in Dark Summer (2015). It Follows is certified fresh at 95 % with an 8.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of It Follows?
