December 08 2017, 21:14

It Follows (2014)

I avoided watching It Follows because the idea was unsettling. It’s a genius concept embedded in a homage to John Carpenter and Halloween. The characters are all on the cusp of adulthood with their parents barely around. Jay has sex with her new boyfriend and finds out he has passed on to her a curse that she can only get rid of by having sex with someone else. The cursed person is chased by slow shape-shifting dead people, visible only to them, moving methodically at walking pace. They are all ages, shapes and sizes, but always dead and gross.

The cinematography is wonderful—slow tracking shots, wide-angle views of suburban Detroit, open spaces drawing the eye of the viewer to look for the next zombie. Even the soundtrack is touched by John Carpenter, with the synth score serving the mood perfectly.

Who knew a single slow zombie could be so scary?

Next: High Rise