Over 10 Years Later, Horror Indie Is Still an Anti-Slasher Masterpiece

In 2014, It Follows gained notoriety among horror fans and critics for its suspense and impressive visuals. Over a decade later, It Follows has retained the praise and admiration of an audience that can be divisive and finicky about the offerings they’re presented with. Director David Robert Mitchell tapped into the vein of many standard slasher and horror tropes and, in many ways, went completely against them in a film that thrives on suspense, atmosphere, remarkable cinematography, and a commentary on sexual promiscuity that hadn’t been seen since Shivers by David Cronenberg.

It Follows can almost be seen as the definitive anti-slasher film of the modern era. Sacrificing visceral effects and sensationalized death in favor of connecting the audience to the characters through dissonance and reinforcing the more subtle horror of what one doesn’t see. The slasher genre, which was rather basic and took delight in punishing teenagers for promiscuity and drug use, also possessed puritanical overtones of conservatism. It Follows broke away from this altogether; rather than punishing its main protagonist for promiscuity, Mitchell tapped into the universal dread accompanying disease and the consequences of youthful transgressions. A decade later, following a global pandemic, It Follows feels more relatable now than it did at the time of its release.

It Follows

Release Date

March 27, 2015

Runtime

100minutes

Teenage Promiscuity and the Dread of Disease

The relationship between the horror genre and disease has been varied. A common trope that many films rely on is the “patient zero” approach, where the cause of the infection or epidemic starts with a singular individual who must be destroyed to halt the spread. It Follows finds a way to address disease in a way that is far more true to life than other films in that it’s depicted as a contagion that doesn’t discriminate and spreads from person to person following a sexual encounter. It’s relatively easy to see this as emblematic of any venereal disease or HIV, in which an individual’s sexual history is passed on from person to person.

Not only does It Follows break away from the puritanical overtones of punishing teenage promiscuity prevalent in many slasher films from years earlier, but the film manifests disease in a way that thrives on a classic horror trope. Films such as Repulsion and The Haunting are so scary because of what they don’t ​​​​​​show. The aspects of the disease that follow the main protagonist, Jay (Maika Monroe), and others who have been affected take the form of mysterious beings that only they can see and no one else.

It Follows has a disconnect that makes the audience aware of these beings by emphasizing the reactions of the supporting characters to events in which they assault Jay, yet also makes them visible to the audience through Jay’s perspective. The dissonance between these two different perspectives heightens the suspense and terror in It Follows to a fevered pitch, as the audience is made part of the narrative and the dread that comes with it.

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Atmosphere, Tone, and Utilizing the Camera as a Storyteller

Some of the most daring and innovative storytellers have used non-traditional camera work to accentuate the narratives they offer audiences. Directors such as Andrei Tarkovsky and Dario Argento made films in which the camera became just as important to the narrative as the actors. It Follows utilizes camerawork to its full potential, which separates it from many horror films of the modern era, in particular, the oversaturation of found-footage efforts that became prominent following the release of The Blair Witch Project.

The situation that Jay finds herself in already carries a fair amount of atmospheric tone that injects It Follows with an overarching sense of dread and atmosphere, particularly with the appearances of the apparitions following her. It Follows relies on a multitude of different camera styles to encapsulate the dread and fear of the situation. Using long, unbroken takes that mimic the perspective of seeing something occur far away yet also close by. The use of lengthy unbroken pans and tracking shots further implements the feelings of isolation accompanying the hopelessness of being stalked. While accentuating the film’s tone and atmosphere, the camerawork is imperative in relaying Jay’s situation to the audience.

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More Relatable Than Ever After More Than a Decade

It’s been over a decade since It Follows hit theaters and permanently secured its place in the annals of American horror cinema. A few short years after the dread that came about during a global pandemic, the film feels more relatable than it did when it was initially released. The themes It Follows addresses, such as disease and how it spreads rapidly, are identifiable in a post-pandemic world. Taking some of the themes prominent in some slasher titles, It Follows went against expectations, and the results certainly speak for themselves, even after a full decade.

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