It Follows

[DoomBot]

It's best not to think too hard when watching a horror movie.

[jerryshadoe]

@ DoomBot - Agreed.

As far as what I said about the film earlier, I do NOT think this film was a masterpiece, but for a low-budget, no-known actors movie, it was pretty decent. Granted, there were some "problems" with it, but overall it was fun to watch and I appreciate it being brought up here. Thanx to OP for the suggestion

[PDB]

Spoiler and warning of long meanderings

Actually I love that you had a deferring opinion Aluminum Falcon. Makes discussing movie that much more fun. Bring what I thought of the movie into focus. I guess a lot of it is how you interpret/look at the film. The comparisons I and others made to Halloween really stops at the cinematography and the score. Beyond that the the two have little in common which makes for a great place to compare.

Like you pointed out, Halloween sets it story, sets it rules and follows through on its own internal logic to the end. There is a killer, he has escaped, he is going to kill. Its a plot boiled down to the essentials. Hell, even in the face of breaking its own logic with Michael driving, its pushes it back into place: "he was doing fine". An example of its concrete rules is that unlike the kin it spawned, Halloween always has you know were Michael is. He is not supernatural (not at this point?) so he has to use the same physics as all the other characters (well being more bullet resistant lol).

It Follow is the complete opposite. Almost literally sets it rules and then proceeds to follow (no pun intended) them when it feels like it. The reason in my interpretation is that It Follow uses a dream logic whereas Halloween uses concrete, real world (for a movie) logic. Think about it. When does this movie take place. The 50's era TVs. The 60s or 70s era decor in the houses. What kids wear, their attitudes, the cars, the buildings, using the ruined Detroit (Btw I spotted it as Detroit from the beginning, that place has a look). The advanced calm-shell reader seems to be the only bit of advanced technology that I can remember. And that conflicts with everything else. To me that created a picture that this film exists outside of normal rules/logic, outside of time, hence the dream logic. Bits and pieces from memory and history.

That might be a cop-out to some but I took its as advertising this isn't going to logically fit together. The rules established for the "killer" seems to not always fit. It has to bash a window in and crawl through a window but then can be on a roof with little effort. Sometimes people you know, sometimes a giant man. But for no reason. It takes time for it to catch up to you but how long? Like you said there is the flaw that they could fly to another country or stay on a boat. To me, that's not a flaw because in the world of this the movie, wherever you go, it will follow and pop up pretty quickly after you. You can't run. Its an invisible, supernatural creature. You can only buy yourself time and pass it on for someone else to deal with. And then its only some time. There is no logic to it, nor do I think there was meant to be.

Michael has a history, motivation. The It has no history outside of what we are told and even then that could be wrong. There is no why. Like you said, you know who the characters are in Halloween, what their motivation are, what they want to accomplish. They are separate real characters from the protagonist. In it follows the characters rarey exists out side of the protagonist vision. They only exist to serve the main character. Again a cop out to some but more dream logic to me. In a dream character can't exist outside of that dream. Look at how soon the believe her about a invisible killer. Would you believe her, hell no. More dream logic.

As for the sex part, I took that as a play on Halloween and its kin. Sex equals death. I don't think it was saying anything about sex itself (outside of a STD comparison) but was more playing on or riffing on 80s horror. You have sex and you will be killed. Its an understood audience joke in 80s eras films but It Follows elevates it to a rule. It seems to be the only concrete rule that It Follows...follows. Its like a couple of guys joked about that silly rule from 80s horror and said, hey lets make a whole movie about that.

In the end both Halloween and It Follows do share one more thing in common and run heavily on mood. That's something I like. I don't want to see people torn apart. I want to be scared, be uneasy and to me mood is the best to do that. Halloween and It Follws just take different paths to get there and I appreciate both for that.

I will finish my long ramblings by saying that why I really liked it, It Follows is not the second coming. It does have flaws but we see different flaws in it. That and Fury Road is better.