It Follows Review

RYAN: This indie horror film has had such fantastic buzz.  I feel like I’ve been hearing about it forever and it’s finally expanding into a wider release.  I’ve heard it was supposed to set a new standard for American horror.  I was excited to screen this.  I love horror movies but I’m so disappointed in this.  It sucks.  It’s confusing and frustrating.  The lore set up in the story – about a sexually transmitted curse – doesn’t have enough details to make sense.

ERIK: I think I liked it more than you did.

RYAN: You absolutely did.  I found too many holes in the script.  So many that I don’t even think it’s reasonable to ask the audience to have to make so many assumptions about what’s happening or how or why.  I kept waiting for it to make sense and for some more answers and they never came.

ERIK: I enjoyed it.  The movie does require you to try to figure things out.  For example, at the end, they’re coming up with a plan but we really don’t see it being formed, only in action.

RYAN: That didn’t work.  And even what doesn’t work doesn’t make sense.  Too many loose ends.  It may be due to editing where things were cut out for time or just a poor script but it’s overly confusing.  I was confused the entire length of the movie.

ERIK: I think you’re just supposed to try to follow along with each moment.

RYAN: Our brains desperately try to make sense of story while we watch film but there has to be reward.  Good filmmaking has a reward.  You don’t want it to be too obvious or too predictable, a challenge is good.  But there was no payoff in this movie.  There’s also no real explanation.

ERIK: And there is not concrete resolution which always leaves things open for a potential sequel.  I liked the moments where you’re questioning who in the film you can trust.

RYAN: The cinematography is fantastic, the framing, the movement of shots.  But the art design is awful.  The decoration is vile. You can’t tell what time period you’re in.  It’s somewhere between the 60s and today.  There’s one bit of digital technology, but then all the costumes and decor look super old.  So odd.  It’s time nonspecific.

ERIK: And that single modern contraption is the only thing that looks of a different time.  I’d like to think it’s all intentional on behalf of the director. It’s made with a sure hand.  There’s a lot of water in the film.

RYAN: Right and it may all be symbolic of something but again, confused.  No payoff or explanation.  I don’t mind movies that have open endings where you can debate the rest of your lives what happened or what you think the filmmakers were trying to say but this is not that.  This is just too general.

ERIK: It doesn’t have a “now we get it.”  I liked there was little exposition in the film.  I don’t mind being left puzzled.

RYAN: There is some intensity but not real suspense.  And it’s not scary but there are some gross moments.

ERIK: Some disturbing imagery on the beach, in a pool

RYAN: And the score! Some of it was ok but the rest was like a student film.  I actually said in the middle of the film that it was driving me nuts.  It annoyed me.

ERIK: It seemed deliberate.  The sound design was ok at times but the synthesizer does pull you out a bit.

RYAN: I’m let down.  I was horror movies to be scary.  This isn’t.  It’s just frustrating.

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