It Follows (2015)

*** out of ****

Scary movies are a dime a dozen, though very rarely do they actually scare. Cheap parlour tricks and loud bangs designed to make you jump are not scary, they're more silly. So when a truly scary movie comes along it's a rare, savoury treat. And “It Follows” is very rare indeed.

I can sum up how I felt watching this movie in three words: “Holy fucking crap!”

Jay (Maika Monroe) is a pretty college freshman who has a mysterious new boyfriend, Hugh (Jake Weary). Nice enough guy, a bit odd, but he has that dark quality so many young girls are attracted to. So he and Jay go to the local 'Inspiration Point' and do what young people do in the backseat of a car, and he surprises her afterward by jumping on her back and choloforming her. Not the best start to a romance. But wait, it gets worse.....

When she wakes up he explains that he has “passed on” to her a curse. There is some sort of entity that wants to kill the person in possession of the curse, which is now Jay. This entity moves slowly, if you keep your eyes open you can see it coming, but it is ALWAYS coming. It doesn't think, it doesn't feel, it doesn't stop. If follows. They wait until the entity shows up, and Hugh explains she can only pass it on to someone else by having sex with them. But whomever is the holder of the curse, if the entity gets that person, it moves back to pursuing the previous target. He has truly given her a gift that will just keep on giving....

Did I forget to mention that only the people that have the curse can see the entity? Even when you pass it on you can still see it, but it is invisible to anyone who has never held the curse. This makes the people around you think you're nuts when suddenly you scream and bolt from the room.

“It Follows” isn't a big budget picture; in fact its settings, cast and production all seem very bare bones. But MAN is it frightening. Like all the best scary movies, it isn't what you see that scares you, it's what you don't see. The tension, knowing that the entity is out there and definitely coming straight at Jay at all times is utterly terrifying. Director David Robert Mitchell builds tension so effectively that I nearly soiled myself when a basketball banged into a window that Jay was near.

I love scary movies but this one was SO scary that it was actually a bit unsettling to me. I look forward to another viewing because the first time I was just a coiled spring – thankfully nobody walked into the room or they would have been peeling me off the ceiling.

"It Follows" is a great horror movie. If you enjoy being scared, tense and terrified (as I do) you have a sure winner in “It Follows”.  But don't blame me for any nightmares.