9 / 10
Official trailer
It Follows is David Robert Mitchell’s 2014 American supernatural horror film depicting a young woman who, after a sexual encounter, discovers she’s been infected with a curse that manifests as a slow-moving figure visible only to her.
The figure will keep pursuing her until she either dies or transmits the curse to another person through sexual contact. Maika Monroe plays Jay Height. Keir Gilchrist plays Paul Bolduan. Daniel Zovatto plays Greg Hannigan. Olivia Luccardi plays Yara Davis. Lili Sepe plays Kelly Height. Jake Weary plays Hugh.
David Robert Mitchell wrote the screenplay. Northern Lights Films produced the film for theatrical release in March 2015 after Cannes Film Festival screening in May 2014. It Follows became a major critical success in mid-2010s horror. Once It Follows got under my skin, it stayed there. I love a horror film that trusts a person walking slowly toward the camera to do more damage than any gore effect, and this one builds its whole design on that trust. I’d put it at the head of the art-house horror wave it helped start.
David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows is a major art-house horror success of the mid-2010s and the foundational document of the ‘elevated horror’ subgenre that later dominated late-2010s prestige horror cinema. David Robert Mitchell’s commitment to atmospheric tension over explicit horror, combined with the sexual-transmission curse premise that’s both a supernatural threat and a broader allegory for sexual anxiety, produced a horror experience that 2014 audiences hadn’t previously encountered. The film’s specific commitment to slow-moving threat that’s always advancing produces sustained real dread that conventional horror productions can’t consistently achieve.
The Slow-Moving Threat
Mitchell’s screenplay establishes that the curse manifests as a slow-moving figure that walks toward the cursed person at sustained walking pace. The threat can’t be outrun through immediate speed but can be temporarily evaded through distance, with the figure continuing to walk toward the cursed person across whatever territory separates them. The conceit produces certain sustained dread that conventional fast-moving horror threats can’t achieve.
The cinematography supports the slow-moving threat through long wide shots that let the audience spot the figure in the background before the characters notice it. I find this the most unnerving thing in the film. I spend whole scenes scanning the edges of the frame as Jay’s extra lookout, and the film makes me complicit in the dread. Later horror films have copied the technique, and none of the copies I can think of have matched it.
For Writers
Slow-moving horror threats with sustained advancing pressure produce stronger viewer dread than fast-moving threats with immediate violence. It Follows’s particular conceit shows the technique throughout the running time.
The Sexual-Anxiety Reading
Mitchell’s screenplay establishes that the curse passes through sexual contact, with the only available escape being transmission to another partner. The conceit is both a supernatural threat and an allegory for sexual-anxiety experiences including sexually transmitted infections, adolescent sexual development, and the complications of sexual responsibility. The thematic content gives the film significant subtext that pure horror plotting couldn’t provide.
I respect the screenplay for refusing to pin the reading down. The sexual-transmission rule works as a literal plot mechanism and as a broader allegory, and Mitchell never forces either one on you. Horror films that spell out their metaphors usually lose me before the end, and this one kept me thinking long after it finished.
For Writers
Horror productions with allegorical content embedded in their central conceits produce stronger thematic engagement than productions handling thematic content as explicit metaphor. It Follows’s distinct ambiguity shows the technique throughout the running time.
The Detroit Setting
Mitchell shot the film in Detroit and surrounding Michigan locations, with the production benefiting from Detroit’s considerable mid-century architectural inventory and the particular decline of certain Detroit neighborhoods. The deliberately undated production design, combining 1970s-style automobiles, 1990s-style televisions, and contemporary elements, produces a certain timeless tone that supports the supernatural threat’s existence outside distinct temporal context.
The Detroit setting does a lot of the film’s atmospheric work. The decaying suburbs, the empty swimming pools and the abandoned buildings give it a Midwestern post-industrial mood that generic horror locations couldn’t have supplied. I think the mismatched eras, old cars next to old televisions, are the smartest design choice in the film, because I can never place when any of this is happening, and that uncertainty makes the curse feel like it’s always been there.
For Writers
Horror productions with certain geographic settings produce stronger atmospheric tone than productions using generic suburban or urban locations. It Follows’s Detroit setting shows the technique throughout the film.
Craft Note
Mitchell produced the film independently with real creative control. The production cost approximately two million dollars and grossed approximately twenty-three million worldwide, strong commercial performance for an art-house horror release. Disasterpeace composed the score with significant synthesizer elements that give the film its particular period-ambiguous sonic tone. Neon announced the sequel They Follow in October 2023, with Mitchell writing and directing and Maika Monroe returning as Jay. The original 2014 production has become foundational text for later elevated-horror filmmaking.
Is It Follows as good as people say?
I think It Follows is the best art-house horror film of the mid-2010s, and the one the rest of that wave built on. The slow walker, the ambiguity of the curse, the decaying Detroit suburbs and the Disasterpeace synth score add up to a film that has me checking the background of every shot. It’s a 9, and I’d hand it to anyone who thinks horror has run out of ideas.
