It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)

[Grouchy]

I'm surprised that Tarantino would nit-pick the inner logic of a supernatural movie like that. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I'd imagine he of all people would be much more into impressive craftmanship than screenplays without plot holes.

That said, I don't think he's all that correct. The creature is just not clever at first because it's not given a chance to - the only thing the characters do for the better half of the film is run away from it. It's only when they start fighting back that it starts getting ideas. His beef with the movie theater scene is correct but it could also be that the guy just miscalculated the time he won by running from the thing and just doesn't expect to see it there.

Ultimately, this is a ghost curse. It's not supposed to make as much pragmatic sense as, I dunno, a Xenomorph.

[number8]

I used to talk about that a lot back at RT during the J-horror craze years, which I felt had a lot of disconnect with the American psyche that led to inferior remakes. There's an impulse for Americans in their urban legends and campfire stories to have them make sense in a somewhat linear fashion. There's a set up and there's a consequence. The teenagers making out in the car have to first listen to a radio broadcast of an escaped madman before they get killed by one, that kind of thing, so western horror stories tend to involve a lot of deconstruction. It's really different when the culture you grew up in, like mine, is inherently and widely superstitious and steeped in ritualistic tradition. The more you connect the dots in the mythology of the supernatural, the less scary it becomes.

[D_Davis]

Between the love for this and the Babadook, I'm beginning to believe that horror aficionados across the land have really, really low standards.

It Follows is a complete nothing of a film (I did like the synth soundtrack and the anachronistic nature of the setting, so there's that). Does it respect it's own mythology? What fucking mythology? Absolutely nothing is developed in this film at all. It's a series of terribly boring set pieces and people walking or driving from one place to the next. There is very little tension, and now I know that horror is subjective, but I wasn't scared or spooked once. Just a complete and total flat-liner of a film. The script is so, so bad, the acting is amateurish, and the story/plot is undeveloped.

The soundtrack deserves a better film.

[Peng]

Between the love for this and the Babadook, I'm beginning to believe that horror aficionados across the land have really, really low standards.

Well, that'll show us, I guess.

[Dukefrukem]

Well, that'll show us, I guess.

Read the quote in my sig and tell me who now has low standards.

[D_Davis]

No. It only proves how terrible the Marvel movies are.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Between the love for this and the Babadook, I'm beginning to believe that horror aficionados across the land have really, really low standards.

We love you too, D.

[D_Davis]

Just raise your standards, dammit! You, we, deserve better!

[Dukefrukem]

Only after you change your subculture.

[D_Davis]

Which subculture am I part of?

[Russ]

[D_Davis]

Lobbed him a softball, didn't I?

[Dukefrukem]

The one where you and your people get mad for working full time jobs to pay rent.

[D_Davis]

I don't get the joke. I'm guessing it has something to do with being a socialist hipster or something?

[Skitch]

Soooooo anyway...I enjoyed It Follows (leagues above The Babafoock) but it really needed a third act. I like open-ended as much as the next guy, but damn, it just ended...as though they didn't know how to close it out without being cliche so they just quit.

[Spinal]

I'll just chip in that if anyone should raise their standards, it's people who keep going to Marvel movies.

[D_Davis]

That should go without saying, Spinal.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I'll just chip in that if anyone should raise their standards, it's people who keep going to Marvel movies.

I do it second-run, for three dollars or less, wearing a trenchcoat. But don't you tell me Paul Rudd isn't charming. Don't you lie to me. Look at that face and tell me he isn't charming.

[Dead & Messed Up]

And this was an eerie good time. Appreciable callbacks to classics like "Halloween" and "Cat People," effective if somewhat familiar camerawork. Character work was slight, but the lead and Nerdboy were effectively defined by their actions. I don't know if the logic was all that slippery, but if it takes some slippery logic to get some of these images and suspense sequences, I accept. I took it all as people making their best guesses and mostly being right. Also, I appreciated the quick way they cut off the Ubiquitous Second-Act Fact Finding Mission with the one night stand.

One element on my mind is the way the characters are a little subdued given the circumstance, but I think the film is consciously trying to evoke some of that dream feeling where you're running in place and things are slowing down. The entire film feels like it's one remove from the pace of life (or at least movie life).

[Yxklyx]

It Follows

Director: David Robert Mitchell

imdb

[Yxklyx]

[

Show Spoiler

This was good but it was a bit too obviously an allegory for AIDS.

]

[Dukefrukem]

We definitely have a thread for this already

[Dukefrukem]

Yeh

http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showth...bert-Mitchell)

[Yxklyx]

We definitely have a thread for this already

aha, did imdb switch the date?

[Henry Gale]

aha, did imdb switch the date?

Well it was at Cannes almost a full year before it got formally released, so the copyrighted date in the credits is definitely when it was completed, and IMDb dates tend to go by the year something was first exhibited.