Not Enough Titties, but Still Good

When I saw the teaser on Netflix for David Robert Mitchell's It Follows, I decide that I definitely wanted to watch it. You see, it's about a college girl played by Maika Monroe who has sex with a boy played by Jake Weary. This causes him to give her a curse which she can only get rid of by "passing it on" to someone else.

Wouldn't you want to see that?

Actually, the film is a little disappointing in that, considering its subject matter, it's surprisingly unsexy. For example, there are several scenes in which Monroe goes swimming, but she always wears a one-piece bathing suit. Don't they know that in a movie like this, the heroine has to at the very least (at the very most?) wear a bikini, and skinny-dipping is preferred. When she actually has sex with Weary she wears a pink negligee which is attractive, but Come on! This is the scene where she goes all the way. No titties?

Maybe that's part of the point. This movie wants to portray sex as something disturbing and creepy rather than beautiful or fun. When we do finally see titties, it's after Monroe is being pursued by the curse and the titties are on violent hideous urinating (Yep! You read that last word correctly) women.

In addition to not being sexy, the film is not that funny. Monroe has a posse of sisters and friends who chat with her about "teen talk", but these scenes are not charming or even funny. They're creepy because the characters are so wooden. I'm not sure whether to blame this on bad writing, bad acting, or just the generally creepy atmosphere of the film. In the first two cases, I'd call it a flaw, but in the third case, maybe it's a strength.

And that's one thing I can say for this movie, it is very creepy. Mitchell is particularly fond of camera angles where we can only see the priniciple actors from a distance. These scenes are often accompanied by synthetic music from someone called Disasterpeace (pleasant name).

The climax to the film involves the friends coming up with a plan to destroy the curse. I won't give away the details except to say that it involves Monroe swimming and getting her hair wet for the first time in the movie, but still, alas, wearing a one-piece. It is also very dangerous and, for me, part of the terror came in gradually realizing what the kids were planning. I kind of wanted the kids to think of a better plan, but maybe I'm being too harsh. I never had to destroy a sexual curse before.

So I guess there are worse ways a horror fan can spend an hour and forty minutes than watching this film. Just don't expect to masturbate afterwards.