The movie It Follows is a 2014 American psychological horror film that follows a young woman named Jay.
She is pursued by a supernatural entity after having sex with a stranger on a date.
This creature, which can take on the appearance of anyone, stalks her relentlessly, walking slowly in her direction without ever stopping. Visible only to the people it pursues, its curse is transmitted through sex, and if it catches you, it kills you using it as a weapon.
Jay’s friends try to help her survive while wondering if there is a way to stop this silent and inevitable threat.
I’m not going to lie to you, It Follows is one of my favorite movies.
The actors are good, the tension is constant, the danger seems real, and impossible to fight.
Okay, it’s not perfect and there are some slow moments, but overall it’s really better than many others.
STDs and medical gaslighting
I really like the allegory that transposes sexually transmitted diseases and the danger they convey with a demonic entity that pursues you on a daily basis.
No one knows what you’re feeling, the fear, the shame, the danger, and inevitably sharing it if you’re not careful. The parallel with an entity that only you can see, or other infected people, is excellent and profound.
The loneliness felt by those infected is easy to detect, because even though she is surrounded by friends and support, Jay’s friends cannot see the different forms that follow her.
I also appreciate the slowness of the entity. An STD does not necessarily kill, or at least not quickly. It is a slow and difficult condition. Often shameful and isolating.
The argument that it is easier for women to spread the curse is also partially true, because the condition of women is still light years away from being believed in modern medicine, despite the multiple sexual partners they may have.
Or the doctors automatically doubting them.
It’s a very interesting choice to have made the movie almost timeless.
Without Yara’s Kindle shell, it could very well have taken place in the 1980s or 2000s…
Because the subject matter is timeless too.
Some decisions are questionable, such as the swimming pool scene, which I don’t really understand, because if the goal was electrocution, Jay would also have been in danger.
The same goes for the visual scene where the entity grabs her hair and lets go, when we clearly saw with Greg that death is swift once contact is made, for example. Little nitpicks here and there.
From victim to killer
The protagonist, initially the victim of danger, gradually becomes an executioner, choosing new victims as she spreads the curse in order to survive. Her neighbor, the boys on the boat, her friend…
We feel compassion for her, but she becomes a serial killer against her better jugement, and that’s difficult from an ethical standpoint. Survival takes over.
The inclusion of prostitution is also important, as it plays a crucial role here in warding off the entity, which also massively affects sex workers.
I really like the ending, which isn’t really an ending.
It’s a little nod that leaves the door open to interpretation… Is the person walking between Jay and Paul a representation of the entity that has climbed the ladder of victims back to reach them, or is it just a passerby walking on the sidewalk?
It’s up to us to decide, depending on our level of paranoia.
The gender gap : why critics are divided
It’s very amusing to read the reviews of people who have seen it in France, because 80% of men find it to be crap, uninteresting, or morally repugnant, which highlights the distinction even more, because on the other hand, a majority of women gave it 5 stars.
The film stays with us for a while after the end credits, while many will have completely missed the final message.
Patriarchy still has a long road ahead and psychological horror is clearly not for everyone.
My rating : 4,5/5 bats.
🦇🦇🦇🦇🍆
(Picture a half-eaten bat here, the emojis won’t let me do it)