Tomatometer Percentage: 96% It Follows rightfully sits atop this list due to its freaky, original premise and the intense skill of director David Robert Mitchell. The script, also steered by Mitchell, revolves around a young girl named Jay (Maika Monroe) who sleeps with the wrong guy at the wrong time; he informs Jay that he's passed on a supernatural STD of sorts to her, which involves being relentlessly followed by a spirit that comes in the guise of several different effed-up looking people. If the spirit catches up to you, it kills you. It's a fantastic plot that is devastating in its simplicity, as it allows Mitchell to concentrate on the film's atmosphere and turn the creep factor on the flick up to about 100. There are loads of thrilling jump scares as well as the more foreboding, tense takes of the apparition simply walking along, calmly following Jay. It never gives up or loses its determination, and its seeming-invincibility doesn't make the stakes any less harsh. The fact that the spirit walks with such purpose makes it more threatening than a Romero zombie, and perhaps on a par with classic screen slashers like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers; killers who were never in any rush, and patient in the knowledge that their victims would make a mistake out of fear and finally succumb. The production on It Follows is airtight from top to bottom, be it sound design or cinematography, with realistic performances from its lead actors who feel like authentic teenagers who act sensibly one minute and stupid the next (much like in real life). One of the only critiques to exist towards the film regards its inability to adhere to its own mythology; Quentin Tarantino may have lambasted the film for breaking its own rules, but the very concept of the supernatural is illogical, so I reckon it can be forgiven. If you haven't had the opportunity to be terrified by It Follows yet, make it up to yourself and check it out.
Cinephile since 1993, aged 4, when he saw his very first film in the cinema - Jurassic Park - which is also evidence of damn fine parenting. World champion at Six Degrees of Separation. Lender of DVDs to cheap mates. Connoisseur of Marvel Comics and its Cinematic Universe.
