10 Horror Movies That Prove Less Is More
4. It Follows
It Follows boasts one of the most ingenious and memorable setups of any horror film from the last decade - what if a murderous supernatural entity could be transmitted through sex, like an STD? And worse still, the only way to free yourself from this curse is to pass it on to somebody else.
Given the horror genre's typically leering attitude towards sex, the trashy potential here speaks for itself, but director David Robert Mitchell instead ensures that every second of his film is defined less by titillation than anxious tension.
Though there are a few notable scares, for the most part It Follows' success lies in fostering a paranoia-laced atmosphere.
Both protagonist Jay (Maika Monroe) and the audience have no idea whose form the entity has decided to take in any moment, so every single scene is its own exercise in suspense.
Despite the entity's horrifying nature, it isn't visually repulsive nor does it screech monstrously: there's a dispassionate, relentless banality to its destruction of the human body that is infinitely more effective.