10 Horror Movies Where The Villain Is Never Seen

7. It Follows

Birdbox 2018
Dimension Films

It’s hard to precisely define the central evil at the heart of It Follows, and that uncertainty makes it all the more frightening. David Robert Mitchell’s highly successful low budget 2014 feature thrives on a great sense of foreboding, jump scares, and effective make up, but the sheer unknowable - and therefore unkillable - nature of its monster is what lingers the most.

An elevator pitch for the ages, It Follows is about a corporeal curse that can be transmitted only via sex. Sleep with the person carrying the curse, and it’s passed onto you. A figure follows you, slowly but incessantly, and you do not want to let it catch up.

In It Follows, the figure takes all manner of shapes, from dishevelled old women to hulking men and even replicas of the main characters, but we’re never sure exactly what it really looks like. This sense of uncertainty plays into the film’s allegorical elements - you never know just what someone might be carrying.

It Follows has been subject to sequel chat ever since it released, but thus far, nothing has been forthcoming - a big part of that must be because it would be so difficult to ably pay off this terrifying creature.

Contributor
Contributor

Yorkshire-based writer of screenplays, essays, and fiction. Big fan of having a laugh. Read more of my stuff @ www.twotownsover.com (if you want!)