There's a nice little movement going on in horror at the moment, with rising directors crafting films stylistically homage the genre movies of the early-eighties, chiefly the work of John Carpenter. Last year we got The Guest, and now there's It Follows, which is, if anything, even better. David Robert Mitchell doubles down on this element, with a suburban setting that looks directly lifted out of Halloween (along with the slow, creeping camera), while a synth-score owes a heavy debt to Vangelis' work on Blade Runner. It's a genre fan's dream, oozing style but never feeling too indebted to what inspired it. But the film isn't just a pulpy throwback piece; rather, it's a naked look at the one true, unavoidable horror. The set-up, with Jay contracting the haunting follower through intercourse, makes the film feel like it's an STD fable, somewhat looking at the innate dangers in everyday life, yet as the third act kicks into gear it becomes apparent the unfaltering spectre is actually a metaphor for death. It's always there, looming just out of reach, soldiering forward irrespective of any mortal intervention and destined to inevitably catch you. The final scene, with Jay and a now-contracted Paul calmly walking down a street as the figure stalks just behind their pace in the distance, is a creepily delivered, surprisingly weighty conclusion; death is inescapable, but together they can at least accept it.
