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| Maika Monroe stars in the new horror film It Follows. |
Hype is a killer. I am probably guiltier of it than most
people I know, but we have all done it – oversold a movie or a book or a
restaurant and, by our enthusiasm, destroyed any opportunity for our audience
to enjoy something without bias. Rather than instilling the level of excitement
in our friends that we might hope for, we are priming them to be let down.
It is a natural cultural phenomenon that has been
exacerbated to an absurd degree by the Internet. It makes a certain amount of
sense. With a million things at once all vying for attention, it helps to stand
out in the crowd, so movies are sold with superlatives. Everything is the best,
the funniest, the scariest, etc. What this does, however, is it robs us of the
joys of the merely good.
Writer-director David Robert Mitchell’s new horror-thriller It Follows is pretty good, but its
premiere was met with breathless praise, proclaiming it the new pinnacle of
modern horror and so forth. Here is a sampling of quotes from the marketing
materials:
“It Follows is the best horror film in over a decade.” –
Boing Boing
“… the best American
horror film since The Blair Witch Project.” – The Dissolve
“It Follows pretty much earns its buzz as the scariest
and best-engineered American horror movie of recent years …” – Salon
The Dissolve also landed the quote that adorns most of the
film’s posters, calling it “one of the most striking American horror films in
years.” Notice all those superlatives, and this sample is representative. The
film owns a score of 83 out of 100 on film criticism aggregation site
Metacritic and has enjoyed raves from such publications as The New York Times,
Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian. It would be difficult for any film to live
up to such a reputation, let alone an indie horror flick from a relatively
unproven filmmaker.
As a general rule, I try not to let buzz influence my
anticipation of a film one way or the other. I do not read reviews before I see
movies or, indeed, until after I have written down my own thoughts. Some
cross-pollination of ideas is obviously inevitable, but for the most part, I am
flying blind. However, It Follows was
only on my radar due to the tremendous critical praise it was receiving. As an
avid horror fan, I was excited by the possibilities of a new classic of the
genre and sought it out.
What I can report is that It Follows is an accomplished thriller that impresses on a
technical level and features an intriguing premise but also has some real
flaws. Aided by a brilliant musical score by Disasterpeace that reminds of
classic grindhouse movies, Mitchell creates a genuinely chilling first half
that will have you grasping at your arm rest in dread. The back half of the
film is more problematic thanks to a script that refuses to address certain
issues of logic and motivation.
The plot concerns a young woman played by the up-and-coming
Maika Monroe who is told after a consensual sexual encounter that she will be terrorized
by some kind of supernatural force that will eventually kill her. She learns
the only way to avoid a gruesome death is to pass the haunting on to someone
else by having sex, and this is about as deep as the plot goes. The rest is
atmosphere, mood, and more than a few well timed jump scares.
Since Mitchell and his collaborators keep their cards close
to their chest, any message about promiscuity or sexual freedom is murky at
best and indecipherable at worst. The film lacks a true point of view and seems
willfully adolescent in its treatment of sexuality and violence. In other
words, It Follows is a standard teen
slasher pic, which makes for a fun night at the movies if that is your thing,
but it is greatly burdened by its “best this” and “scariest that” buzz.
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| The Babadook |
Recent Australian horror picture The Babadook opened to similar critical acclaim, and while it is a
more accomplished film than It Follows,
it also suffocates under the weight of universal adulation and sky-high
expectations. The problem extends beyond horror and beyond film, really, but
the proximity to each other and similarity of response to It Follows and The Babadook
got me thinking about the way we build things up and give ourselves over to the
consensus.
Our culture is no longer really set up to accommodate
measured consideration of complex topics – a shortcoming that affects all
manner of discourse, not just films. When a line is drawn in the sand, we
pretty much have to pick a side, which means It Follows is either the best horror film of the new century or the
most overrated piece of drivel in recent memory.
Twitter, Facebook, and other social media await your
decision, and the most ardent commenters are ready to dole out shame and punishments
as necessary to those of you who choose wrong, whatever you choose. But, what
if It Follows is neither pinnacle nor
nadir? What if it is merely good, and the audience’s only expectation is a
thrilling ride and a fun night out? Well, that would be a promise on which this
movie could surely deliver.
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