In the quiet suburbs, an unstoppable force stalks its prey, turning every step into a countdown to doom.

 

David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows (2014) redefined modern horror by transforming adolescent anxiety into a visceral, unrelenting nightmare, where the terror lies not in spectacle but in inevitability.

 

  • The film’s STD metaphor masterfully weaves sex and mortality, using a supernatural entity to explore the consequences of intimacy in a post-teen world.
  • Mitchell’s deliberate pacing and retro aesthetics create a slow-burn tension that lingers long after the credits roll.
  • Through innovative sound design and wide-angle cinematography, It Follows captures suburban isolation, influencing a wave of elevated horror films.

 

The Inescapable Shadow: Unpacking the Core Premise

The narrative of It Follows centres on Jay, a young woman in suburban Detroit, who embarks on a seemingly innocuous date with Hugh. After they consummate their encounter in an abandoned car, Hugh reveals a horrifying truth: he has passed on a curse. An entity now pursues Jay relentlessly, shapeshifting into the forms of people from her life, walking at a steady, unhurried pace. It can only be transferred through sexual intercourse, creating a chain of dread that binds victims in moral and existential quandaries. Jay’s friends rally around her, attempting makeshift defences like car chases and shootings, but the creature persists, indifferent to bullets or distance.

This setup eschews jump scares for a pervasive unease, as the entity never sprints, embodying the horror of something that cannot be outrun forever. Mitchell draws from urban legends, echoing tales like the kidney thief or bloody Mary, but elevates them into a metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases. The film’s genius lies in its literalisation of abstract fears: the slow approach mirrors the insidious onset of illness, while the transferral mechanic probes the ethics of burdening others with one’s afflictions.

Key sequences amplify this dread, such as the beach house confrontation where the group lures the entity into a trap, only for it to emerge unscathed. The film’s Detroit setting, with its decaying industrial backdrop, underscores themes of obsolescence and entrapment, contrasting the characters’ youthful vitality against an ancient, inexorable evil.

Sexuality’s Deadly Echo: The STD Allegory Dissected

At its heart, It Follows functions as a potent allegory for sexually transmitted infections, particularly HIV/AIDS in its early, misunderstood era. The curse’s transmission via sex, its invisibility until close proximity, and the lack of a cure parallel the epidemiology of STDs. Mitchell has acknowledged inspirations from 1970s and 1980s horror, where sexual liberation clashed with the AIDS crisis, yet he modernises it for a generation facing herpes, HPV, and chlamydia—diseases that persist lifelong without fanfare.

Jay’s arc embodies this: her initial denial gives way to pragmatic survivalism, questioning whether to pass the curse onward. Friends like Paul, who harbours unrequited love, willingly accept it, highlighting self-sacrifice versus selfishness. The film critiques casual hook-up culture without puritanism, portraying sex as both pleasurable and perilous, a double-edged sword in the digital age of Tinder swipes.

Gender dynamics add layers; women like Jay bear the narrative brunt, navigating vulnerability in a predatory world. The entity’s shapeshifting into familiar faces—mothers, lovers, strangers—blurs boundaries between personal history and threat, suggesting trauma’s inescapable follow-through from past indiscretions.

Critics have lauded this subtlety, with scholars noting parallels to John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), where Michael Myers stalks inexorably, but Mitchell infuses it with postmodern self-awareness, making the horror intellectual as well as visceral.

Suburban Stasis: Pacing and Atmospheric Dread

Mitchell’s slow-burn approach demands patience, with long takes and wide shots that emphasise spatial relationships. Characters glance over shoulders constantly, the frame’s edges pregnant with potential menace. This creates paranoia, forcing viewers into the protagonists’ mindset, scanning horizons for the telltale walk.

The Detroit suburbs, filmed in broad daylight, subvert expectations of nocturnal horror. Pools, empty streets, and modest homes evoke Blue Velvet (1986) by David Lynch, peeling back Americana’s facade to reveal rot. Mitchell’s use of aspect ratio—2.39:1 widescreen—stretches isolation, making figures dwarfed by architecture.

Iconic scenes, like the indoor pool finale, build to cathartic release without resolution. The entity’s submersion and resurgence symbolise repression’s return, a nod to Freudian undercurrents where sex and death intertwine as Eros and Thanatos.

Synth Waves and Visual Poetry: Technical Mastery

Disasterpeace’s electronic score, with its pulsating synths reminiscent of John Carpenter’s collaborations with Fabio Frizzi, propels tension without traditional stings. Tracks like “It Follows” layer analogue warmth over digital dread, mirroring the film’s retro-futurist vibe—1970s aesthetics in a 2010s context.

Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis employs shallow focus and rack zooms to mimic subjective fear, while practical effects keep the entity grounded; actors in prosthetics or everyday clothes ensure relatability. No CGI shortcuts dilute the analogue authenticity.

Mise-en-scène details abound: abandoned factories symbolise post-industrial malaise, vinyl records and CRT TVs evoke nostalgia as armour against modernity’s voids.

Ensemble Under Siege: Performances That Haunt

Maika Monroe’s Jay anchors the film with quiet intensity, her wide eyes conveying terror’s toll. From carefree teen to burdened survivor, Monroe’s physicality—running, hiding, confronting—grounds the supernatural in raw emotion.

Supporting turns shine: Keir Gilchrist’s Paul mixes awkward affection with grim determination, while Olivia Luccardi’s Yara brings wry detachment via her scavenged book player. Lili Sepe and Daniel Zovatto add youthful camaraderie, their banter humanising the horror.

Mitchell elicits naturalistic dialogue, overlapping and improvised, fostering authenticity rare in genre fare.

Legends Reborn: Mythic and Cultural Resonance

It Follows taps primordial myths—the Furies’ pursuit in Greek tragedy, or Slavic domovoi spirits—modernised for urban folklore. It builds on The Ring (2002) curse mechanics but prioritises psychological over vengeful ghosts.

Cultural impact endures: spawning memes, analyses in queer theory (the curse as coming-out metaphor), and influencing A24’s horror slate like The Witch (2015). Its ambiguity—does the final shot confirm escape?—invites endless debate.

Production hurdles included shoestring budgeting and guerrilla shoots, Mitchell crowdfunding after The Myth of the American Sleepover (2010) acclaim, proving indie viability.

Ripples Through Horror: Legacy and Evolutions

Post-release, It Follows grossed $23 million on $2 million budget, heralding Mitchell’s ascent. Sequels teased but unrealised, its DNA permeates Smile (2022) and Barbarian (2022), with transferable traumas.

Critics praise its restraint amid torture porn fatigue, restoring horror’s metaphorical power. Festivals like Cannes embraced it, bridging arthouse and multiplex.

Director in the Spotlight

David Robert Mitchell, born October 12, 1977, in Clawson, Michigan, grew up immersed in suburban Detroit’s cultural undercurrents, which profoundly shaped his filmmaking. A self-taught auteur, he studied at Florida State University before cutting his teeth on short films. His feature debut, The Myth of the American Sleepover (2010), a coming-of-age tale blending romance and wanderlust, premiered at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, earning praise for its dreamy nostalgia and signalling his knack for adolescent psyche exploration.

Mitchell’s breakthrough, It Follows (2014), catapulted him to international acclaim, winning numerous awards including the New America Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Influenced by directors like Carpenter, De Palma, and early Spielberg, he favours analogue techniques and genre subversion. His sophomore effort, Under the Silver Lake (2018), a neo-noir fever dream starring Andrew Garfield, delved into Los Angeles conspiracies, referencing Vertigo and Mulholland Drive, though it divided critics for its sprawling ambition.

Currently developing projects like a long-gestating Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence remake, Mitchell remains selective, prioritising original visions. His career highlights include collaborations with composers like Disasterpeace and cinematographers pushing boundaries. Filmography: The Myth of the American Sleepover (2010, rites-of-passage dramedy); It Follows (2014, supernatural horror allegory); Under the Silver Lake (2018, mystery thriller); upcoming works include television pilots and genre hybrids. Mitchell’s oeuvre critiques American suburbia, blending personal memory with universal dread.

Interviews reveal his process: storyboarding obsessively, drawing from childhood fears. Mentored informally by indie circuits, he champions practical effects over digital, ensuring tactile terror.

Actor in the Spotlight

Maika Monroe, born May 10, 1993, in Santa Barbara, California, transitioned from competitive kiteboarding—reaching junior world championships—to acting after a chance audition. Discovered via At Any Price (2012) with Dennis Quaid, she quickly ascended with genre roles showcasing steely vulnerability.

Her star-making turn in It Follows (2014) as Jay earned Independent Spirit nominations, highlighting her as horror’s new scream queen. Monroe’s career spans indie to blockbuster: Greta (2018) opposite Isabelle Huppert, a psychological thriller; Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) as pilot Madison Russell; and Villains (2019), a dark comedy with Bill Skarsgård.

Awards include Fangoria Chainsaw nods; she co-produced Significant Other (2022). Filmography: At Any Price (2012, family drama); The Fifth Wave (2016, dystopian sci-fi); Independence Day: Resurgence (2016, action sequel); Greta (2018, stalker thriller); Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019); Shadow in the Cloud (2020, WWII horror-action); Crimes of the Future (2022, Cronenberg body horror); Significant Other (2022, sci-fi horror). Upcoming: They Found Us.

Monroe’s poise under pressure stems from athletic discipline; she trains in MMA, informing physical roles. Advocates for female-led stories, her chemistry elevates ensembles.

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Bibliography

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Collum, J. (2017) This Is Horror: Contemporary Horror Cinema. McFarland.

Daniels, B. (2014) Interview: David Robert Mitchell on It Follows. RogerEbert.com. Available at: https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/david-robert-mitchell-it-follows-director (Accessed: 15 October 2023).

Falchion, D. (2019) ‘The Slow Death: STD Allegories in Modern Horror’, Journal of Film and Culture, 12(3), pp. 45-67.

Jones, A. (2016) Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Routledge. [Note: contextual influences].

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Romano, A. (2015) ‘Why It Follows is the most feminist mainstream horror film in years’. The Daily Dot. Available at: https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/it-follows-feminist-horror (Accessed: 15 October 2023).