When It Follows (2014) concluded, “elegant” was the word that came to mind. There’s a certain dreamy mood to writer-director David Robert Mitchell’s film, which comes through in the colours, costuming, framing, and staging. It’s almost as if Sofia Coppola Virgin Suicides era had made a horror film. The initial yearning of protagonist Jay (Maika Monroe, empathetic) is replaced by constant anxiety and fear once she is afflicted by the film’s titular curse, passed through sex, of a malevolent force walking slowly toward you, taking the shape of strangers or friends, until it reaches you. The concept works as the best metaphor for the inescapable spectre of death since Final Destination. A beautiful throwback electronic score by Disasterpeace and the authentic teen cast help to build an eerie atmosphere, as if we’re half-awake and paralysed by confusion about the proximity of a looming presence. Recommended.
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