The Witch

For the third straight year a horror movie has made the festival rounds and has received rave reviews from self-proclaimed non-horror fans.  In 2014 it was The Babadook.  In 2015 it was It Follows.  In 2016 we have The Witch.  I consider myself lucky in that I was able to avoid trailers for any of these films (which I was shockingly able to accomplish without even trying too hard).  However, it was impossible to ignore the hype they all got.  Even with that hype, The Babadook and It Follows exceeded my expectations.  I went into The Witch hoping for the same experience.  Going in, the only thing I knew about it was that it was “terrifying.”

I feel like I should have a lot of smart things to say about this film.    It is set in 17th century New England and it uses a lot of authentic language and accents.  Some of the dialogue is actually taken directly from journals written during that time period.  It is a dark film, both figuratively and literally: many shots are only provided the light of a candle.  It sets a mood that is authentic to the time period, but it also allows for lots of dark corners for things to hide.  This is not the kind of film that has things jumping out from dark corners, but that doesn't mean something isn't there, silently peering from the darkness.

Perhaps that’s part of why I feel like I should have smart things to say.  Robert Eggers – the director – put a lot of research and care into this film.  Every shot is a work of art.  I was drawn in from the opening scene.  Watching this in the theater was a truly immersive experience, and the rest of my theater seemed to feel the same way, as I barely heard any noise throughout the entire film.  Or maybe they were asleep.  It was impossible to tell.

NO ONE SLEEPS

Now let’s get back to the one word review I kept hearing uttered in hushed tones: “terrifying.”  It was always spoken as if the person saying it had been hiding beneath a blanket for months, but felt the need to emerge to utter this declaration of warning.

Maybe it’s because I have seen a lot of horror movies, but I did not find this to be terrifying.  I did, however, find it to be deeply unsettling.  Long after the final image left the screen, I sat in my chair staring at the screen.  I walked to my car in a daze.  I wasn’t looking over my shoulder waiting for something to pop out at me, but I was looking out into the misty afternoon, wondering if something lurked in the fields beyond.  I didn’t lose any sleep over this movie, but I did find myself thinking about it constantly over the next week.  There was not a particular scene I found myself mulling over: it was the tone of the entire movie.  The feeling of dread I felt and carried with me out of that theater.  That’s what I kept coming back to.  It wasn’t the movie that stuck with me: it was that feeling.

I remember a similar feeling after watching the original Night of the Living Dead for the first time.  The movies don't share many similarities, but that feeling as I walked out of the theater was the same: like something dark was hanging over my head that was impossible to shake.

We see the titular witch early in the film, which is a fascinating decision.  As we watched a family grow more and more suspicious of each other, Eggers easily could have played on that and make the audience question whether there actually was a witch, or whether it was just religious hysteria gripping the family.  Instead, we knew from early on that there was an actual witch lurking in the woods.  The question as to whether someone in the family is actually in league with the witch (or Satan) is one that the audience is forced to ask over and over again, but we have definitive proof that there is, in fact, a witch.
Knowing that there is a dark presence in the forest does not forgive the religious fanaticism that threatens to tear the family apart, but it does cast it in another light.  The devil is real and we know that to be true.  What happens to the family is driven by this presence, but it does not force them to blame each other for everything that goes wrong.  The Puritanical oversimplification of religion - "all good comes from God, all bad comes from Satan" - is on full display here.  While I wish I could say that is simply the product of a bygone era, I know all too well that this kind of thinking still exists.  It's not that simple.  It has never been that simple. 

I don’t want to say too much more, as I don’t want to spoil the movie. 

The cast was perfect (Black Phillip included).  The movie was a bit slow at points, but I was so riveted by what I was seeing that I never felt bored or that the movie was dragging.
The soundtrack really helped propel this movie to another level.  Creepy atmospherics combined with a slowly bubbling cacophony that ended in massive eruptions.  It really upped the "creep factor."  There is nothing inherently creepy about looking at a bunch of trees, but this movie managed to do that multiple times, and the soundtrack was a huge part of that.

Thomasin waits for a bass drop that will never come

This was not a terrifying movie.  If you’re looking for jump scares, you will not find them here.  But if you want a slow burning, unnerving horror thriller with disturbing imagery, you owe it to yourself to watch this movie.  On a grey day, turn off the lights and spend some time with this movie.  Focus on it.  Let it transport you back to that specific time and place in history and feel what it was like.

Unlike The Babadook and It Follows, the hype hurts this movie.  It didn’t reach out and grab me.  But, after thinking about it for a couple weeks, I think I really love this movie.  The authentic language can be tough to understand sometimes, but that’s a small complaint.  In the end, it really helped pull me into that period.

Rating: 5/5

The Final Girls

I’m a sucker for a typical horror movie told from a different perspective.  Scream, Cabin in the Woods and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon are a few of the more popular movies in this genre, but The Final Girls tends to lean more towards Midnight Movie or Camp Daze (aka Camp Slaughter) than those other options.

Let’s set this up: Max’s mother (Amanda) had a small role in an 80s slasher movie called Camp Bloodbath (it was basically Friday the 13th, much like Midnight Movie’s movie-within-a-movie was basically Texas Chain Saw Massacre).  Twenty-to-thirty years later, she was still trying to make it as an actress, but was hamstrung by her appearance in this campy horror film.  On her way back from yet another audition she likely wouldn't get the part for, she and Max get in a car accident and Amanda dies.

Three years later, Max is still dealing with her mother’s death.  The school she is attending is showing Camp Bloodbath on the big screen and Max is pressured into making an appearance.  During the movie, a fire breaks out in the theater, and Max – along with a handful of her friends – find the only escape is by cutting through the screen and going through a door in the back.  By doing this, they somehow find themselves having been pulled into the movie.  When Max comes across her mother, she is not actually Amanda; she is Nancy, her character in Camp Bloodbath.  Duncan – the movie geek – proclaims that they shouldn’t mess with the events of the movie, but to let everything play out exactly like it’s supposed to.  “Don’t think of them as people,” he says.  “Think of them as animals in a nature preserve.”  Of course, they find that is not necessarily the case.  (Duncan naturally knows all the lines in the movie, so he gleefully quotes lines these characters are saying in front of him and gets giddy at the prospect of their impending death.)

Since our characters are inside the movie, there is a lot of playing around with movie conventions (my personal favorite is the flashback scene).  There are a lot of laughs, as people from the modern age are forced to interact with horror movie stereotypes from the 80s (the conversations between Chris and Kurt absolutely killed me). 

But what really drew me in was the surprisingly strong emotional core.  Throughout the film, we see how the death of Amanda has absolutely devastated Max.  Now, Max has another chance to spend time with her mother (even though Nancy is not technically her mother; rather she is the character that her mother played in Camp Bloodbath).  From the scenes we saw of Max and Amanda, it seems like Max was the responsible one in that relationship.  That carries over here, but we also get a chance to see Nancy play a bit of a motherly role for Max.  It's remarkably sweet and heartbreaking.  Taissa Farmiga and Malin Akerman played their roles perfectly.  It never felt forced or manipulative.  It felt real.

The writing was great and the entire cast was tremendous.  With the exception of a couple of the characters in Camp Bloodbath, all of the characters here felt real (and those characters only lacked depth because they were playing one-note stereotypes in an 80s slasher film).  There was a depth behind them that I wasn't expecting.  That helped some of the jokes to land, but it also helped me to feel more connected to them.  When they die - and most of the do die - I was sad.  We pulled back the curtain of slasher films and found that maybe we shouldn't root so hard for some of the unlikable characters to die; maybe they aren't as terrible as they appear to be at first blush.

I had a few issues with this, but all of those issues are minimal compared to what I loved about it.  This movie was smart, hysterical and more emotional than I would have thought.

Rating: 5/5

Notable actors: Malin Akerman, Taissa Farmiga, Nina Dobrev, Thomas Middleditch, Alia Shawkat, Adam DeVine

Creep

This is a found footage movie, and the set-up is simple: Aaron answers an ad placed by Josef, a man who is dying of cancer.  As a father-to-be, he wants someone to record a day in his life, so his son will be able to see the kind of man his father really was.  Josef even references the film My Life, in which Michael Keaton does pretty much the exact same thing.  I kind of chuckled, because I love the idea of someone taking life cues from a subpar Michael Keaton movie.  But I digress.

Listen guys, there's this movie called Game 6...

We all know where this is going.  We know that someone is the titular Creep, and we’re pretty sure that someone is Josef, mainly due to his penchant for jumping out at Aaron from hidden corners and wearing a cheap werewolf mask he calls “Peachfuzz”.  The clues are subtle, but I was able to pick up on them.

Pictured: Maybe a Creep. It's hard to tell for sure.

Eventually, Aaron picks up on these clues and decides to leave Josef, a grown man who thinks it’s acceptable to say “tubby time” in the presence of another human being.  I thought this would be the finale: a game of Peachfuzz and mouse in an empty house.  I was mistaken.  The movie went in a slightly different direction at that point, and I was happy that I did not have to sit through 30 minutes of seeing the camera look over a couch slowly, then run down the steps.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

For spoiler related reasons, I won’t get into where the movie went from there.  It was an interesting little twist, but it didn’t add much to the movie.  I understand that this was not an action-filled gore-fest, but there was a ton of dead time in this movie.  I feel like they thought it was creepier than it actually was.

This was an extremely small movie.  There are only two actors listed: Patrick Brice (Aaron) and Mark Duplass (Josef).  We actually hear a female voice over a phone at one point, but we never see her and the voice is uncredited.  To love a movie like this, you have to connect with the characters.  Or, at least, not actively loathe them.  That was a test this movie failed for me.  Mark Duplass was basically his same character from The League, only with eyes that were slightly more dead.  He still had that same smarmy look, and I couldn’t shake it.  He didn’t scare me.  He annoyed me.

*Adrian Peterson joke*

Aaron wasn’t much better.  After escaping the house, he had a number of moments where he is just talking to the camera, and he came off as a vlogger talking about what kind of dinner he was going to make that night, only with worse decision-making.

"Went to the store to buy parsley, but they were out. Hashtag parsley life."

I understand what is going on here.  In this era of sequels, remakes and reboots, we have a tendency to champion anything that is new.  Creep is a perfectly fine movie that grabbed a lot of hype for being small and original (or, at least, a new take on an old story).  There's nothing wrong with that.  Had I stumbled across this myself, I probably would have enjoyed it a little more than I did.  But, even then, I don't think it would have grabbed me as much as it seemed to grab others.  It's worth watching, but don't expect anything mind-blowing.

Rating: 2/5

Michael Bay's "The Birds"

I’m a member of a pretty stupid horror group on Facebook.  I don’t know why I’m still a member there.  I probably just don’t think very much of myself as a person.

Anyway, there was a recent post where someone was talking about the news of the remake of The Birds.  It went something like this: “ZOMG Michael Bay is remaking The Birds.  I bet there will be exploding birds.  LOL.  Why do they keep ruining such great movies.  My childhood is ruined and I hate everything.”  I did a quick Google search for “Michael Bay Birds Remake”, and there are hundreds of scorching hot takes, all basically saying the same thing.  “This is bad.  That’s bad.  Everything is bad.  Michael Bay is bad.  Explosions.”  And so on.  So I thought I would offer my take, even if the news is a few months old by this point.

I am no Michael Bay apologist.  He made some movies I legitimately enjoyed (Bad Boys, The Rock, The Island and the first Transformers movie, mainly), but he has his share of terrible movies as well (Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, every Transformers movie after the first one and probably Pain & Gain, though I refuse to watch it).

My personal feelings about the movies he has directed don’t really matter, though.  He’s not directing this movie.  His production company – Platinum Dunes – is producing it.  There is a big difference between “Michael Bay is directing this movie” and “Michael Bay is producing this movie.”  In fact, you could just leave Michael Bay completely out of the discussion; that’s how little his directing history has anything to do with this.
Here is a list of movies Platinum Dunes has produced, along with a few thoughts I have on them.

2003 – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Remake)
It has a completely different feel from the original, but I think that helps it.  I really like this.  It’s not a great movie, but it’s a pretty fun movie.  

2005 – The Amityville Horror (Remake)
One of my favorite remakes.  I enjoyed this version better than the original.  Ryan Reynolds is fantastic.

2006 – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
I don’t know that I would slap the “fun” label on this, but I like it pretty well.  Some familiar faces (mainly Jordana Brewster and Matt Bomer) certainly don’t hurt.  I didn’t really need to see the origin of Leatherface (especially a Leatherface that is nastier than he is in the original), but it didn’t bother me.  There were some moments in this that made me squirm.

2007 – The Hitcher (Remake)
Haven’t seen this one, but it’s on my list.  For Sean Bean and Neal McDonough if nothing else.

2009 – The Unborn
Fun fact: my brother snuck me into the theater to see this movie, as it had sold out before I got there.  I hated this when I first saw it, but it has grown on me over the years.  That’s due to the laughable dialog more than anything else.  I quote this movie way more than I should.

2009 – Friday the 13th (Remake?  Sequel?  Reboot?)
A perfectly fine little slasher.  I really liked their attempt to tie it in with the original series.  That was a nice touch.  I’ve seen this movie quite a few times, yet I have a hard time remembering exactly what happens.  Not a bad movie, but far from a great one.

2009 – Horsemen
Haven’t seen it.  I’ve heard good things, though.

2010 – A Nightmare on Elm Street (Remake)
I don’t understand the hate for this movie.  I guess Robert Englund is so closely associated with Freddy Krueger that putting someone else in the role was never going to be well-received.  I liked how it skewed darker, especially given how comical the Nightmare on Elm Street series got as it progressed (New Nightmare being the exception).  I liked this movie.

2013 – The Purge
Love the concept.  Hated the family this centered on.  They made terrible decisions and I honestly didn’t care if they survived the night.

2014 – The Purge: Anarchy
Better than the first one, in that we get to see more of what happens during Purge Night, but it still falls victim to the “no characters to love” problem.  There wasn’t enough carnage to overlook the fact that the characters were all awful (Frank Grillo’s rugged handsomeness notwithstanding).

2014 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Pretty terrible, but this movie was not made for me.  It was made for children.  And, judging by the theater I was in, it seemed to go over pretty well with that group.  (I will say that I absolutely loved the little scene of Will Arnett eating a sandwich with mustard and Parmesan cheese.  They should call that thing a G.O.B., guy.)

2014 – Ouija

Haven’t seen it.  I may see it at some point, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet.  By all accounts, it’s a perfectly fine starter horror flick for teenagers.

2015 – Project Almanac
Haven’t seen it.  Haven’t talked to anyone who has seen it.  The trailer made it look awful, but I really have no read on this.

That’s not a bad list.  Not a single movie on that list makes me mad that it exists.  One that I love, a couple that are not very good, and the rest sit right around replacement level horror (or slightly above).

So relax.  Michael Bay is not going to ruin The Birds, mainly because he’s not going to have anything to do with it other than helping to fund it.  If the mere idea of The Birds getting remade makes you angry, just don’t go see it.  Show your support (or lack of support) through your money.
If The Birds is bad, you’ll have to find someone other than Michael Bay to blame for it.  I understand that he’s easy to make fun of, but all I’ve seen so far are the same lazy jokes.  And they don’t even apply here.

The Birds probably doesn’t need to be remade, but I could say that about a great many of movies that have been remade.  Some of them are good.  Some of them are bad.  Not a single one of them has ruined the original for me. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we’re living in a great era for horror.  There are great independent horror movies being released through VOD all the time.  The “direct-to-video” label is no longer a curse.  Find something you love and support it in any way you can.

Exists

Apologies for my time away.  I have excuses, but they’re not particularly good ones.  But I’m back and hoping to be updating this on a regular basis.  I’m sure this is great news for the 2 of you who actually visit this site.

One of the main complaints about Willow Creek (the Bobcat Goldthwait directed found footage Bigfoot movie) was the extreme lack of Bigfoot.  There were noises (so many noises) and a naked lady who may-or-may-not have been part of Bigfoot’s harem, but Bigfoot himself is never seen.  I kept saying, “Well, at 80 minutes, at least it’s short.”

Then Exists came along.  It’s 81 minutes, and we get heaps of Bigfoot.  So much Bigfoot, you guys.  On top of that, it was directed by Eduardo Sanchez, who pretty much gave birth to the modern found footage genre (for better or worse) with The Blair Witch Project.

The set-up is easy enough: a handful of teenagers spend a weekend in a remote cabin.  They hit something with their car, but they never figure out what it was.  Then Bigfoot shows up and lays waste to everyone and everything. 
Did you like your bike?  Too bad, because Bigfoot will crush the frame into a tangled heap and throw it right at your door. 
Try to make an escape?  Bigfoot will run you down, break your legs and throw you in a prison of his own creation.
Hide in the cabin?  Bigfoot will rip every door off its hinges and destroy everything you love.
Find an empty RV to hide in?  Bigfoot will find you, push the RV down a hill, then jump off the ropes and land a killer finishing move (this was my favorite scene in the movie.  I rewound it at least twice).

The People's Bigfoot

It’s a tornado of destruction, and we get to see all of it, thanks to an overeager stoner with dozens of GoPro cameras at his disposal.

It’s not an amazing movie, but it’s a really fun movie.  The acting is solid, but the characters aren’t particularly great.  The dialog was fine, but nothing to write home about (I tend to write home whenever I see a movie with great writing.  I write to my old address, so now some stranger receives these transmissions).  I went into this movie wanting nothing more than a rampaging Bigfoot, and I got exactly that.  

Do you like the idea of watching a movie about a rampaging Bigfoot?  Of course you do, because you love beautiful things.  Watch this movie.

Rating: 4/5 

It Follows: Surviving "The It"

This post will contain spoilers.  So, if you haven't seen It Follows, you should probably go see it immediately, then come back for this. 

I've been thinking about this movie non-stop since I've seen it.  One of the ideas I've been kicking around lately has been the best way to get rid of The It.  Paul driving around the ruins of Detroit trolling for cheap hookers seems like a pretty good idea at first blush (plus, his undercover knit cap was pretty killer).  That prostitute will likely have sex with another man within the day, thus getting two people between Paul and The It.
But there are a few problems with this.  For starters, neither the prostitute nor the john know anything about this sinister being stalking them.  You remember how quickly Greg - the Johnny Depp/Skeet Ulrich looking neighbor - was killed?  They will be killed at least that quickly, because they don't know what's coming for them.  So it buys time, but not a ton.  I've thought about the rules for this, and I like to think of it like a game of tag.  Let's take a look at the prostitute.  Once she has sex, she has passed it on.  It's not like she's a carrier and passes it on to every guy she has sex with.  You can only pass it on when you are “it”.  She'll transmit it to the first guy she has sex with, but then it's on him.
And who is this guy?  I don't know, but I can tell you this: he's not coming from out of town to sleep with a prostitute, so he's from Detroit, or somewhere in the surrounding area.  There's a safe bet that the guy paying money for a Detroit hooker isn't rolling in females, so he's not likely to pass it on anytime soon.  If he does, it's likely to be someone else in the area. 
My point is this: none of these people know something is after them, and none of them are leaving the area.  So The It will just be circling around in the Detroit area, knocking all these people off.  Perhaps The It will never be able to untangle the sex-web (sorry for saying "sex-web") to make its way back to Paul and Jay.  Maybe the prostitute just keeps having sex before The It kills her, and it never comes back to Paul.

"Hey pretty lady. What's your sign?"

Again, not a bad plan, but I believe there are better plans.  Here are the two I have come up with:

1. The same plan as Paul's, but with a slight twist.  Buy a ticket to Vegas and locate a prostitute.  There are people from all over the world looking for prostitutes in Vegas.  Have sex, and within 15 minutes of leaving The It has already moved to someone past the hooker (15 minutes is a rough estimate.  I really have no idea.  I assume the turnaround time for sex in Vegas is pretty short).  Unless it ends up landing on someone in the city of Detroit, it will likely never find its way back to Paul.  If this goes according to plan, there will be a string of infected people placed across the globe.  It may track down and kill someone in Florida, only to have to walk to Italy for the next one.  It's pretty cost-effective, too: I just checked and you can nab a nonstop flight from Detroit to Las Vegas that costs around $300.
For good measure, drive a couple hundred miles outside the city a day or two before your flight leaves.  This will ensure that you will not be a nervous wreck in the event of a delay in your flight.  You don’t want to be sitting there on the flight, only to see a naked family member shambling by your window.

2. Take to the road as nomads.  Put some space between you and The It and relax for a bit.
The average walking speed of an adult is 3.1 mph.  The It seemed to move slower than that, but that's what I'll use for my calculations.  Let's assume that the average speed in a car is 60 mph (I don't know if this is correct, but they'll be driving an older car, and this will help account for stops for food/bathroom, as well as highway construction).  This plan revolves around just taking off for a while.  The goal is to put as much distance between you and The It as you can, while still being responsible for your own mode of transportation.  No getting stuck on planes or boats or anything.  Everything is within your power this way.
I looked at some cities far from Detroit and saw how much time you could buy.  I didn't dig too in-depth, but I did look at a few.
I always loved Colorado, so my first stop was Denver.  Denver is 1,269 miles from Detroit.  Driving straight through, it would take 0.88 days, while walking would take 17.05 days.  So you could kick back in Denver for roughly 2 weeks before having to skip town.
What about something a bit more remote?  Carson City, Nevada looks really nice, and it's a town of only 55,000 people.  Why is this important?  The fewer people in a town, the less chance there is of The It blending in.  You could buy yourself 28 days in Carson City before The It came calling.
Let's go further west.  I've never been to California, but it looks lovely.  Carmel-by-the-Sea looks like an incredible city.  More importantly, the population is less than 4,000 people and you could buy yourself 31.85 days.  That's my pick.  Live in Carmel for a month.
There's a downside to this one, and it's obvious: money.  So much money.  You're essentially homeless for a month.  Maybe you could work out some kind of employment deal in Carmel.  "I'll work for an entire month, but then I'll be taking a month off."  That seems unlikely, and you're still paying for quite a bit of gas every month (rough estimates put that cost around $250 a month), as well as the constant threat of old rust bucket falling apart during one of your monthly excursions.
So, really, unless you have a ton of money, this isn't really feasible.  But it sure is a nice thought.

California dreamin'

For Paul?  I think option 1 is the way to go.  Sure, the knowledge that you will likely have killed numerous people will be on your conscience, but Paul has already determined that he's willing to make that call.
So, while option 2 is more noble, option 1 is slightly more permanent and much more manageable in terms of cost.  If The It is after you, you'll have to determine what you can afford and what your conscience can carry.

Do you have other ideas for how to survive?  Leave them in the comments.

While we're here in the spoiler zone...
I've read some people talking about how they didn't like the ending.  The more I think about it, the more I loved it, and the more I believe it's the only way they could have ended it.  The idea that you'll always have to look over your shoulder is a terrifying one.  Sure, Paul passed on the disease, but it could still come for him and Jay at any moment.  Is that person walking behind you The It, or just a harmless neighbor?  You'll never know, and you'll always be wondering.  That's how they live their life now: in constant fear.  Even a nice walk down the street could end in your demise.  It makes the mundane a source of constant terror.  Even though the movie had ended, their horror did not.  True horror is not in eluding the killer, but the knowledge that he could pop back up at any time.  Every moment in your life is plagued by this thought that something is after you.  That something is around the next corner.  If you become complacent, you die.  If you focus on it too much, it will consume you (like Laurie Strode in H20).  That’s the feeling the ending conveyed to me, and one of the main reasons I can’t stop thinking about this film.

Also, while I love the idea of Paul and Jay sharing this curse, I can't help but wondering how their relationship will hold up.  Jay never seemed completely into it.  Will she find herself feeling trapped in a loveless relationship merely because of this common experience?  "He can help keep me safe, so I guess I'll stay with him."  How long will that last?  A year?  Less?  At some point, bitterness will start to creep in and this It will threaten to tear them apart without ever being present.
To be clear, I don't want to see this movie.  I don't want a sequel that deals with their relationship issues.  But these characters felt so real, so I can't help but wondering what would happen to them after the credits rolled.

It Follows

I'm having a hard time organizing my thoughts for this movie, so I'm going to give you a mish-mash of unconnected thoughts.

- It’s hard to ignore the obvious Halloween references throughout the film.  All the wide shots from a steadicam.  The calm, tree-lined suburban streets with more than a hint of evil lurking.  The pulsing synth.  The fact that the supernatural killer is referred to as “The It” in interviews, which is pretty close to “The Shape”.  I kept waiting for Michael Myers to pop out from behind a row of shrubs.

 - With all the style – all the window dressing – it would be easy to miss the fact that this, at its heart, a slasher movie.  There is an unstoppable force heading right towards you at a slow pace.  It never runs.  It never wavers.  If it is shot, it falls down, gets back up and keeps coming.  Jay is our final girl.  Unlike the stereotypical final girl, she has had sex.  But, like the stereotypical final girl, she has the attention of the killer and does what she has to in order to survive.  The plot of the movie is summed up in the title: It Follows.  And, like our favorite killers, it never stops.

- I’ve heard a lot of talk about the unnecessary nudity in this.  It’s true that there is a decent helping of nudity in this, but I would not call it unnecessary.  None of the nudity is alluring.  It is all courtesy of The It, and it is all ugly.  It is all uncomfortable.  The It is, in essence, an STD, and it chooses (at times) to manifest itself in forms of twisted and ugly sexuality.

- I love the slasher aspect to this.  I also love the fact that it is always walking.  There’s never a fear that it’s going to be hiding in the closet, waiting to pop out at you.  It doesn’t try to hide.  There is no fear that it will suddenly be in hiding in the backseat of your car.  It doesn't work that way.  It doesn’t sneak around.  It just keeps coming.  Like a slasher or a zombie, it is relentless.  You need to sleep.  To rest.  To take a break.  It doesn’t need that.  While you’re sitting still, it’s getting closer.  And there’s nothing you can do about it.

- I like to think that they cast the actor who played Greg because he kind of looked like Johnny Depp, and they wanted a nod to Nightmare on Elm Street.

- I mentioned the soundtrack earlier, but I'd like to bring it up again here.  It was composed/performed by electronic artist Disasterpeace, and it sets a perfect tone.  It goes from minimal and creepy synth tones to full-blown noise explosions.  He draws a lot of comparisons to Carpenter's scores here (I have to believe a lot of that was at the behest of the director), but he is able to put his own spin on it.  I am currently listening to this.  It is storming outside and my back is to an open door.  I am looking over my shoulder every 30 seconds or so, just making sure The It isn't creeping ever closer.

- It was interesting how differently this thing was dealt with.  Hugh/Jeff (although I thought he looked more like a Ricky/Wesley) had sex with Jay and took off.  His thought process was solid, if a bit cold: if The It kills the person it is tracking, it will then go after the previous infected person.  (An added note: only those infected at some point can see The It.  So, if you haven't been infected, you will just watch your friend freak out, but you won't actually see anything.)  If he passed on The It to Jay and stuck around only to watch her die, he would be next on the list, and The It would have a very short trip to kill him.  For Hugh, the disease was one of isolation.
Jay and her friends took it another way.  They looked out for her, whether they actually knew what they were looking for or not.  A couple of them offered to have sex with her, in part because they were horny teenagers, but in part because they really did care about Jay.  For them, the disease brought them together.  I found it interesting the different ways these groups dealt with this killer stalking one of them.  I'm pretty sure it's some kind of "glass half full or half empty" thing, but with a disturbingly naked and placid killer slowly creeping closer to you.

I want to get deeper into this, but I can't really do that without doing some major spoilers, so I guess I'll refrain from doing that.  The hype for this movie has grown pretty large, but, just like The Babadook, I feel this movie is able to avoid being a victim of its own hype.  It's a terrific movie with a great style, a huge nod to the past and a pretty good sense of humor.  It's not quite the movie I thought it was going to be, but I'm perfectly okay with that.

Rating: 5/5