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Post by *Deep, Pained Sigh* on Mar 3, 2015 15:58:20 GMT -5
This is out in the UK and it's the best movie of 2015 so far. Incredibly well shot, with an intuitive grasp of the Detroit setting. Maika Monroe is 2 for 2 in movies I've seen and she gives a confident performance.
The Carpenter-esque soundtrack from Disasterpiece really drives the movie, and is "intrusive" in the best way, continually reminding us of the new rules our heroes are not bound to follow.
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Mar 3, 2015 18:55:37 GMT -5
I can't wait to see this. It looks so good!
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Post by rimjobflashmob on Mar 3, 2015 19:50:15 GMT -5
I've been looking forward to this for what seems like 6 months at least. Can't wait for it to hit the States.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Mar 8, 2015 16:11:46 GMT -5
Saw this earlier this week, the concept of the horror is primal, I wasn't surprised when I read the director got the idea from nightmares he had as a young child.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 9, 2015 23:48:27 GMT -5
So eager to see this one. I'm dying to experience visually the "trick" of the movie that reviewers try to explain, but I think really has to be seen. Trailer is cool, but maybe makes it look more traditional - more dependent on jump scares - than the reviews say. Of course it is just a trailer.
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Invisible Goat
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Post by Invisible Goat on Mar 12, 2015 8:19:48 GMT -5
Would really like to see this but even though it "comes out" in the US today there are no screenings in my backwater 'burgh for the foreseeable future. I figure if MPC made a sincere post about it it must be fuckin' good.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Mar 12, 2015 8:25:28 GMT -5
I booked a ticket to see this tomorrow. If I'm disappointed, I'll be heading to Milton Keynes.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Mar 13, 2015 13:28:30 GMT -5
I booked a ticket to see this tomorrow. If I'm disappointed, I'll be heading to Milton Keynes. It'll be an uncivil war, I presume? North v. South? Provinces v. Home Counties? Something like this, maybe? |
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Mar 13, 2015 13:43:39 GMT -5
I booked a ticket to see this tomorrow. If I'm disappointed, I'll be heading to Milton Keynes. It'll be an uncivil war, I presume? North v. South? Provinces v. Home Counties? Something like this, maybe? I wasn't disappointed, so MPC Lives to fart another day. Plus he has a Northern heritage, it turns out. My thoughts on the film are on the Last Movie Watched thread. No spoilers. |
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Mar 22, 2015 9:53:01 GMT -5
Saw this last night with Iffy and we both absolutely loved it. It was great to see with a big audience who were obviously horror fans because you could practically feel people leaning away from the screen in terror during some scenes. I already want to watch it again!
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Mar 22, 2015 11:33:18 GMT -5
Saw this last night with Iffy and we both absolutely loved it. It was great to see with a big audience who were obviously horror fans because you could practically feel people leaning away from the screen in terror during some scenes. I already want to watch it again! I knew you'd like it. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2015 10:08:39 GMT -5
I quick-scrolled past all the comments so as to avoid spoilers, because I need to say hooray! It Follows opens in my town tonight and I never, ever thought that would happen. Can't wait.
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Post by disqusf3dme on Mar 27, 2015 19:04:26 GMT -5
It opens here today! Seeing it tomorrow I think. I'm sooooo excited.
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Ice Cream Planet
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Post by Ice Cream Planet on Mar 27, 2015 22:12:12 GMT -5
Just got back from seeing it, and holy shit, that film was so much fun! More thoughts about it on the Last Movie Watched Thread.
The tl;dr version: highly recommended!
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Post by disqusf3dme on Mar 28, 2015 21:17:42 GMT -5
I just got back it from it! Really good, well shot, excellent music, very tense and scary. I loved the timeless feel, it gave it the vague atmosphere of an urban legend. Also loved how it did the whole "teens ganging up to take on paranormal forces" thing that you don't see much in horror these days. The audience didn't seem very into it though. I saw people leave and heard others behind us complaining, calling it boring, etc. They were saying "When is this over?" and groaning only fifteen minutes in.  |
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Ice Cream Planet
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Post by Ice Cream Planet on Mar 28, 2015 22:38:19 GMT -5
I just got back it from it! Really good, well shot, excellent music, very tense and scary. I loved the timeless feel, it gave it the vague atmosphere of an urban legend. Also loved how it did the whole "teens ganging up to take on paranormal forces" thing that you don't see much in horror these days. The audience didn't seem very into it though. I saw people leave and heard others behind us complaining, calling it boring, etc. They were saying "When is this over?" and groaning only fifteen minutes in. The majority of filmgoers are stupid, so take solace in that! One thing I loved about the film is how some of the 'timeless' details (TV sets with bunny ears, older cars, etc) could be read as both an homage to older horrors films and a commentary on the urban decay of Detroit. In many wonderful ways, it felt like a great 80s horror film that hadn't been released before. |
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Post by disqusf3dme on Mar 29, 2015 10:04:56 GMT -5
I just got back it from it! Really good, well shot, excellent music, very tense and scary. I loved the timeless feel, it gave it the vague atmosphere of an urban legend. Also loved how it did the whole "teens ganging up to take on paranormal forces" thing that you don't see much in horror these days. The audience didn't seem very into it though. I saw people leave and heard others behind us complaining, calling it boring, etc. They were saying "When is this over?" and groaning only fifteen minutes in. The majority of filmgoers are stupid, so take solace in that! One thing I loved about the film is how some of the 'timeless' details (TV sets with bunny ears, older cars, etc) could be read as both an homage to older horrors films and a commentary on the urban decay of Detroit. In many wonderful ways, it felt like a great 80s horror film that hadn't been released before. Yeah, it's the kind of film with a perfect level of ambiguity, like you can already tell people are going to be analyzing the hell out of this one. I think your comparison to The House of the Devil was really on point as well. The 70s/80s horror feel of it is interesting because I get this feeling that to a horror fan it'll just feel really classic, but to a non-horror fan it'll feel more "art house" because they might not get the references. Or at least, that was the case with my friend and I afterwards. I got to horror nerd out on him and point out little references. It was like a giant mash up of Halloween, Candyman, and Nightmare on Elm Street, with a bit of a J-horror vibe. One thing that I just started thinking about the moment I woke up was How "It" kills you. We see it happen once, and knowing how it goes down makes it so much more disturbing. During the film I wasn't thinking about how that would translate over to Jay, but now I'm all kinds of grossed out. Also, the scene when they're in the Hugh's house and the wall panel at the back of the closet comes out revealing the room on the other side. Candyman reference? Something my friend also pointed out was that the characters weren't particularly well developed, but how it didn't hinder the film at all. I think that falls in line with my argument that horror is sort of like the closest thing we have to a popular, experimental genre at times. You can get away with things that you don't normally get away with in other films, like emphasizing technical elements, using dream logic or expressionism, and just generally ignoring more traditional methods of storytelling. |
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Post by drjacoby on Mar 29, 2015 11:33:31 GMT -5
I really wanted to love this movie, and it was pretty good, but felt very overhyped to me, whereas The Babadook completely lived up to my expectations. My biggest issue with it was that it was just too much of a throwback, too focused on imitating Carpenter and 80's horror in general to really develop up much of it's own style. The score was gorgeous though, and better than most actual 80's horror scores. It also frustrated me how it refused to engage with the sexual themes... it seemed like an idea the director had to to give it an "edge" but he didn't really seem like he was comfortable with that aspect, and the way the creature often looked like a rape victim or someone who had been sexually traumatized seemed too much like it was done for shock value. And it was filled with absolutely ridiculous and terrible horror movie behavior, in which people put themselves in completely vulnerable positions for no reason at bad times. And the dialogue was just flat and banal in a bad way.
The only parts I really found scary to were the times when we would see someone following the characters from a distance... when we got to the actual face to face encounters with the creature things just a bit silly. Pretty much every "horror" sequence felt like a variation on the same theme, and it got pretty repetitive at a certain point. The climax at the pool was a very memorable and intense setpiece, but the character's whole plan to kill the creature made no sense and seemed really forced to get us to that place.
But the cinematography and set design were pretty great, and the acting was quite good when it wasn't hampered by weak dialogue. The setting and environment was extremely well realized, which is always a bonus for a horror movie. And it established the initial atmosphere very well, and that sense of thinking someone's following you at a distance but not being quite sure is a great primal fear that hasn't been tapped into quite as thoroughly as this movie did before. But I feel like the genre is so starved in a lot of ways that a decent "B" horror movie like this comes along and it gets praised way out of proportion to it's actual value (the same thing happened with You're Next, though I thought this was definitely better than that movie). I have a really hard time seeing this one becoming a classic, or even remembered by much of anyone other than horror junkies in a few years' time.
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Post by flapjackriley on Mar 29, 2015 12:33:20 GMT -5
I've already seen it twice and I definitely enjoyed it more on the second viewing. It's a very analytical horror film which I love but that makes me somewhat question all the praise that it's one of the scariest films in a long time. I consider the late 70s to have some of the scariest films of all time, which are often coupled with the sadness of small town suburban life, and I see traces of that in It Follows. But I don't see it as outright terrifying, I think it's much more of a coming of age tale with a horror element like Let the Right One In. I guess it's more of a "Dark Fantasy" than straight up horror.
The entire pool sequence, the cinematography and the music, all of it was just absolutely my favorite part. There is a very Nightmare on Elm Street quality about it, and I think that's highlighted best in that entire scene.
I could actually wax on about the movie for a while, but I don't think a lot of people have seen it yet.
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Post by Stuffed Salvador on Mar 29, 2015 18:09:36 GMT -5
Pretty much agree with a lot of what drjacoby said. A lot of the encounters between Jay and the creature felt more silly than threatening (I burst out giggling when we saw the first solo encounter with the creature as an elderly lady in a hospital gown, me and my friend said "What the fuck" at a certain kill that takes place in the movie) but I guess my main criticism would be toward the setting of the where I watched the movie though. It Follows feel more like a film to watch at home during a dark and stormy night instead of a theater with many audience members visibly bored by the movie. Maybe I'll check it out again when it hits VOD and have a lot more positive things to say about it. |
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Post by dboonsghost on Mar 29, 2015 23:02:25 GMT -5
I'm surprised to hear that audiences generally do not like this movie. I think it is by far the scariest movie I have ever seen.
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Post by Judkins Moaner on Mar 31, 2015 20:57:57 GMT -5
One thing I loved about the film is how some of the 'timeless' details (TV sets with bunny ears, older cars, etc) could be read as both an homage to older horrors films and a commentary on the urban decay of Detroit. Definitely this; I'm sure there are still a lot of Detroit homes (though not necessarily in the characters' neighborhood) that use digital antennas on similarly crappy analog TVs. For me, the only really weak part of the movie was when they were crossing Eight Mile and directly mentioning it (I kept expecting to see "CLASS COMMENTARY" flash across the screen like "SATIRE" during the "Architects' Sketch" in Monty Python). Other than that, all the oblique references were brilliantly done; really looking forward to plumbing the reviews. Agreeing with flapjackriley in particular that it often wasn't all that scary per se; most of the best horror movies (for my money) generally aren't (or at least they try not to rely too much on the jump scares that mar so much of the genre these days through overreliance). Mitchell's really mastered that kind of indefinable dread that marks the best. |
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Ice Cream Planet
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Post by Ice Cream Planet on Mar 31, 2015 21:07:54 GMT -5
One thing I loved about the film is how some of the 'timeless' details (TV sets with bunny ears, older cars, etc) could be read as both an homage to older horrors films and a commentary on the urban decay of Detroit. Definitely this; I'm sure there are still a lot of Detroit homes (though not necessarily in the characters' neighborhood) that use digital antennas on similarly crappy analog TVs. For me, the only really weak part of the movie was when they were crossing Eight Mile and directly mentioning it (I kept expecting to see "CLASS COMMENTARY" flash across the screen like "SATIRE" during the "Architects' Sketch" in Monty Python). Other than that, all the oblique references were brilliantly done; really looking forward to plumbing the reviews. Agreeing with flapjackriley in particular that it often wasn't all that scary per se; most of the best horror movies (for my money) generally aren't (or at least they try not to rely too much on the jump scares that mar so much of the genre these days through overreliance). Mitchell's really mastered that kind of indefinable dread that marks the best. That bit with the class commentary wasn't too bothersome, at least for me, but point well made. The atmosphere of constant dread reminded quite a bit of a David Lynch film. A part of me thought the figure shared quite a few similarities to the Mystery Man in Lost Highway or the terrifying bum in Mulholland Drive; an alien evil that can't be fully understood. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2015 16:49:02 GMT -5
I loved it. Not only did it scare me silly, it was just so dang beautiful. I was really charmed by the nebulous time frame - 60s? 70s? but filled with modern anachronisms, like the compact e-reader (does this exist and where do i get one) and white boards in the classroom. Every ruined house and sweater and lamp was perfect. IMHO, the Carpenter-esque soundtrack felt more like an homage than a rip-off, and it made me smile over and over. And did I mention scary? Oh lord it was so scary. Do I need to mention spoilers here? SPOILERS Y'ALL .............. holy shit the tall man when he came through her bedroom door. Brilliant I thought - the swimming pool scene especially, so well-framed and planned, I wanted to cheer when I saw they had an actual plan to beat the thing, and then it went somewhere they never could have predicted. One of the best movies I've seen in recent memory. I'll do my best to see it again before it's gone.
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Ice Cream Planet
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Post by Ice Cream Planet on Apr 8, 2015 17:17:40 GMT -5
I loved it. Not only did it scare me silly, it was just so dang beautiful. I was really charmed by the nebulous time frame - 60s? 70s? but filled with modern anachronisms, like the compact e-reader (does this exist and where do i get one) and white boards in the classroom. Every ruined house and sweater and lamp was perfect. IMHO, the Carpenter-esque soundtrack felt more like an homage than a rip-off, and it made me smile over and over. And did I mention scary? Oh lord it was so scary. Do I need to mention spoilers here? SPOILERS Y'ALL .............. holy shit the tall man when he came through her bedroom door. Brilliant I thought - the swimming pool scene especially, so well-framed and planned, I wanted to cheer when I saw they had an actual plan to beat the thing, and then it went somewhere they never could have predicted. One of the best movies I've seen in recent memory. I'll do my best to see it again before it's gone. Thrilled to hear you loved it! I can't wait to see it again myself. SPOILERS! A friend pointed this out and the more I've been thinking about it, the swimming pool scene made me wonder if Jay had domestic violence in her past. The fact the figure took the appearance of her father, that there was little evidence of her father in her home except for brief photo, and how all the items tossed in the pool where items that could conceivably be thrown during a domestic fight. Maybe the figure was a manifestation of her dealing with PTSD from a traumatic childhood? I hope Maika Monroe becomes a big star. Her performance was terrific. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2015 18:57:50 GMT -5
I loved it. Not only did it scare me silly, it was just so dang beautiful. I was really charmed by the nebulous time frame - 60s? 70s? but filled with modern anachronisms, like the compact e-reader (does this exist and where do i get one) and white boards in the classroom. Every ruined house and sweater and lamp was perfect. IMHO, the Carpenter-esque soundtrack felt more like an homage than a rip-off, and it made me smile over and over. And did I mention scary? Oh lord it was so scary. Do I need to mention spoilers here? SPOILERS Y'ALL .............. holy shit the tall man when he came through her bedroom door. Brilliant I thought - the swimming pool scene especially, so well-framed and planned, I wanted to cheer when I saw they had an actual plan to beat the thing, and then it went somewhere they never could have predicted. One of the best movies I've seen in recent memory. I'll do my best to see it again before it's gone. Thrilled to hear you loved it! I can't wait to see it again myself. SPOILERS! A friend pointed this out and the more I've been thinking about it, the swimming pool scene made me wonder if Jay had domestic violence in her past. The fact the figure took the appearance of her father, that there was little evidence of her father in her home except for brief photo, and how all the items tossed in the pool where items that could conceivably be thrown during a domestic fight. Maybe the figure was a manifestation of her dealing with PTSD from a traumatic childhood? I hope Maika Monroe becomes a big star. Her performance was terrific. That's a really compelling interpretation! I'm not sure if it works for me, mostly because it took the form of Greg's mother too - was he abused as well? But I concede that the tying of not just household items but things from her childhood into it was a stroke of genius. Sadness and creepiness, familiarity and revulsion, comfort and harm all rolled into one fucked up confrontation. Oh! I have goosebumps - I just saw it a couple of hours ago! |
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Post by saganaut on Apr 8, 2015 19:43:41 GMT -5
I saw it a few weeks ago when I was in Chicago, and I absolutely loved it. A small detail that a few others already pointed out, but I loved all the anachronistic details that made it ambiguous when it was set. I also picked up on some of the similarities to House of the Devil (and now I have to brag that my best friend worked on that film doing set design, so all of the 80s details were due to his hard work. I remember when he was working on it he told me to keep an eye out for it when it's released as he could tell it was going to turn out to be something he was proud of).
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Ice Cream Planet
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Post by Ice Cream Planet on Apr 8, 2015 20:18:09 GMT -5
I saw it a few weeks ago when I was in Chicago, and I absolutely loved it. A small detail that a few others already pointed out, but I loved all the anachronistic details that made it ambiguous when it was set. I also picked up on some of the similarities to House of the Devil (and now I have to brag that my best friend worked on that film doing set design, so all of the 80s details were due to his hard work. I remember when he was working on it he told me to keep an eye out for it when it's released as he could tell it was going to turn out to be something he was proud of). omparisons are particularly spot on. Both it and It Follows feel like great horror films we somehow haven't seen. One thing I loved about the anachronistic details in It Follows is how they feel both like an homage to 70s/80s horror cinema and a sly commentary on class in Detroit (how many of the characters, even in the suburbs don't have a lot of money so their possessions are predominantly simpler). |
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Ice Cream Planet
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Post by Ice Cream Planet on Apr 8, 2015 20:28:00 GMT -5
Thrilled to hear you loved it! I can't wait to see it again myself. SPOILERS! A friend pointed this out and the more I've been thinking about it, the swimming pool scene made me wonder if Jay had domestic violence in her past. The fact the figure took the appearance of her father, that there was little evidence of her father in her home except for brief photo, and how all the items tossed in the pool where items that could conceivably be thrown during a domestic fight. Maybe the figure was a manifestation of her dealing with PTSD from a traumatic childhood? I hope Maika Monroe becomes a big star. Her performance was terrific. That's a really compelling interpretation! I'm not sure if it works for me, mostly because it took the form of Greg's mother too - was he abused as well? But I concede that the tying of not just household items but things from her childhood into it was a stroke of genius. Sadness and creepiness, familiarity and revulsion, comfort and harm all rolled into one fucked up confrontation. Oh! I have goosebumps - I just saw it a couple of hours ago! I got chills after I saw it myself! Greg's mother could have been abusive, or if the figure was meant to be seen as an allegory for childhood PTSD, perhaps she was just a neglectful individual? One thing my friend pointed out was, if the 'figure as a representation of PTSD stemming from childhood/domestic abuse,' one could interpret the girl in the opening scene as fleeing from her father after something horrible happened inside her house and the neighbor woman's non-reaction saying what happened is nothing new. Personally, like you, I think it's an interesting theory, which I don't fully buy, but it does give an added layer of creepiness to the pool scene, considering the figure took the appearance of Jay's father. Of all the non-'STI metaphor' interpretations of the film, I like the 'austerity horror' one Dellarigg mentioned the best. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2015 22:02:08 GMT -5
Ice Cream Planet now that I've had a few hours to think about it, something that's bothering me is Hugh - are we to believe that he got the curse and then drove really far away (which I guess wasn't far away since he went to a recognizable, nearby high school??), rented a house under an assumed name with no ID, met and befriended and dated Jay and won her trust just so that he could have sex with her? And then went home to his folks? Argh, I hate to nitpick. It was a really good film.
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