Quite a few years ago, I saw a little horror film called Insidious. Now, for the first two thirds of this film, I was actually quite terrified. It wasn’t the greatest horror film I’d ever seen but it was doing it’s job fairly well…..then the last third of the movie happened, and it was the stupidest thing I had ever witnessed in my entire life. The film took such a left turn into what the fuckery that it makes the last third of Chappie look subtle. It was because of this film that I skipped paranormal activity, and basically most other horror movies because I got sick of the stupid modern gimmick of cheap jump scares.
I could go into a whole thing about this, but I’ll stick to the short version of why the jump scare sucks balls.
A good horror film builds up the tension, and then slowly but surely drags the fear throughout you and should leave you feeling genuinely terrified regardless of what happens after that.
A jump scare, basically doesn’t have to build up tension, because jump scares are designed for a quick boo rather than a sense of dread. Instead of filling you with dread, it fills you with relief that it was over quickly. Where’s the challenge in that?
It’s basically comparing an emotional beating to an emotional sucker punch.
I could go further into this, but I said I’d keep it short.
So why am I talking about this? Well, because I saw a trailer for a little indie horror flick called It Follows, and after following the rotten tomatoes score of the film for a little while I decided I wanted to take a chance and try to find that passion for horror films once again, and holy shit, this movie delivered.
Plot Summary - After the film begins by showing the last moments of a Girl named Annie, our main character Jay Height (Maika Monroe) is introduced as we see her relationship with a guy named Hugh (Jake Weary). Everything is going well for the two of them, even after one date where Hugh has a strange moment at a theatre, eventually ending up with them having sex. Hugh then suddenly drugs Jay, and when she wakes up he tells her that he was cursed and that he has now passed it on to her. The curse goes like this: An entity will follow Jay at a walking pace, and if it reaches her it will kill her and go after the previous person who had the curse. It can take on the form of any human being and the cursed are the only people who can see it. After showing Jay the creature, he drops her off at her house and leaves her and her friends to try and find a solution.
Pros: Honestly, I just loved everything about this film. It’s a great simple premise that works so well because they don’t try and make it too complicated. What else do you really need to know besides hey there’s a creature that only you can see and it wants to kill you and it will stop at nothing. That prospect alone is fucking terrifying and they pull it off so well. Even the fact that the only way to get rid of it is by having sex with people makes it even worse because not only are you passing on something terrible to someone else, if the thing comes back for you you then know you’re the person responsible for getting someone else killed. It’s the best kind of horror scenario because there’s really no way to win and it just adds on to the tension. The idea of you and you alone having to look out for this thing for the rest of your life.
I loved every single thing about this movie, and I can already guarantee you this will be in the top ten.
Cons: The bus ride getting there being over an hour, there and back.
Final Score: 10/10
All I can say is, go see this movie. Seriously. Go see it, stop reading this and go see it NOW!
For those of you still reading though, I will be seeing Furious 7 most likely Sunday, and because of a gap in my work schedule, expect a surprise review on Wednesday.
Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.
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