Keir Gilchrist

The Movie Gourmet doesn’t watch many horror movies, but I really liked the inventive, scary and non-gory It Follows. 19-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe) has sex with a guy who then tells her that he has passed on to her a kind of supernatural infection – a monster will follow her and kill her if she doesn’t pass it on to someone else. The monster shambles along at zombie speed and takes the form of a different human being each time. It’s terrifying – there’s a constant sense of dread and a convulsive shock every time It appears.

Writer-director David Robert Mitchell has created a very scary horror film with an excellent soundtrack and a minimum of makeup, special effects and hardly any blood. It’s even more frightening that she’s being stalked by something that usually looks normal.

Before the screening, I had to sit through several trailers from the horror genre. There was NOTHING in those trailers that I hadn’t seen before in The Shining, The Exorcist or a multitude of less elevated films. I have to note the contrast with It Follows, which is definitely something that you haven’t seen before.

The very talented actress Maika Monroe is almost always on-screen and she proves that she can carry a movie. I first noticed her in At Any Price , where she played the son ‘s girlfriend. That role was especially well-written – beginning as a simple teen from a broken family looking for some fun, her journey takes several surprising turn – and Monroe’s performance was memorable. Until fairly recently, Monroe was pursuing a professional career in freestyle kite surfing.

All the acting is good in It Follows, but Keir Gilchrist is especially good at portraying the ACHING sexual frustration of a teenage boy.

It Follows has a wonderful sense of place. It is set and was shot in the Detroit suburbs, the rural lakefront and the decaying inner city. The extraordinary High Lift Building in Detroit’s Water Works Park serves as the exterior for the climactic set piece.

But the key to It Follows is its originality – without expensive f/x or disgusting gore – it’s likely the best horror movie of the year. It Follows is available on DVD from both Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

The Movie Gourmet doesn’t watch many horror movies, but I really liked the inventive, scary and non-gory It Follows. 19-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe) has sex with a guy who then tells her that he has passed on to her a kind of supernatural infection – a monster will follow her and kill her if she doesn’t pass it on to someone else. The monster shambles along at zombie speed and takes the form of a different human being each time. It’s terrifying – there’s a constant sense of dread and a convulsive shock every time It appears.

Writer-director David Robert Mitchell has created a very scary horror film with an excellent soundtrack and a minimum of makeup, special effects and hardly any blood. It’s even more frightening that she’s being stalked by something that usually looks normal.

Before the screening, I had to sit through several trailers from the horror genre. There was NOTHING in those trailers that I hadn’t seen before in The Shining, The Exorcist or a multitude of less elevated films. I have to note the contrast with It Follows, which is definitely something that you haven’t seen before.

The very talented actress Maika Monroe is almost always on-screen and she proves that she can carry a movie. I first noticed her in At Any Price , where she played the son ‘s girlfriend. That role was especially well-written – beginning as a simple teen from a broken family looking for some fun, her journey takes several surprising turn – and Monroe’s performance was memorable. Until fairly recently, Monroe was pursuing a professional career in freestyle kite surfing.

All the acting is good in It Follows, but Keir Gilchrist is especially good at portraying the ACHING sexual frustration of a teenage boy.

It Follows has a wonderful sense of place. It is set and was shot in the Detroit suburbs, the rural lakefront and the decaying inner city. The extraordinary High Lift Building in Detroit’s Water Works Park serves as the exterior for the climactic set piece.

But the key to It Follows is its originality – without expensive f/x or disgusting gore – it’s likely the best horror movie of the year. It Follows is available on DVD from both Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.