It Follows

In Detroit, a young girl flees to sit by herself on the beach after escaping from a house, suspecting she is being chased by an unknown threat. The next morning, her mangled body is seen lying on the beach.

Oakland University student Jay goes on a date with her new boyfriend, Hugh. That night, Hugh points out a woman in the back of the theater. When Jay says she cannot see the woman, Hugh becomes unnerved and asks that they leave. On another date, Hugh and Jay have sex in his car, but afterwards, he incapacitates Jay with chloroform, and she wakes up tied to a wheelchair in the Packard Plant, where Hugh explains that she will be pursued by an entity that only they can see and that it can take the appearance of any person. If it catches Jay, it will kill her and pursue the previous person to have passed it on: Hugh. After they see a naked woman walking toward them, Hugh drives Jay home and flees. The next day, the police cannot find the naked woman or Hugh, who was living under a false identity.

At school, Jay sees an old woman in a hospital gown walking towards her, invisible to others. Jay's sister Kelly and her friends, Paul and Yara, agree to help and spend the night in Jay and Kelly's house. That night someone smashes the kitchen window; Paul investigates but sees no one. Inside the house, Jay sees a disheveled, urinating, half-naked woman walking toward her and runs upstairs to the others, who cannot see the entity. When a tall man, seemingly with no eyes, enters the bedroom, Jay flees the house; her friends catch up to her at a nearby playground. With the help of their neighbor, Greg, the group discovers Hugh's real name, Jeff Redmond, and trace him to his address. Jeff's mother answers the door, and Jay realizes that the naked woman she had seen coming for her in the Packard Plant was in the form of Mrs. Redmond. Jeff explains that the entity began pursuing him after a one-night stand and that Jay can pass it on by having sex with someone else.

Greg drives Jay, Kelly, Yara, and Paul to his family's lake house, and teaches Jay to shoot a revolver. The entity arrives in the form of Yara and attacks Jay on the lakefront. Jay's friends ward it off by breaking a chair over its body, and Jay shoots it in the head, but it recovers unharmed and attacks Jay again, taking the form of a boy who lives next door to Jay. She flees in Greg's car, crashes into a cornfield, and wakes up in a hospital with a broken arm. Greg has sex with Jay in the hospital, as he does not believe the entity exists. Days later, Jay sees the entity in the form of Greg walking towards Greg's house. It smashes a window at Greg's house and enters. Jay tries to warn the real Greg by telephone, but he does not answer. She runs into the house and finds the entity in the form of Greg's half-naked mother knocking on his door before it jumps on Greg. Jay sees the entity having sex with a dead Greg, then Jay flees by car and spends the night outdoors. On a beach, Jay sees three young men on a boat. She then undresses and walks into the water. Back home, Jay refuses Paul's offer of sex.

The group plans to kill the entity by luring it into a swimming pool and dropping electrical devices into the water. Jay, waiting in the pool, spots the entity and realizes it has taken the appearance of her father. Instead of entering the pool, it throws the devices at her. Firing at an invisible target, Paul accidentally wounds Yara but shoots the entity in the head, causing it to fall into the pool. As it pulls Jay underwater, Paul shoots it again, and Jay escapes. She approaches the pool and sees it filling with blood. Jay and Paul have sex. That night, Paul drives through town, passing prostitutes. Later, Jay and Paul walk down the street holding hands, as a figure walks behind them.

Writer and director David Robert Mitchell conceived the film based on recurring dreams he had in his youth about being followed: "I didn't use those images for the film, but the basic idea and the feeling I used. From what I understand, it's an anxiety dream. Whatever I was going through at that time, my parents divorced when I was around that age, so I imagine it was something to do with that."[6] The role that sexual transmission plays came later, from Mitchell's desire for something that could transfer between people.[7] Mitchell started writing the film in 2011 while working on a separate film he intended to be his second feature film; however, Mitchell struggled with this would-be second feature and made It Follows as his next film instead.[8] Mitchell realized that the concept he was working on was tough to describe and thus refused to discuss the plot when asked what he was working on, reasoning later, "When you say it out loud, it sounds like the worst thing ever."[7]

The film was shot in late 2013 in Detroit, Michigan.[9] Mitchell used wide-angle lenses when filming to give the film an expansive look,[9] and cited the works of George Romero and John Carpenter as influences on the film's compositions and visual aesthetic.[6]

The film's monster, shot composition, and overall aesthetic were influenced by the work of contemporary photographer Gregory Crewdson. Director of photography Mike Gioulakis said: "We're both big fans of the still photographer Gregory Crewdson and David had him in his look book from day one. [Crewdson's] photographs have the same kind of surreal suburban imagery that we wanted for It Follows."[10]

It Follows has sparked numerous interpretations from film critics in regard to the source of "it" and the film's symbolism.[6] Critics have interpreted the film as a parable about HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections,[11] and the social perceptions thereof; the sexual revolution;[12] and "primal anxieties" about intimacy.[13]

Mitchell stated: "I'm not personally that interested in where 'it' comes from. To me, it's dream logic in the sense that they're in a nightmare, and when you're in a nightmare there's no solving the nightmare. Even if you try to solve it."[6] Mitchell said that while Jay "opens herself up to danger through sex, sex is the one way in which she can free herself from that danger ... We're all here for a limited amount of time, and we can't escape our mortality ... but love and sex are two ways in which we can – at least temporarily – push death away".[11]

The score was composed by Rich Vreeland, better known as Disasterpeace.[14][15] It was released on February 2, 2015 over Editions Milan Music with permission of The Weinstein Company with a digital booklet.[16] The digital version of the album went on sale March 10, 2015.

It Follows premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2014. It was released theatrically in France on February 4, 2015, and in the United Kingdom on February 27. It was given a limited release in the United States on March 13[17] and a wide release on March 27[18] in 1,200 theaters.[19] The film also received a limited release on March 27, 2015, in Canada by Mongrel Media.[20]

Following the film's success, Radius-TWC co-president Tom Quinn announced that the studio is looking into a possible sequel.[34] Quinn has expressed the idea of flipping the concept of the first film around, with Maika Monroe's Jay or another protagonist going down the chain to find the origin of "it".[35]

• It Follows on IMDb
• It Follows at AllMovie
• It Follows at Rotten Tomatoes
• It Follows at Metacritic
• It Follows at Box Office Mojo