Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘It Follows’

Written by Scott Edwards

Making decisions in life is one thing that we can never get away from doing. Then we are forced to live with those decisions, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. Thinking back to all of the bad decisions I have made in my years, I don’t look poorly on them, they are more of a learning experience so I know what I should do moving forward. While others may not view it that way, it is easy to make it worse for those folks by pointing out what they did wrong, and while you think you are doing them a favor, you are in fact pushing them deeper down into the dirt which they may never be able to get out of again.

Taking a swim in the afternoon, Jay Height is saddened to tell her little sister Kelly that she will not be joining her and her friends for movie night since she has got a date. Not knowing Hugh for very long, Jay really likes the guy and wants to make sure that the relationship moves on to the next level. Playing a guessing game while waiting in line for a show, she is able to get a little more insight as to who he is, but when it is his turn to give a guess, Jay sees that something has spooked him. Leaving the show and seeing that there is something distressing on his mind, Jay wants to Hugh to open up just a little bit more and tell her what is going on, but it is a secret that Hugh will take to his grave, or so she thinks.

Heading out on another date with Hugh, Jay knows that he is the one and the two make love in the back of his car. While reminiscing about her youth, Jay is shocked that Hugh has attacked her and waking up in an abandoned building and being tied up, she does not know what her new lover is going to do. With the promise of not hurting her, Hugh has something to show the young woman, a curse that has followed him for too long. Seeing a woman approaching her at a steady pace, Jay has now been infected with something that only she can pass on. Hearing that the thing can take any form, whichever way that it can get closest to her, Jay must never allow the thing to touch her, or she will be killed. Not knowing if this is real or not, Jay is returned home and files a kidnapping charge against Hugh, but the real nightmare is just beginning.

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Keeping her eyes out on the world, Jay has to be suspicious about everyone that she now sees and when an old woman makes her way onto the campus while she is in class, Jay’s fears have come true. Telling her sister, her friend Yara and her old friend Paul about what she is seeing, they try to dismiss it as shock, but when an unseen intruder enters the house, they start to put a little more stock into what is happening to their friend. Getting help from their neighbor Greg, the group is able to find a safe haven for a time, but the thing never gives up until its host is dead. Finding out that the thing, which only Jay can see, can inflict damage to anyone and anything, the group is forced to band together to come up with a plan to rid Jay of It, but It may never truly go away.

I heard many mixed reviews about this movie after it came out, and it really seems like the type of movie that you will either love or hate. I must admit that I liked it more than I expected, the acting was pretty good and Jay showing her fright was pretty epic. With that being said, there were plenty of plot holes in the movie that kept me longing for something else, but I get the basics. I am still wondering about the thing that follows everyone, as It can take any form to get close to the host, It really did not find anyone to change into that could get close to Jay without causing a stir until very late in the film. 

​I was impressed however with some of the wide and sweeping shots that showed the surroundings, and while there were only a few of them, they made you wonder where the thing would be coming from next. To make me really like it, I could have used some more depth to the storyline and something to help me understand what the heck happened to Jay’s mother, since she did not seem to be a part of the young woman’s story at all, but that is just me. Not a terrible movie if you are looking for a moral message and you're trying to keep your kids from messing around before they get married, but the scares are a little overrated in my mind and while this is categorized as a horror movie, I feel like it is more of a drama with a touch of mystery thrown in.

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