'It Follows' flips teen horror genre on its head
<b>Mini-review: "It Follows"</b>
David Robert Mitchell's sexual terror fest "It Follows" is exactly like something we've seen before - in those nightmares where we become the targets of shapeshifting evil that chase us through throngs of people oblivious to the danger.
A 19-year-old woman named Jay (Maika Monroe) loves her new BF Hugh (Jake Weary) so much, she finally surrenders herself to him in the back seat of his car.
Next thing she knows, she wakes up strapped to a wheelchair while an agitated Hugh blurts out insane warnings that "It" will come for her now that they've had sex, and she must stay away from "It" because if "It" kills her, "It" will then come after him, and track down each earlier sexual partner in the chain.
The only way Jay can save herself from "It" is to have sex with someone and pass it on like a really nasty STD.
"It" can be anybody at any time. Like the lumbering zombies in "Night of the Living Dead," "It" walks, never runs, so at least Jay can escape the danger, if she stays aware and awake 24/7.
The setup is so simple and clean that it recreates a nightmare mode on the screen, aided by a Halloweeny electronic score by Disasterpeace (Rich Vreeland) and by Michael Gioulakis' long, lingering, compellingly composed shots that have us constantly scanning the background for anything - or anyone - out of place.
Jay has a support group of her sister Kelly (Lili Sepe) and their pals Yara (Olivia Luccardi) and Paul (Keir Gilchrist), but no parents or authority figures to help out. In Mitchell's world the older generation has abandoned Jay's and can't be counted on for security or safety.
Mitchell sprinkles "It Follows" with subtle references to other cinematic works of paranoia. ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers," for sure.)
His movie is a sophisticated twist on the standard "have sex and die" themes of maniac movies from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In its own amusingly bizarre way, "It Follows" projects the ultimate teenage motto around the world: "I gotta have sex or I'll just die!"
<b>"It Follows" opens at the Music Box and River East 21 theaters in Chicago, and at the Evanston Century 18. Rated R for language, nudity, sexual situations, violence. 94 minutes. ★ ★ ★ ½</b>
<i> Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time-out! Follow him at @DannGireDHFilm and on Facebook.</i>