BOOK REVIEW: ​IT FOLLOWS – JOSHUA GRIMM (DEVIL’S ADVOCATES SERIES)

Modern masterpiece “It Follows” is given the academic once over
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The Devil’s Advocates is a series devoted to exploring the classics of horror cinema, with the authors coming from the worlds of academia, journalism and literature. Many other films have already been featured, ranging from Carrie, to Antichrist, Halloween, Saw and Silence of the Lambs. The author of It Follows is an associate professor at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University.
 
I was a massive fan of this particular horror film, catching it on the cinema and on at least two other occasions since, so I was particularly curious at what level the book would be pitched at, given the academic background of the author. First up, it is a very slight volume, only 92 small pages which includes both pictures and bibliography. I doubt there is any more than two hours of reading here, so £9.99 in the UK is a pretty steep price for a very short book. Calling It Follows a long essay would not be far from the mark.
 
Even though I enjoyed reading this essay, and the author does make numerous fascinating observations, I’m not entirely sure I learned that much particularly new about the film. A major weakness is the large wordcount spent recapping the plot before leading into the points under observation. Bearing in mind the book is only 92 pages I felt this was unnecessarily long-winded and I did wonder whether this was extra padding as the author did not actually have enough to say to merit a full book.
 
Many of the discussions covered were old news and well covered in other magazines and articles; such as the possibility that the director David Robert Mitchell was making a statement about sexual promiscuity (possibly HIV) and although Mitchell is quoted on numerous occasions he actually says very little. Likewise, he remains silent about the origins of the entity and the ambiguity of the ending. If you’re looking for answers you’re not going to find any of them here and definitely not from Mitchell! That’s not a particular criticism of author Joshua Grimm, sometimes a “wavy curtain is just a wavy curtain” (or a scary movie is just a scary movie) and there is no deeper meaning, no matter where you look or how far you dig. However, if we don’t ‘seek’ I guess there would be no film criticism at all!
 
It Follows is obviously aimed at fans of the film or media studies students and frames it well with an informative introduction, and along the way makes lots of comparisons to other films such as Halloween, Ringu and even Goonies. The latter might be a stretch, but the points the author makes are good ones. Along the way the discussion takes in where It Follows sits within the slasher genre and makes thoughtful comparisons between the entity in the film and the zombie sub-genre. This was all new to me and was well thought out and argued.
 
My brother was also a huge fan of this film and over time we have discussed a number of the points covered in the book, including; the obscurity of the location (Detroit?), when was it set? Why do the mobiles look so weird? What about the lack of parents and adults? Why was there a guy playing a piano in the cinema scene? Was the lack of current teen ‘chat’ deliberate to prevent the audience dating the film? The weird looking mobile phones and other things which on their own are quite innocuous, but when added together all play a part in creating an outstanding film with an atmosphere all of its own.
 
The study also looks at scenes which do not work as successfully; such as the swimming pool sequence. I would agree that this is one of the weaker (and pretty stupid) moments in the film. Once in a while the author clutches at the odd straw, claiming that the colour of underwear means something of significance. We’ll have to disagree on that one. Ultimately It Follows is framed as both a coming-of-age film and as a ‘Final Girl’ film. This is a good idea and is well-argued, extended even further with Joshua Grimm proposing that the Final Girl is actually an ‘Only Girl’. I’m not familiar with the Only Girl concept, but it was solid food for thought.
 
Books like this are very hard to pitch at the correct level. It is academic to an extent, but also very accessible to the knowledgeable horror reader or general film fan, ultimately though because it’s a bit of both and there should be something here for both camps. But how much can you truly analyse a scary movie?
 
 
Tony Jones

IT FOLLOWS 

Amid a recent resurgence in horror films, David Robert Mitchell's It Follows stands out as a particularly bold entry, a horror fan's dream come true that sparked a renewed creativity. Pulling a robust 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, It Follows was hailed as a "teen movie you've never seen before," a "creepy, mesmerizing exercise in minimalist horror," "the best horror film in years," and simply, "so damn good." Mitchell uses a variety of approaches to reinvent genre bromides while simultaneously embracing and challenging tropes audiences and filmmakers rely on a little too heavily. It Follows is one of the best because it is one of the most unique. In this Devil's Advocate, Joshua Grimm focuses on how this film helped reinvent the rules of a horror movie, particularly along the lines of genre, style, sex, and gender.

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