Hugh/Jeff, Jay’s beau, tells her he acquired this chasing demon from a one-night stand, so how does he know the rules it follows and how it all works? Did he sleep with other people who died from it? The girl in the beginning who is brutally killed by “It” is seen in a high school photo with Jeff - did he pass it to her? We never find out these answers.
#REDDIT CALIBRE FILM MOVIE#
There is far more than one plot line in this movie to follow. Why are the parents so irresponsible and unaware of their children? Why don’t the kids tell their parents what’s going on? Why are their relationships with their parents so uncomfortable? On the other hand, Greg the neighbor’s mother appears as “It,” ultimately killing him in a disturbing scene with heavy sexual undertones. Paul, their other friend, seems to have no family worried about his whereabouts throughout the film his parents aren’t mentioned once. Kelly asks who “It” is at this moment, and Jay only says “I don’t wanna tell you.” We, the audience, are left with questions about the father and his backstory that are never addressed. He is never mentioned until “It” takes on his appearance at the community swimming pool, reflecting the mirror photo. Jay and Kelly’s dad is shown in a few pictures around their house, including a photograph of him and Jay swimming on her mirror, but his whereabouts are left unknown. In response to Kelly smoking a cigarette, Jay asserts that their mother might steal her cigarettes, supporting a theory of addiction and irresponsibility. Parents in general are almost completely absent in this movie Jay’s mom is only shown with alcohol, whether it be a glass of wine by her bed or a flask to spike her coffee, and her face is partially obscured and blurred. This hints at the historic tension between Detroit’s urban and suburban regions, and Detroit’s many decaying structures provide an eerie backdrop for the story to take place. Her friend Yara’s monologue in the second half of the film describes how her parents forbade her as a child from crossing “8 mile,” a road that separates the city from the suburbs. Jay and her friends are terrorized by the film’s central monster - referred to simply as “It” - primarily in the suburbs of Detroit, though some scenes take place in the city itself. In fact, he shared in an interview with Slant that his inspiration for the film came from recurring dreams he had as a child about a terrifying but slow monster following him, describing “a constant feeling of dread.” Director David Robert Mitchell does a fantastic job of creating this alternative reality that you probably won’t really notice just watching this movie once. However, Jay and Kelly’s home is adorned with a black-and-white TV, a home phone with a wire, and wallpaper that makes you feel like you’re at your grandparents’ house. Yara reads an electronic book on her clamshell reader, a device that looks like a compact mirror, and Greg the neighbor is seen grabbing a soda from a stainless steel, modernized refrigerator. The time period of this movie is completely ambiguous, causing the viewer to feel subconsciously unsettled as the plot unfolds in what appears like a dream-like state, with technology and outfits from different decades. But as you dig deeper into this film, you begin to recognize endless subtle details that go far beyond the film’s STD-related premise. He tells her he has passed something on to her, some kind of shape-shifting demon that will follow her until she sleeps with someone else. I’ll also admit that I’ve seen it at least 30 times.Īfter an initial watch, one might believe It Follows is an allegory about sexually transmitted diseases - after all, much of the film’s “horror” originates from the night the film’s protagonist Jay sleeps with a guy she hasn’t been dating for very long. I consider It Follows to be a cinematic masterpiece, and I don’t use that term lightly when describing a movie. Friends often tease me for the hours I spend on Reddit after watching a thriller, devouring alternative fan theories and thoughts on a final twist.Īlthough It Follows is considered a horror film, I believe that the film should be labeled a psychological thriller. I find myself particularly drawn to psychological thrillers, from classics like Memento and The Prestige to more obscure gems like Triangle and Identity, and I often find more joy in unpacking the intricacies of a movie after watching it than in watching the movie itself. This is especially true of psychological thrillers. Of course, this is often false, but for those deterred by horror, I’d recommend thrillers, which tend to provoke deeper thought in the viewer. Many film fanatics draw a line at horror films, viewing them as campy, trashy, or lacking in substance.
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