Movie Review: It Follows (2015)

Month of Spooks still going strong! So let’s just get into it!

Ladies and gentlemen… “It Follows”.

Jay (Maika Monroe) is a young woman. And one night she goes on a date with a guy, and they end up having sex. However it’s not just pleasure in all of this, since she now has been infected with a sexually transmitted demon that will follow her wherever she goes until it kills her. So Jay is now trying to survive with the help of her friends. And that is actually one of the most original and interesting ideas for any horror movie I’ve ever seen. And I thought that it was presented in an interesting and entertaining way. Not perfectly, mind you… but definitely really well. And whast I mean by that is that there were flaws narratively speaking, with plenty of inconsitencies and weird tropes throughout the movie. For example: There are rules to the STDemon, such as that it always walks towards whoever was infected last. WALK. However there are several instances in the movie where that rule seem to be broken. And then there are also weird tropes from the 70s and 80s in the movie that are dumb and should not come back, ever. So the plot is not perfect, but definitely really good. There are problems, but they don’t make the plot immediately bad… just flawed.

The characters in this movie are mostly disposable. I didn’t really care about any of them, execpt for the main girl, Jay. Though to be fair, she’s the only one with an STDemon coming after her. But she was honestly the only one I cared about. And Maika Monroe did a really good job with her performance, playing a scared and vulnerable young woman who really never wanted any of this shit to begin with. The rest of the actors in the movie range from meh to good. I am glad that they went with unknowns for pretty much every role in the movie, even if most of the performances are less than impressive.

While it sounds like I’ve bitched and moaned about everything prior to this part, here comes some actual praise.  The music (composed by Disasterpeace) in the movie is fucking amazing. The score is very reminiscent of stuff you would hear from older horror stuff, with a focus on the synth, Of course there are other thingsh eard too, but the synth was the real standout. What I also like is that the music helped build the tension throughout the movie, adding to the already uneasy feeling of it all.

This movie was directed by David Robert Mitchell and I think he did a really good job. The way he directs the movie makes it very tense and makes you doubt everyone you see in the movie. Anytime I saw someone walk in the background I thought “Is that IT… Is that IT?”. There wasn’t ever really a scary moment for me in the movie, which makes me wonder what people were thinking when they said “Scariest movie of the 21st century!”. It was definitely tense and suspenseful, but scary… no. But hey, at least the cinematography looked great.

This movie has been very well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 97% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 83/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,9/10.

“It Follows” is not a bad movie by any stretch. However it is severely overhyped. But it has a good story, okay characters, good acting, great music, great directing, and great cinematography. However it is dragged down a bit by flaws in the plot and mediocre characterization. Time for my final score. *Boo*. My final score for “It Follows” is an 8,55/10. It’s not perfect, but it’s still worth buying.

My review of “It Follows” is now completed.

There are plenty of questions one can ask about this movie, most of them are related to sexual acts…

Movie Review: The Guest (2014)

Thriller is one of those genres of movies that I absolutely love. Sure, I can like any movie from any genre really if the movie is good in itself, but if you think overall genres then thriller is one of my personal favorites. It keeps me on edge the entire time without falling over to the horror genre. I am not a big horror fan, but I have respect for those who are. But back to thrillers… they are (often) great. You guys may remember that I have (several times) mentioned how “Drive” is one of my favorite movies of all time. That is what I would call a stylish thriller. So then I started hearing some buzz about a new movie called “The Guest” which apparently was a stylish thriller. So my interest was at its highest peak. So finally I got the chance to check it out… and give you guys my thoughts on it!

Sirs and ma’ams… “The Guest”.

The Peterson family lives a quiet little life. Then one day a man named David (Dan Stevens) knocks on their door and says he served in the military with their son who died in action. So they invite him in to talk about it and they let him stay there for a while. And he seems like he is a great person by helping out at their home and going to the son Luke’s (Brendan Meyer) to get a little involved with the bullies. He also goes with the daughter Anna (Maika Monroe) to a party to get a little integrated with her friends. But soon they start noticing there is something odd about him. And from that point on we got one of the most interesting stories from a movie within recent years. Not only is the premise pretty cool, but how the story develops throughout is just awesome. I don’t really know what more to say about the story without giving away spoilers. It’s great.

The characters are all really interesting in one way or another. All characters feel very human and realistic and never feels off, all of them except one… David. He is probably one of the most interesting and unique characters in recent years. He seems like this all round decent guy who you just want to become best friends with and then you see some of the things that happen in this movie and you might want to back off. And all of it is portrayed so damn well by Dan Stevens. I have not seen him in anything else and was therefore happily surprised with how great his performance was. He had a lot of range and you could notice he really enjoyed playing this character. To be honest I couldn’t find any bad performance in this movie at all. But that shouldn’t be too surprising really hen you have supporting actors like Leland Orser, Joel David Moore and Lance Reddick. Overall the character and performances were great.

Remember when I mentioned “Drive” before? Well that wasn’t just to mention a great movie… it had a small purpose. And what I mean by that is that the soundtrack to “The Guest” is very similar to the one in “Drive”. Very synth-y and techno-y. And while I’m not a big fan of music with that type of sound I really liked the music they used in the movie. Mostly because it fit the stylish and dark tone of the movie but also because it reminds me of “Drive” in the style and feeling of it… and I find that cool. I liked the music in the movie and it fit perfectly.

This movie is incredibly well-directed. It looks great and is very stylish in how it is directed. The action in the movie is also really well done. For one you can actually see it and it isn’t obstructed by shaky-cam. It is also simple yet really intense. There are also quite a few moments in the movie that are supenseful beyond belief. I mean, without spoiling anything, I sat and watched the third act of this movie and really felt on edge. The hair on my arm was standing up and I got goosebumps, that is how suspenseful it was. The sound design was also pretty cool. There is a thing they did where the music sounded like it was added in editing but was always there because of a character listening to it. Here is an example: There is a scene where Maika Monroe has headphones on, but you hear the music as it was edited in, but when she takes the headphones off you heard the music vaguely coming from the headphones. I just thought that was a pretty cool detail.

Did people receive this movie well? Hell yeah they did! It has a 91% postitive rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 76/100. And finally on imdb.com it has 6.8/10.

“The Guest” got a great story, a great lead performance by Dan Stevens with some great supporting actors, a cool soundtrack, great direction, great action and it was one of the most suspenseful movies in recent years. So now I will hand out my final score. And my final score for “The Guest” is a 9,84/10. And that of course means it gets the one and only… “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

Review of “The Guest” is now finished.

Be careful who you let in…