|Allison Vincent|
It Follows plays at the Trylon Cinema from Friday, October 4th, through Sunday, October 6th. Visit trylon.org for tickets and more information.
Like so many, when I first saw It Follows, I found it smart, scary, fresh, dreadful, and fascinating. Part of what initially grabbed my attention was the oft-discussed dream logic of the film. Watching it feels like the same relentless, hyper-focused dreams I’ve had where little glitches in the Matrix of my mind are the only clues that I’m actually asleep. Or am I? A recurring nightmare director David Robert Mitchell had of being stalked as a child first inspired him to make the film. So much of what the viewer notices in the movie points to the “Wait, what?” nature of dreams. That moment of analysis is when we either realize we’re dreaming and that we should wake up or ignore the incongruencies and delve deeper into the dream.
On my first watch, the incongruencies fascinated me. Some examples of this dream logic include the timeless specificity of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s juxtaposed together throughout the film in the costumes, cars, interior decor, and styling, the bizarre focus on people’s feet and characters often finding themselves being barefoot or wearing the wrong shoes at the wrong time (those red heels at the top of the movie, amIright?), being unable to make out background players’ faces (also several featured adults, but we’ll get to that), not always being able to make out what’s on the TV, our protagonist’s first big jump scare—when Jay sees It in her kitchen for the first time—slowed down to feel like she’s running underwater, and all the water imagery—pools, lakes, the possibly nonsensical plan to beat the big bad, and the ultimate result of dreaming of water signal: pee.
The second time I watched It Follows, it was the feeling that something really interesting was happening with the sex and sexuality in the film that grabbed me. David Robert Mitchell decided later in the development of what It was and how it worked that the passing of It was through sexual transmission. This is easily read as a commentary on the fear of sexually transmitted diseases, and I think that is definitely a part of what makes It so scary. It can be (or come from) anyone, it is invisible to everyone except those who “have” It, It follows you for life, It can appear or “flare up” at any time, and there seems to be no long-term cure for It, but you can pass it on. This last characteristic and the ethical question it asks complicates the standard “If you have sex in a horror movie, you die” trope, which we’ve seen countless times from slasher hits of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today. With It, the punishment for sex is a terrifying, slow-walking pursuit until death, a la Michael Meyers (also not a big fan of teenagers fornicating). But, the complicating factor in It Follows is that sex is also the only viable option for safety. So, victims must make a choice: continue running for the rest of their lives until It catches them, or pass the curse on and hope their selected person is, well, popular.
The seeming suicide of Annie Marshall is actually an admirable sacrifice. Instead of passing on the curse, Annie says her goodbyes and lets It find her and kill her. On a second viewing, it is also kind of a “good for her” moment. Bounce that curse right back to the fuckboy from whence it came, girl. Meanwhile, Jeff, the guy who initially passed it to her, is hellbent on passing It to whoever he needs to in order to keep It away from him. He commits sexual assault by omission, similar to the Zain subplot of I May Destroy You, waiting until after consensual sex with Jay to disclose something he knowingly kept from her. The main difference here is that rather than a shameful confession sitting on the edge of the bed, this looks like what most folks associate with assault: he drugs her, ties her up, and holds her captive until he’s had a chance to “let me explain.” Once we understand how It works, it makes Jeff’s “lesson” with Jay on how to stay one step ahead of It all the more deplorable. It is not really for her benefit but for his. A well-informed victim, especially one willing to pass It along, maintains his likelihood of keeping It off his trail longer. Jay is much more similar to Annie in that she is unwilling to pass it along and chooses to try and deal with it herself.
In the lakeside scene, Jay sees three men hanging out on a boat and gets in the water ostensibly to swim out and have sex with them, and I thought that was precisely what happened in my first watch. In my following viewings, I don’t think that she does actually go out to them. I have no evidence to support this claim other than how quickly It finds her once again. I don’t know. Jay’s determination, with the help of her friends, to try and kill It rather than continue the cycle of fear, deception, and death is both empowering and speaks to her character. The girl who has sex is not a throwaway victim with an insane death and bonus boob shot. She is inventive, determined, and trying to do the right thing carrying this terrible burden to protect others. Sounds a little like Frodo, right? One can’t help but notice that both featured It carriers who make bold, self-sacrificing/for the better good moves are women. Huh.
The male gaze in the film is almost as troubling and stressful as the pursuit of Jay by It. Little boys constantly leer at her in her pool and through her window, mirroring some of the ways It sees her and follows her. David Robert Mitchell shoots them like they are It, even giving us a little jump scare when they are revealed standing on Jay’s roof outside her window. The camera often gives us the slightly shaky cam POV of a stalker peering at Jay, its victim, around corners or from behind the TV. Despite knowing their friend is, at best, incredibly disturbed mentally and emotionally and, at worst, being pursued by a horrifying sex demon, Greg and Paul are both still crushing on Jay. Paul even becomes jealous of Greg after he volunteers himself as tribute and lets Jay pass It to him. This seems noble until you remember that GREG DOES NOT BELIEVE IT IS REAL. Sorry for shouting.
Just because they find her attractive doesn’t mean Greg and Paul are bad guys. It just complicates the traditional binary narrative of abstinence: good, sex: bad. The boys’ initial idea to “have sex about it” to solve the problem of It is in part due to their desire to protect Jay in a more traditional, masculine, heteronormative way. But unlike action films, men are just as vulnerable to It as women. It doesn’t care who you are, or what you have between your legs. But Jay is not our traditional “final girl,” either. It is because she is surrounded by friends that she is able to stay one step ahead of It without harming others.
The sex bonding as a solution to It combined with the comradery of the childhood friends, the nostalgic look of the film, and the emotionally absent parents who seem to be fine with their kids forever being in imminent peril, calls to mind another It—Stephen King’s. We’re talking the big book, It. The one with the scene, you know the one. The “this was the peak of his drug use and the 80s were a wild ass time, of course an orgy is the solution to remembering how to escape the Derry sewers” scene. But, like King, sex, though still taboo, becomes about connection in the back half of It Follows. In a movie that could make sex seem like the scariest fucking thing ever, we have a sex scene right at the end that appears to be about genuine connection between two people who deeply care for each other…and then it is immediately followed by Paul cruising by some sex workers. Does he have sex with them as a safety net to pass It further along?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There are so many questions left unanswered in It Follows. We just don’t know how it ends, which might be the scariest part of the movie. But, like in life, It Follows posits that you can either sequester yourself from experiences and others to stay safe, or you can take a chance and look for connections with people who will love and support you. Even if you shoot them in the leg.
For further reading on a spooky story that deals with sex, sexuality, and a transmittable monster, Allison recommends Black Hole by Charles Burns, a graphic novel about a sexually transmitted disease that disfigures its victims (largely teens), and they are then shunned and seclude themselves from society.
Edited by Matthew Tchepikova-Treon