It Follows (2014)

David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows just works on so many levels. First, there’s the core concept of a relentless force pursuing you, somewhere out there, that can take the form of just about any person you can imagine, that will kill you if it catches up with you, and that you can only throw off the scent by having sex, in which case the person you sleep with becomes the target. It’s the kind of chilling notion that gets inside your head, haunting you long after you leave the theater, and it can serve as a metaphor for so many things.

Then there’s the virtuosic filmmaking, which makes the absolute most of this concept. Not only does protagonist Jay (Maika Moore) scour every environment she’s in, looking for anyone who stands out and could be the relentless pursuer, but so do we as viewers. The film takes devilish pleasure in showing us crowds, knowing that our eyes will scan everyone—all the people cluelessly just going about the business of their lives—wondering if, soon, it will become clear that one of them is the film’s Terminator, getting dangerously close to Jay.

And finally, there’s the way that It Follows, not content to be just a horror film about modern-day young people, engages in some subtle but terrific worldbuilding that makes its setting feel both recognizable and ever-so-slightly off. For instance, early in the film we see a teen using what looks at first like a clamshell-style makeup compact, but when she opens it, it’s actually some kind of high-tech e-reader. This is just the first of many (no-doubt deliberate) strange details and anachronisms that make the setting of It Follows as memorable and strange as the chilling concept at its core. — Carolyn Petit