A creepy, stylish and foreboding serving of horror cinema, It Follows haunting visuals and intelligent narrative makes it an instant, thoughtful, generational classic of the genre.

A major protagonist in the horror genre is the adolescent girl. While much has been said about “scream queens” (female leads in horror movies exemplified by the likes of Jamie Lee-Curtis and Heather Langenkamp), what isn’t mentioned enough is the teenage angst felt in the realisation that as we cross over from adolescence to adulthood, the ticking clock of our mortality becomes louder. Death is inevitable, and there is no escaping it.

It Follows combines that philosophy with the traditional scream queen aesthetic to make for a creepily effective horror movie that's akin to a living nightmare. Writer/director David Robert Mitchell was inspired by his own nightmares of a sinister force in tenacious pursuit, and he does a great job in evoking –visually and psychologically- that feeling of a surreal, supernatural force penetrating the real world. Thankfully no unnecessary exposition is given as to what and why this is happening.

What Mitchell does provide are the stakes at play, as It Follows opens with the image of a distraught teenage girl running away from something, and the gruesome, startling aftermath of what happens when that something catches up with you. At this point we are introduced to the films protagonist Jay (Maika Monroe), a young college student from the middle class suburbs of Detroit. When a date night with a new beau ends with a late night trip to love town (wink, wink), little did Jay know that she would contract a curse in the form of a supernatural force that will stop at nothing to have its pound of flesh...if it catches up with you.

Monroe brings a likeable naturalness to her role. Where most horror movies focus too much on the image of their leading ladies (slasher films in particular have a thing for t & a), It Follows is very organic in its depictions of its characters and how they interact with their world. As the chasee to a supernatural chaser, Monroe’s Jay is an incredibly sympathetic figure caught in the tide of something large and sinister. We are invested in her survival, and like a great filmmaker should, Mitchell toys with our emotions throughout.

Of course her curse manifests from the one specific act. Sex plays as much a role in horror as violence does, yet its depiction here is something different. Mitchell never presents it as a lustful act or one with any sort of emotional value attached. Rather it’s an affliction thrust upon a generation that will associate coitus more with STDs than with love. It speaks of the uncertainty that comes with sex, thanks to the desecration of the act by generations previous, and the symbolic bridge it represents in the journey to adulthood.

It’s heavy, thoughtful stuff, but never overbearing. Mitchell successfully balances scares with provocative analysis complete with a minimalist tone, all the while establishing himself as a master of the widescreen visual, expertly capturing his “walking dread” no matter which direction it comes from.

A sequel is supposedly in the works. Let’s hope that this unique and mysterious piece of brilliant horror cinema is left alone to be just that.