"it follows" the old formula

It Follows is a well made, (mostly) well acted horror film that relies more on suspense and some interesting camera work than jump scares. But, it is built around a rather antiquated horror-film-theme--that sex is dangerous. It almost plays like a mid-80s slasher film just with more modern cinematic sensibilities. The danger in It Follows...

SPOILERS AHEAD

The danger in It Follows is rather literally tied to sex. Potential victims can pass the danger along through sex, which both promotes casual sex--surely, if you must pass on the danger to survive, you'd rather give it to a stranger than someone you know and love--and suggests repeatedly that sex at all is a bad idea.

We are never offered an origin story for It, but it seems important, and telling, that the first time we see It it is a naked woman and another time we see It it is a half naked woman, her clothing torn. There seems to be a suggestion of origination in sexual assault, which ties so nicely into the casual sex line that it seems a bit too on-the-nose. Furthermore, toward the end of the film, when the main characters attempt to fight back against It, there is a Freudian angle in It appearing as the father of the lead character--Maika Monroe, carrying the heavy load while supporting cast members are occasionally superfluous... I forgot to mention that, as part of the sex-is-dangerous theme, It can appear as a stranger or as someone you know. The danger is everywhere. It's like an abstinence-only PSA got together with a horror film... In fact, other than a bit of CGI trickery here and there, the script would probably sit quite well in the 1980s, or the swinging 70s.

The film plays on a strangely anachronistic nostalgia, as well, but not for the 80s or the 70s but the 1950s. Characters regularly watch old science fiction films, including at a silent movie theater equipped with an organ for accompaniment. Like many a slasher film, the political bent of It Follows is quite conservative. So, of course the film yearns for a simpler time, for childhood. Jay (Monroe) and Paul (Keir Gilchrist, who seems vacuous in some scenes and quite brilliant in others) talk repeatedly about the time when they were younger and they kissed. Ultimately, this is a lead up to their having sex near the end of the film, but it also reinforces the idea that the more innocent past is the better reality.

All of that being said, It Follows is definitely worth viewing, especially if you are a fan of horror films. Imagine it's a film from the early- to mid-80s and it will play so much better, though.

SCRE4M

So, SCRE4M continues the deconstruction of horror films that began with the first Scream film. Craven and Williamson approach this one as a deconstruction/reconstruction of the remake/reboot. For the record, the first one went at the slasher subgenre specifically and the modern horror film in general, the second went at sequels, and the third at trilogies, each of them coming right out with the “rules” of whatever it was, and while some of the basics made for amusing banter, some of them seemed at first like they were being made up on the spot simply to then subvert them afterward. This one has a bit of that in the party scene, suggesting the film has to end at the party, when really, no slasher film that wasn’t specifically built around a party, had that climax. But, Williamson’s script makes it sound sensible, and Craven’s direction makes it work structurally.

The great thing about the Scream films is that, aside from the genre discussion that makes a movie nerd (and horror film fan) like me happy, real actors (though not necessarily huge or great actors) are in the cast. This isn’t just a bunch of random teenagers who will never show up in anything ever again, or will only get cast in a series of increasingly lesser horror films. There are a few actors from the earlier films, of course, Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox (and there’s a nice meta scene discussing the likelihood that those last two would have lasted as a couple that was quite amusing). And, there’s the cameos on par with Drew Barrymore’s or Jada Pinkett’s –Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell. But, the various “teenage” roles are filled by relatively familiar (especially if you watch the CW or pay any attention to tv) actors and actresses that all do quite well with Williamson’s script—Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Lucy Hale, Aimee Teegarden, Brittany Robinson, Alison Brie, Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody, Rory Culkin, Erik Knudsen. The only real false note in the film comes from Marley Shelton who—SPOILERY WATERS AHEAD—plays Deputy Hix like she really wanted her character to be the killer, so much so that when she shows up in the final hospital showdown it might’ve made sense if she came in not to save the day but to help the film continue what could have been a grand case of the bad guy winning.  Hix is a red herring so overtly played and so subtly written that her character ends up serving very little purpose in the end.

Back to the bad guy winning, before the hospital, there was potential for a serious reconstrucionist reinvention of the genre in combining the slasher film’s tendency to favor the villain even though he always loses and something more modern, say the Saw films’ villain focus in that essentially he always wins and really isn’t necessarily the villain as much as society is—if you can get past the grossout so-called “torture-porn” aspects of the Saw films, or even the Hostel films (well, at least the first one), they come across as morality plays even more than most any slasher film does, even though the slasher subgenre clearly carries within it conventions and tropes that, in the past, reward the good characters by letting them survive. In SCRE4M, there is actually direct commentary on that when Robbie, Cinema Club nerd (and representative of what the script suggests is the next step in horror, with his POV camera), says the only way to survive in a horror film nowadays is to be gay, the implied subtext being that just being virginal isn’t enough anymore.

Speaking of virginal, it’s worth noting that the Scream films have remained quite chaste as far as sexual content goes, and seemingly deliberately so, another subversion of the genre. But, this subversion comes at a time when more mainstream films are having more explicit sexual content, so it almost seems a move backward rather than further commentary on the old conventions of the genre.

All in all, the film is quite good, a fitting continuation of the series, and containing some great commentary on the notions of rebooting/remaking horror films. One must wonder if there’s a fifth film possible here, a deconstruction/reconstruction of the endless franchise—maybe a jump ahead to the future, a space station (like Hellraiser Bloodline or Jason X) or a deliberate play on the more repetitive, forgettable aspects of, say, Friday the 13^th VI to VIII. But, Sidney Prescott is running out of relatives.

A final note: something that was missing from this film, given its take of reality versus the fiction of the Stab film-series-within-the-film-series was real brutality. SPOILERS AHEAD Until Jill’s injuries at the climax of the film, there is little harshness to the violence, though is occasionally a lot of blood and briefly some intestines. I think this plotline would have been better served drawing a distinction between the more showy violence of the Stab series and some more brutal violence like that exhibited in the better half (i.e. not that bits with the mother and the horse) of Rob Zombie’s recent Halloween II remake. But, then again, such brutality would diminish a lot of the enjoyment in the Scream series, which can still get away with playing for laughs even in the midst of scenes involving a spree killer slaughtering teenagers.

Still, it would be nice to have a horror film, especially a slasher film, that takes itself seriously on all levels, playing with the brutality, with the real-life horror of having everyone you know killed in front of you (Sidney’s isolation early in Scream 3 hinted at the psychological damage, but didn’t really explore it)… of course the larger audience wants to enjoy this stuff. Any serious exploration is left to lower budget stuff like Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (if you love the genre, see the film if you haven’t already), but even that film, in the end, drops its serious psychological exploration for a bit of chase and death. The recent Trick ‘r Treat actually comes at the brutality of the violence pretty well, but also has some quite funny moments, and some quite creepy moments.

Anyway, a paragraph or two past my “final note,” I must say for those who enjoyed the Scream films, SCRE4M should be a great followup. For fans of slasher films, it should also do quite well. For movie nerds who like deconstructionism and reconstructionism, like the earlier films (especially Scream 2, which I think is the best of the four), it should be awesome.