It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)

8.5/10
It Follows has that rare thing in horror movies these days, a truly great, original premise. It also (mostly) leaves the cheap jump-scares which have become so prolific lately at the door and generates its scares from nightmarish, surreal scenes of dread and general creepynees. That combined with its incredible score give it an appealing "old school horror" feel (not unlike the score of the last movie I reviewed, You're Next, but even better). Writer/director David Robert Mitchell directs with a lot of visual flare, there are numerous great shots that are mostly atypical of what we've come to expect from the genre. It is well acted by its young ensemble, and in particular by its star, Maika Monroe.
That said, the nature of the film's own "monster movie logic" means that the scares and creep-factor are diminished the longer the movie goes on (once we're used to "it" walking toward its heroine at a calm pace and accept the fact that our heroine will continue to escape, the tension lessens...not to mention that because of the fact that "it" is only targeting and can only be seen by our heroine, we know can let our guard down when the camera isn't fixed on her). Compounding that, I think the movie noticeably falters in its final act. Mitchell has built a great premise and executes it very well, but doesn't seem to know where to take it. A last-act confrontation (the swimming pool scene) feels clumsy and doesn't appear to serve the story in any real way, although I did like the end of the film.
Unfortunately, the nature of the "evil" in the movie makes it completely open to being sequel-fodder, and it's hard to imagine further installments being as effective as this one was, especially if Mitchell is not at the helm.