A Day Late, but "It Follows." Plus Creepsville & Agents of Peril (Required Reading!)

A day late this week. Family is the #1 priority around here, and we had a lot going with them. A day late, I'm back....

Have you seen It Follows?

In a nutshell, it tells the story of a young woman who is given a curse, of sorts, by a young man... The curse is given to her as a result of making love to the crummy guy who knows that she is doomed by their actions. The guy informs her that there is a creature that has been following him, that can look like anyone. This thing will kill her unless she passes it on to someone else whom she has made love to. The girl soon encounters what looks like the corpse of an old woman walking right towards her that no one else can see.

The film's story goes through a number of attacks but never really gives solid info on where this creature comes from or why it does what it does. It does seem ironic that horror films do often provide the means of escape and the way to destroy the evil. These days after the creation of Night of the Living Dead, we are given a more negative world where it's just a matter of time before you get to endsville. 


So, what is it about, beyond the interesting opening. Is it about unprotected sex? Is it about the long term step-by-step death of humanity? We see vey little of the adults in the families of the film's main young characters. Is it about the falling apart or even loss of the family unit? Is it just the end of the world? I leave it up to you to decide.

Almost as soon as this flick starts, we see touches that are reminscent of familiar horror film stylings, particularly John Carpenter and George Romero as well as Italian horror with the band Goblin handling the electronic music. I can't help but feel some slight nostalgia for the 80s horror boom.

I found the film creepy at first, but felt that it got lost. There's a scene involving a nerdy male friend of the lead, who thinks he can stop the creature. How does he know? Beats me. I must have missed that scene. (Please, someone clue me in.)

As I continued through the film, something else about the the movie's style took my attention away. First, it occured to me that I was spooked by the movie because I knew it was a horror film. The film also felt like one of those low budget romantic comedies with a young ensemble cast moping around the screen. My distraction continued as I thought about what might happen if the music in It Follows were lighter in tone. With only a slight change in the film's music, we would be in a totally different place than this flick's depressing world. It could be Boyhood.

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Summer is finally here... which doesn't stop the Creepsville comic from marching on. Click on the artwork below and read this week's offering.

Meanwhile, Agents of Peril is also back, continuing my plan to rescan and post two installments of the strip at a time until I catch up to the new strips... and finally finish this years-in-the-making story... a tribute to Rollercoaster starring George Segal.

Okay, I lied about the Rollercoaster homage...