It Follows

[projekktor id=’18178′]

It Follows is a horror film directed by David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover). The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year and played in the Midnight Madness programme at TIFF. The cast includes Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, and Lili Sepe.

For 19-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe), the fall should be about school, boys and weekends at the lake. Yet after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter she suddenly finds herself plagued by nightmarish visions; she can’t shake the sensation that someone, or something, is following her. As the threat closes in, Jay and her friends must somehow escape the horrors that are only a few steps behind.

A recurring nightmare Mitchell had as a kid served as inspiration for the film’s determined horror. “I remember having nightmares where something is following you, and in the nightmare it’s sort of slow and persistent. In the dream I was at the school playground. I looked over across the parking lot and saw this other kid walking towards me. Somehow I knew this was a monster. Then I started running away. I would run down a whole block and wait a moment, and then it would step out and keep walking towards me. It’s about the idea that something is consistently coming after you and it always knows where you are. The nightmare always sat with me. Somewhere as an adult I had the idea to build it into a Uilm. I wrote it really quickly – it took about a week.”

It Follows is rated 18A.