It Follows (Blu-ray Review)

This past March I had the pleasure of visiting Los Angeles after not being in that beloved city for over two years.   Absence truly made my heart grow fonder, but it did not do anything for the ridiculous traffic out there.  Anyway, one of my most fondest memories from that recent trip was taking Why So Blu Staff writer Gerard Iribe on a date (he put me up so it was the least I could do) to see It Follows.  I was blown away by it.  As soon as the credits rolled I turned to Gerard and said was that old school John Carpenter Halloween style or what.  He whole-heartedly agreed!  We then ate a vegetarian dinner afterwards, but I choose to digress here about all of that.  So here’s the real deal.  It Follows, the critically acclaimed breakout movie of the year, arrives on on Blu-ray July 14th from Anchor Bay Home Entertainment and I got y’all covered down below.

Film 

According to some media outlets and depending upon who you talk to, It Follows has been dubbed “the best horror film in over a decade.” It’s directed by David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover), and stars Maika Monroe (upcoming Independence Day 2, the very fun The Guest), Keir Gilchrist (It’s Kind of a Funny Story, United States of Tara), Daniel Zovatto (Beneath, Innocence, Laggies) and Jake Weary (Altitude, Fred).  It also is one of the highest grossing independent films of the year so far with brilliant cinematography and a powerful score, more about this down below.

It Follows is no doubt destined to become a cult classic one fine day, and rightfully so because it’s credited with ushering in a new era of indie film success, appealing to horror genre fans, art house cinema aficionados and the general movie-going audience.  There’s a reason why its limited theatrical release was widened and it’s early VOD date was scrapped.  Critics loved it.  Horror fans dug it.  People talked it up!  Word of mouth prevailed!  How often does that happen?  I also like to think being in Los Angeles that historic weekend I was part of all that fuss too.  What?  I was!

It Follows basically tells the story of 19-year-old Jay (Monroe).  Like most teenagers, she has sex. However, after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter (aren’t they all?), she finds herself plagued by strange visions and the inescapable sense that someone, or something, is “following” her.  She’s not alone.  There are others that have shared her same fate or let’s call it a STD, but have not been so lucky with their lives.  Jay and her helpful friends, one of which who also wants to have sex with her, come together to devise ways in which to escape the horrors that always seems to be only a few steps behind.  Simply put, if you put The Ring and John Carpenter’s Halloween into a blender and mixed them together you’d get It Follows.  The feel, look and vibe of It Follows emulates those two horror classics (yes I am calling The Ring a horror classic despite it being a remake so to speak).  So hopefully, with that apple-to-apple comparison alone, you can get a feel of what the film at least seems like.

Truth be told, after taking this in two times on the Blu-ray format now, It Follows is the closest John Carpenter Halloween-like horror I have seen in my lifetime.  It’s like the red-headed step child of Halloween or at least it shares most of the same DNA.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s that close.  It Follows may not be the scariest of all horror films of the last ten years, but it’s definitely one of the best and its completely reinvigorating.  The use of the wide angles, fall/drab scenery and the mesmerizing score scream Halloween, but nonetheless It Follows stands out on its own with a Ring-like twist to keep the plot momentum moving forward and thus the audience invested thinking they truly know what’s going on.  However, in the end, do you really know what “it” is?  I don’t!  But that’s what sequels are for, right?  They mostly bastardize what have come before and I fear that very well may happen in the future here with this possible “franchise” Weinstein and RADiUS-TWC have on their hands.

So I read an interview with David Robert Mitchell and he cracked me up.  He discussed how he came up with the idea for this feature, but also explained how he could never really tell anyone what it was about in fear that it would sound stupid.  Now granted, It Follows is not for everyone.  I can see how some would watch this and think yeah this is stupid.  However, It Follows wasn’t written for them.  It was written for us, the horror film aficionados whose favorite memories stem back to the classics of the 70s and 80s.  All one has to do is watch the opening scene unfold, behold the film’s compositions and visual aesthetic and lose yourself in that infectious score by Rich Vreeland (AKA Disasterpeace) and you won’t question a word I mutter on the subject.  It’s the real deal folks.  Aaron Neuwirth nails it on the head when he proclaims “It Follows is minimalist horror done very right.”

Video 

• Encoding: AVC MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Clarity/Detail: Despite paying homage to that classic 70s look, no expenses are cut when it comes to fine details abound here in the bricks on buildings, leaves, trees, freckles on skin, clothing and even insects.  This one younger female character carries around this electronic clamshell product that she reads from and as small as it is when it’s shown, you can read the fine print remarkably easy.
• Depth: Depth of field is also excellent here in particular the outside scenes where the vastness just goes on forever or the one where our main character is tied up in a wheel chair and her date was around her explaining the rules.  It’s deep scenes like this that make me go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs over this Blu-ray transfer.  The characters all exhume that three-dimensional Blu-ray pop we all know and love in our transfers.
• Black Levels: There are many moments in this feature where the black levels are very critical and I’m pleased to report they knock it out of the park here with the deep and inky black levels such as scenes within interiors of cars or hauntings outside (there’s a lot of these).
• Color Reproduction: When it wants to be, It Follows is vivid color reproduction, bright and clear (the bright blue murky pool water instantly pops in my mind), but also drab at times to represent the tonal quality of the film and the downright murkiness (all the fallen leaves and colder October, Detroit scenery)  of the situation the characters are all going through.
• Flesh Tones: The skin tones are all natural and authentic looking throughout with nothing to nitpick.  The cast is ironically all white and their pasty white skin is represented perfectly here.
• Noise/Artifacts: There’s nothing overly noticeable that will distract you at all from the onscreen visuals.  No ugly pixels or blemishes will take away from your enjoyment here with this transfer.

Audio 

• Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Dynamics: The score is the big guy here by which everything else is judged and scrutinized within the audio department, but despite its overwhelming presence things are balanced well here from the eerie quietness at times to the shrills of things that go bump or crashing through windows int he middle of the night.
• Low Frequency Extension: LFE is utilized to bring balance to the presentation as much as possible in deepening the driving rains, thunder, ringing gunshots, crashes, whipping wind, etc.
• Surround Sound Presentation: This audio presentation is the definition of immersion.  The scares and jump moments are elicited all around you from balls crashing through glass windows to thunder, gunshots, screams, banging and everything else you could imagine that could conceivably haunt your dreams.  They are all here to play with, but let’s not forget that score either.  It literally swallows you whole here and spits you back out.  It’s in your face all around you and never ever lets you go, not even in the credits.  Kudos to that!
• Dialogue Reproduction:  Spoken words are clear and intelligible for the most part, but I did have some moments where they are soft spoken and harder to hear, but who cares when Vreeland’s score is all you really need to take in.  Haha.

Extras 

There are several special features on the Blu-ray presentation of It Follows, most notably the inclusion of a critics’ commentary, which is pretty insightful and entertaining as well as a brief conversation with the composer of the hour here, a poster gallery and my favorite a redemption code for It Follows in UltraViolet Digital HD.  So what do you say we stop wasting your precious time and just dive right into everything you’ll find here.  “It” sounds like a plan to me!

• Audio Commentary (Critic’s Commentary) – This audio commentary track is hosted by Nerdist’s Scott Weinberg and featuring Eric D. Snider (MovieBS), Britt Hayes (Screencrush), Samuel D. Zimmerman (Shock Till You Drop), Alison Nastasi (Flavorwire) and Eric Vespe (Ain’t It Cool News).  While it’s not as immersive and insightful as let’s say a producer or director commentary it is entertaining in its own right hearing the distinct voices of the critics and what they have to contribute to the track.
• A Conversation with Film Composer Disasterpeace (HD, 4:56) – Here we get to learn the history of the composer, how he became involved with It Follows and most interestingly in my opinion, how he specifically tackled the project.
• Poster Art Gallery (HD) – This one you may initially think is a skippable throwaway, but it’s rather actually quite cool.  Here we have a collection of images created by artists around the world in support of the film’s release.  Pretty cool, huh?
• Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:13) – You should all know what this is.  Haha.

Summary 

There’s really nothing I can say that I haven’t said already about It Follows to convince old school horror fans alike that this is one that belongs in their Blu-ray home media collection.  Like Moby Dick or The Great Gatsby in literature classes, this one’s required viewing in Horror 101.  It’s destined to become a cult classic,  What more do you want?  Oh I know!  You want an excellent home media Blu-ray presentation.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, you got it here!  It doesn’t get much better than this in the genre on Blu-ray.  Anchor Bay knocks it out of the proverbial ballpark and now you have the easy part.  All you got to do is click on the pre-order link below to ensure It Follows is waiting on your doorstep when you come home from a hard day at the office on Tuesday, July 14th.  Do it now!

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It Follows

Creeps on Blu-ray

July 14th

PRE-ORDER NOW!

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