To Follow that It, which Follows

We analyse It Follows (2014), a horror film directed by David Robert Mitchell, in a way that focuses on following the intangible and always metamorphosing “it” which follows the main protagonist Jay. She was infected by this “evil” through her sexual intercourse with her new boyfriend Hugh/Jeff. We come to the conclusion that the symbol of this evil is not the follower, but the paranoid structure of the following itself, which is uncannily familiar to all of us in late neoliberal capitalism. We tackle the role that sexual transmission plays in the film. In our opinion, the role is not moralising, it correlates with the protagonists growing up and at the same time their entering the capitalist free market. The film contains some premises that affirm the social status quo, but the aesthetic and narrative devices convey a sense of a prospectless impossibility that may also promise change.

The integral (Slovenian) version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!