10) It Follows: Human Pretzel
The efficiency of It Follows is an exercise in brooding minimalism, starting with an opening that jumps right into action. Director David Robert Mitchell doesn’t prepare us with any information, as we immediately see a girl running around, presumably being chased. Nothing seems awry, but the girl is obviously panicked. There’s something horribly wrong, yet we have no idea what that “something” is. She runs, and flees, but eventually gives up. Then in the next scene, we’re met with the above image.
The gruesome shot becomes something more horrifying because we have no ‘effing idea who or what could commit such a brutal crime. The act is so primal, yet there are no clues as to what monster could savagely twist bones like twigs. All we have is a girl’s hopelessness, a frantic phone call and her mangled corpse.
That, in its unexplained glory, could be the strongest, and most disturbing, opening to a 2015 film.
Published: Dec 26, 2015 10:14 am