For the fall/spooky season, our writers watched the 2014 horror movie It Follows, written and directed by David Robert Mitchell. The following is a transcript of our post-watch conversation. It has been edited for length and clarity. We hope you enjoy!

Eu: Eugene

El: Elise

P: Peyton

Eu: My first thought watching the movie was like, Is this an advert for some Christian cult?

El: See, that’s what I thought too! I was like, what is going on here?

Eu: Where they’re like, you have to pass it along, have more sex, and it’s like–you have sex one time and then now you’re doomed! You know, even the setting of it, there was almost a timelessness, where you couldn’t quite tell what the era of the movie was. Sometimes it felt like the 70s and 80s and other times it felt like the early 2000s. And it was so suburban, it was like these blonde white girls in their suburban neighborhood and everyone knows each other and they’re all friends–but at the same time there was no religious anything in the movie, it was just a sex demon.

El: It felt early 2000s to me. But also they were watching black and white movies a lot. And I remember they had these specific kinds of phones, the rotary phone?

P: Don’t you remember the girl reading the book on that little sliding–

Eu: The e-reader. 

P: Yes, and that felt very modern? But also a 2000s modern. It looked like Juno.

Eu: Maybe the setting time-wise is early 2000s, but they’re in a suburban, almost rural America. ‘Cause when they were in line for the movie theater, before the main girl has sex with the guy who gives her the demon, the clothing style and the way the theater looked–it just felt so vintage. Maybe that’s what they were going for: this is the average suburb, this could happen anywhere, it’s timeless, like the sex demon has existed for so long . . . 

P: I said this to Elise when we were watching it, it feels like they took all those classic tropes of the 80s and 90s of “the one who has sex is the one who dies” and ran with it and turned it on its head. It’s not the ones who happen to have sex die first, now it’s anyone who has sex is going to be in danger. And I think your point about it feeling like the 80s and 90s, it’s possible that the director and writer, David Robert Mitchel–it seems like he was definitely inspired by those kinds of movies. Like Halloween takes place in a suburban neighborhood in which this killer is running through all these houses and no one seems to care. And this is kind of similar, there’s something running through this suburban neighborhood that only the teenagers can see. That feels very appropriate for the horror movie genre. 

El: It’s so fun, it’s so creepy.

Eu: It was definitely more creepy than jump-scary. But there were moments where I would just see it walking–the time they see the demon walking to the guy she has sex with in the hospital [Greg]–because he doesn’t believe her–and she’s looking out the window at this thing grabbing a brick and breaking the window open, that was terrifying! It’s so mundane, there’s not that much of a monstrousness to it . . . It’s just so human, in a way that is vaguely upsetting. I did think it was interesting that it seems to kill the person and then have sex with them? Like when it kills that neighbor and he thinks it’s his mom, it just stares at him and then it jumps on him. I can’t quite tell how he died, I’m assuming it’s some physical trauma. It’s hinted throughout the movie that it has this supernatural strength. And it’s so clever, too–the scene in the swimming pool. Where they’re trying to kill it with the toaster machines, and it knows what they’re planning and starts throwing the electronic objects into the pool with them. That was fucking wild. 

P: The scariest part for me–and in my memory this was also very scary for Elise–it was actually when we moved inside the house–

El: Oh god. 

P: –after she first has sex and sees it and goes home, and that guy [Paul] is staying up with her and it enters the house for the first time . . . That for me was the scariest moment. 

El: We were screaming. 

P: We were screaming! We really have to give props to the director, Mitchell. What was so impressive to me was how the camera movement itself became part of the horror. It wasn’t just, oh there’s something creepy happening. If the camera stayed still, you’re going, “What’s in the background, what’s in the background? Something has to be there.” And if the camera was moving–you know in that first scene that established this continuously-moving camera–then it’s like, “What am I looking for, what am I looking for? Where is it coming from?” So it used the camera like that, it used space like that; so then establishing this camera movement in, like you said, a suburban space where there’s a lot of empty streets and sidewalks and open air–and then to move it inside the house. And have it slowly move between these dark, open doorways, that was crazy. I felt more claustrophobic there than watching a scene with actual claustrophobia. It was scary to me! Very scary to me. 

Eu: That scene when Jay sees the creature in the kitchen and she runs upstairs and slams the door and all her friends are like, “What’s wrong, what’s going on?” And they’re trying to get her to open the door, that was a really stressful scene. They open the door and the friend is standing there and then the tallest man you’ve ever seen just swoops in and as it’s happening the camera pans upwards to show you how tall this man is–whew! 

El: I can’t believe that guy really played this long con with the main character, like get her to trust me and have sex with me–

P: Elise and I talked about this, you know . . . Eugene, you mentioned it being some conservative religious thing because you have sex and you die, but at the beginning it was really serving as a function of rape. Where he drugged her, kidnapped her, like–had sex with her beforehand, but still completely betrayed her trust and then, he kinda said something like, “This happened to me too.” Or “They did this to me too.” I think when Jay runs away to the swing set and her friends follow her and the neighbor follows her, he says something like, “What really happened to you?” There’s this implicit layer of rape underneath that disappears towards the second half, but [the movie] is clearly interested in the many ways that sex unfolds between people. And how violent it can be. 

Eu: At some point, I was kind of like, is this an STD/STI thing–

El: I think that’s the common joke about this movie.

Eu: –like I got it too, you have to give it to someone else. Don’t have sex, you’ll die from a sex demon.

El: So the people that they see, these are all people that have been affected as well, or the ones who died from it? I thought the girl from the beginning was one of them–

P: She was, but it also turns into her [Jay’s] friend at the beach. And at the very end, it also turns into her father. 

El: It’s people they know, it’s people they don’t know . . .

Eu: I think that’s also what tipped me towards an STI, it’s like the people you know can betray you. It can also be sexual assault, it can be anyone you know or a stranger . . . I think you’re onto something about how it takes all of these common fears about sex and what sex is in society and how it impacts women and . . . it kind of did it all. 

P: On a horror level what was also impressive–like how the supernatural creature works–was how slow-moving it is, but still how scary it is. Just because it’s moving slowly doesn’t mean it’s not scary. It can be terrifying. I feel like that constant, unrelenting movement is also part of the fear. It doesn’t matter that it’s walking slowly, it will not stop. It’s always coming for you, that’s always in the back of your head. 

El: Very Jason, Halloween.

El: The ending doesn’t feel complete. Maybe that’s what they wanted it to be, it wanted you to be like, “It’s not over, it’ll never be over . . .” 

Eu: I agree. It just dropped off. We know that they have sex and they can both see it and they’re holding hands and walking down the sidewalk together . . . I thought that was an interesting shot. But narratively I was like, are you fighting it now, are you guys just living with it? And it briefly hinted that the guy would pay money to a sex worker, to like pass it along? But then that idea was so quick and not expanded upon, I don’t know, it kind of tapered out. 

P: I wanna talk about two things you said there. One–I do think it’s interesting that–you know, in most horror movies, it’s like, how are we going to defeat this thing? What is the plan? And this movie, they have a plan and it fails. And so they just have to live with it. And that’s a different kind of horror. It’s almost adult. Like, oh my god, this thing is with us forever, like a metaphor for adulthood or trauma, almost coming of age. But also, [secondly,] I do think that random moment where it implies he has sex with sex workers, there’s a lot of loaded meaning behind like . . . how liable sex workers are to danger, how unprotected they are, and the idea that I can just pass it onto these women who are doing what they do for a living. It’s along the lines of a very conservative line of thinking, almost punishment for sex workers. That was very sudden.

Eu: I think it implied that he was thinking about it, but he doesn’t actually do it. Like he just drives by.

El: I think he did it, which is why they seem okay at the end . . . like okay, we got past that, even though they didn’t. I think the end is supposed to be like–there’s somebody following them and you’re like, did they actually pass it on? I guess you’re not supposed to know. I think he did it. I don’t think he gave too much of a fuck about those sex workers, I think he wanted to have his happy little life with his girlfriend. That’s kind of the hard thing about this, because you want to pass it on because you don’t want it . . . it’s a moral choice there. 

P: It’s very brutal. They do try to think of ways to kill it, of ways to get rid of it, and the choice they’re left with is: you pass it on. You have to do to another human being what was done to you and that is very hard . . . In the very end, when they’re going to the pool–thinking about this movie as a coming-of-age, not idyllic childhood, but like I said, having to live with it at the end is very adult . . . When they went to that pool, they were passing through all these decrepit homes, and that girl makes the comment like, “When we were younger we were never allowed to come over here, because it’s not a white neighborhood.” There’s a sense that they’re finally doing what the adults do, they’re not children anymore. 

El: This gives you a lot to chew on, it’s pretty wild. 

P: I think it’s a mistake to try to point at the supernatural creature and be like: this is what it is and this is what it means, but . . . It’s fun to think about what it is and what it means. 

El: Yeah, it is . . . Did you guys like this movie? Would you recommend it? 

P: I don’t know, because I don’t like horror movies.

Eu: It felt perfect for Halloween. It’s like a lowkey horror movie, yes it’s a little creepy, it makes you think and stuff, but also you’re not so incredibly stressed watching it.

P: Speak for yourself.

El: Yeah, I was stressed, bitch.

Eu: I felt like I’ve seen scarier things, so I was like, This is a light, fun movie! 

El: I’d recommend it, I really enjoyed it. 

P: I think I would because I find it so different. 

El: Very visually interesting.

P: Yes, yes–I can’t say I loved it, but I do think it’s really, really fun to think about.