This one took me a second watch to fully appreciate. The first time around, I knew the score was incredible, but I thought the movie itself was a little slow and those were my only takeaways. On my rewatch (this time sober and fully engaged), it clicked: the terror lies in the slowness.

It Follows is about inevitability. A simple premise: once you’ve been marked, “it” will walk toward you, no matter where you go, no matter how far you run. It doesn’t sprint, it doesn’t scream, it doesn’t stop. And that’s exactly what makes it terrifying. It harkens back to Halloween; Michael Myers never had to run. He was always walking towards you, and you knew he wouldn’t quit until he got right next to you. That steady march of dread is the heart of It Follows.

Maika Monroe is phenomenal here – our scream queen of a new generation. She brings such vulnerability and quiet strength to Jay, a final girl who doesn’t feel like a cliché but like a real young woman trying to survive something impossible. I love her. (And horror fans know this isn’t her only standout—she’s also in The Guest (2014), Watcher (2022), and Significant Other (2022).) Monroe is building a filmography that places her among the best modern genre stars.

The backdrop of Detroit gives the film an extra edge. The half-abandoned suburbs, the decaying houses, the sense of a city that’s already haunted is the perfect setting for a story about decay and inevitability. The gritty, empty streets make the supernatural feel grounded and unavoidable, as if the city itself is part of the nightmare.

It Follows is riddled with anxiety—not just from the music (though that score builds tension beyond what most scares ever reach), but in the way the threat is quiet, constant, and endless. That never-endingness of dread, that lingering, low hum of fear, is something I know all too well, and when it’s weighing down on you like this film does, it‘s really effective. It captures anxiety not as a jump scare, but as an ongoing state of being.

On that second watch, I realized how good this film really is. It Follows isn’t just a monster story; it’s an anxiety dream made flesh. A nightmare that doesn’t jolt you awake, it’s just…there*.*