Something I’ve always loved about It Follows is how it defies the inclination to become some sort of “anti-sex” or “pro-abstinence” screed, despite how easy it would be to lean into that theme. It’s all there from the start - Hugh having sex with Jay without disclosing his current “condition” (which is obviously akin to a person engaging in intercourse and intentionally misleading their partner about their STD status) - but the film continually complicates this messaging with the reveal that Jay can the entity onto another person by having sex with someone else. Sex brought this suffering onto her, but sex can also allow her to reclaim her agency and liberate herself from such hardships - and yet, in that same act, she puts another at risk.

In many ways, I think It Follows looks at our loss of innocence as we come of age and discover our own sexuality, with all the messiness that ensues. Sex can be positive and pleasurable, but it can also be a painful experience with repercussions that haunt you until the end of your days. As much as sex can help, it can equally hurt - and everyone is just as confused about it as you are.

There’s also that throughline about trauma, specifically when it comes to the first sex scene between Jay and Hugh - an act that ends in an evil entity hunting Jay down until she diverts its attention elsewhere. In this, I see petrifying parallels to my own and others’ outlooks on sex following a negative experience, with some desperately trying to pursue a better ”instant” partner to erase this memory from their mind but discovering that it still lurks at all times, and it can’t ever be escaped, much as the entity still pursued Jay when/if it slayed whoever she’s ed it onto.

Truth be told, I don’t really know what I’m on about, but I haven’t been able to shake this film in six years, and I constantly find myself revisiting it and its speculation on sex time and time again, always coming away with a new analysis of what David Robert Mitchell is trying to say - and those are my favorite kinds of films.

Good movie imo!!!

(Wrote a little bit on this in Loud and Clear’s annual Halloween article if you’re interested too 👻)

2015 Ranked