The Pestle

Podcast,
48 MINS

Ep 52: “It Follows”

September 18, 2018

We walk through the horror movie “It Follows” and discuss:

  • cinematography;
  • creating tension through the choice of lens;
  • the horror rules and symbolism of “It Follows”;
  • and much more!

Ladies you sold 200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies as a kid and now you can’t sell your man on wearing a condom. Come on. – Dr. Ruth

This Week’s Recommendations:

PBS Space Time!

5 comments

  1. Marc “Izzy” Israel says:

    Good show today… not a horror fan but hearing your take on the visual storytelling was both interesting and inciteful. Will check “It Follows” out based on your recommendations (until you lead me astray!!)

    1. wes says:

      haha, definitely hope to not lead you astray! But in the interest of reducing expectations I had a couple people not like It Follows at all, so this may be one of those “not for everyone” kinda films. Definitely want to hear your take on it though!

  2. Marc “Izzy” Israel says:

    Ok, Amazon delivered but “It Follows” didn’t. Was I scared at times? For sure, but I was searching for more depth in the mythology of the film, for lack of a better expression. The scarring done by the action that seals your fate was done in “The Ring”. The logic here gets the double exposure of the reveal from our mysterious Hugh, but without the believability of a regular sci-if wrap up that explains without sounding child like and yet you still know you’re screwed (see every X-Files episode).

    The premise that “Yiur actions will haunt you if you are not careful” is such a great opportunity beyond who you “share” it with. It’s not my genre so clearly your mileage will vary but the premise got me in but not enough to keep me there….

    Maybe it was the spoiler rule? I listened prior to watching this time!

    1. wes says:

      Gah! Sorry, Marc! I was really hoping it would land for you. It’s definitely shallow on mythological depth and backstory. I’ve had a couple people not enjoy this one, but you’re the first to actually tie any reasoning behind it, so that’s really useful for me. It doesn’t wrap it up or give us any backstory, which was fine for me because it felt more symbolic — I think adding in an origin story may have tainted the symbolism — and also left me in more suspense as it meant I couldn’t predict what happened after we cut to black which felt oddly appropriate in this film to me. I’ve seen other films cut the ending short and try to call it ‘artistic’ when it really they were uncreative and cheap, but here it felt like a continuation of the theme, in my opinion.

      1. Marc says:

        FYI – the ending is actually poignant because you never really know if you’ve rid yourself of something intangible for years. Is it in remission or cured? The dark cloud remains, right? No worries on recs that don’t land. Others have and will. It’s your thoughtful take that I’m after.

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