Freep Film Festival: "It Follows"

While Freep Film Festival is a documentary-focused event, it has booked this fictional film thanks to its buzz at other festivals and strong local connections, including writer-director David Robert Mitchell (a Clawson native) and its Michigan-shot locations. Mitchell embraces the horror trope of a Big Bad befalling a promiscuous teenager and takes it somewhere unexpected in a film that’s been compared to the early work of horror master John Carpenter. Protagonist Jay just wants to have a little fun; needless to say, she gets a lot more than she bargained for. Something – she doesn’t know what – is following her. Is it a sexually transmitted disease, or just a sexually transmitted neurosis? The only way for Jay to avoid coming nose to nose with her faceless pursuer is to put it off her scent and onto another’s, and somehow live with the guilt of passing on the curse. As the only American film in last year’s Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week sidebar, “It Follows” premiered to audience and critical raves alike. Michigan premiere.