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5 Things You May Not Have Known About ‘It Follows’

Published

9 years ago

March 29, 2015

We’ve all been hearing about David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows for months, but this weekend offered the first opportunity for many to finally see what all the buzz is about. Hopefully you’ve taken that opportunity, but if not, don’t worry. I’ve avoided including anything too spoilery in this list, though I’d still say this is all more interesting if you’ve actually seen the film.

1. The theatre from the film is the same one where The Evil Dead had its original premiere.

The theatre featured early in It Follows is the Redford Theatre in Detroit, which is where Sam Raimi premiered The Evil Dead in 1981. Bruce Campbell had apparently attended the theatre often as a child. From the Wikipeda article on The Evil Dead:

Raimi opted to have the most theatrical premiere possible, using custom tickets and wind tracks set in the theater, and ordering ambulances outside the theater to build atmosphere. The premiere setup was inspired by horror director William Castle, who would often attempt to scare his audiences by using gimmicks. Local turnout for the premiere exceeded the cast’s expectations, with a thousand patrons showing up. The audiences responded enthusiastically to the premiere, which led to Raimi’s idea of “touring” the film to build hype.

2. The Villain is known as “The It”.

The villain in It Follows doesn’t really get a name in the movie, but if you wanted to call it something, you could refer to it the same way Mitchell and the crew did while filming.

Asked in an interview with Movies.com about whether it had a nickname in the vein of Halloween’s The Shape, Mitchell said, “We just called it The It when we were labeling it. So we’d just talk about, say, The It on the roof. And then I’d just describe the appearance, whatever it was.”

I’ve also seen it referred to as “the follower,” but here you have it straight from the writer/director.

3. One of the most important parts of It Follows was only completed at the last minute.

The score for the film, which is one of its most crucial components, wasn’t even ready until 3 weeks before the film debuted at Cannes. In that same interview, Mitchell said:

“Up until that point, we’d temp’ed with a certain amount of Disasterpeace’s cues in certain parts, but I used some Carpenter, some Cage. I can’t remember everything, but it was temped with a ton of different composers….It was never about mimicking a Carpenter movie. There’s certainly homage to that, and I’m not denying that, but it was never about just mimicking what Carpenter would do.

4. The rules laid out in the film may not be the actual rules.

The rules about how The It operates, which are set up in the film, may or may not be completely accurate. As Mitchell explains in an interview with Yahoo Movies, “The only rules that we hear are rules that we’re told by a character within the film, who has access to limited information. If you look at the film enough, you can start to understand how he may be figuring these things out and how he has gotten the information that he has. But you also have to understand that they’re not rules on a stone’s tablet; they’re a character’s best guess about what’s happening to them. So, you know, they seem mostly right. But for me, that’s kind of fun, in that there might be some gaps in information, some things that he doesn’t understand and neither do we.”

That’s good to know in case we get a sequel, which based on what Mitchell told Vulture isn’t out of the question:

“I have a lot of different kinds of projects in many different genres, so I don’t know that a sequel would be the next thing that I would do, but I’m certainly open to it. I just kinda want to see how things play out. But I do want to say that when I wrote this, I had some bigger setpieces, a few things that I sort of simplified, and some stuff that we chose to cut out because of the budget and time, so there’s all kinds of fun things that could be done with this concept and story.”

5. The shell phone is not a real thing.

According to Mitchell (in the Yahoo interview), the sea shell smartphone/e-reader was made up for the movie to keep things feeling “like a dream or something outside of time”. In another interview with A.V. Club, he mentioned that having specific devices can make a film feel dated, so they made one up. As he notes, someone will probably make it now. Apparently people keep asking him where they can get one.

Have you seen the film yet? Let us know what you thought.

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Movies

‘Violent Night’ Director’s Next Project is a Shark Movie

Published

7 hours ago

May 14, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Sony Pictures is getting in the water with director Tommy Wirkola for his next project; a shark movie. Although no plot details have been revealed, Variety confirms that the movie will start filming in Australia this summer.

Also confirmed is that actress Phoebe Dynevor is circling the project and is in talks to star. She is probably best known for her role as Daphne in the popular Netflix soap Bridgerton.

Duo Adam McKay and Kevin Messick (Don’t Look Up, Succession) will produce the new film.

Wirkola is from Norway and utilizes a lot of action in his horror films. One of his first films, Dead Snow (2009), about zombie Nazis, is a cult favorite, and his 2013 action-heavy Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is an entertaining distraction.

^{Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)}

But 2022’s Christmas blood fest Violent Night starring David Harbour made wider audiences familiar with Wirkola. Coupled with favorable reviews and a great CinemaScore, the film became a Yuletide hit.

Insneider first reported this new shark project.

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Editorial

Why You May NOT Want To Go In Blind Before Watching ‘The Coffee Table’

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2024

Timothy Rawles

You might want to prepare yourself for some things if you plan to watch The Coffee Table now rentable on Prime. We aren’t going to go into any spoilers, but research is your best friend if you are sensitive to intense subject matter.

If you don’t believe us, maybe horror writer Stephen King might convince you. In a tweet he published on May 10, the author says, “There’s a Spanish movie called THE COFFEE TABLE on Amazon Prime and Apple+. My guess is you have never, not once in your whole life, seen a movie as black as this one. It’s horrible and also horribly funny. Think the Coen Brothers’ darkest dream.”

There's a Spanish movie called THE COFFEE TABLE on Amazon Prime and Apple+. My guess is you have never, not once in your whole life, seen a movie as black as this one. It's horrible and also horribly funny. Think the Coen Brothers' darkest dream.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 10, 2024

It is hard to talk about the film without giving anything away. Let’s just say there are certain things in horror movies that are generally off the, ahem, table and this film crosses that line in a big way.

The Coffee Table

The very ambiguous synopsis says:

“Jesus (David Pareja) and Maria (Estefanía de los Santos) are a couple going through a difficult time in their relationship. Nevertheless, they have just become parents. To shape their new life, they decide to buy a new coffee table. A decision that will change their existence.”

But there is more to it than that, and the fact that this might be the darkest of all comedies is also a little unsettling. Although it is heavy on the dramatic side too, the core issue is very taboo and might leave certain people sick and disturbed.

What’s worse is that it is an excellent movie. The acting is phenomenal and the suspense, masterclass. Compounding that it’s a Spanish film with subtitles so you have to look at your screen; it’s just evil.

The good news is The Coffee Table isn’t really that gory. Yes, there is blood, but it’s used more as just a reference than a gratuitous opportunity. Still, the mere thought of what this family has to go through is unnerving and I can guess many people will turn it off within the first half-hour.

Director Caye Casas has made a great film that might go down in history as one of the most disturbing ever made. You have been warned.

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Movies

Trailer For Shudder’s Latest ‘The Demon Disorder’ Showcases SFX

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It’s always interesting when award-winning special effects artists become directors of horror films. That is the case with The Demon Disorder coming from Steven Boyle who has done work on The Matrix movies, The Hobbit trilogy, and King Kong (2005).

The Demon Disorder is the latest Shudder acquisition as it continues adding high-quality and interesting content to its catalog. The film is the directorial debut of Boyle and he says he is happy that it will become a part of the horror streamer’s library coming fall 2024.

“We are thrilled that The Demon Disorder has reached its final resting place with our friends at Shudder,” said Boyle. “It’s a community and fanbase that we hold in the highest esteem and we couldn’t be happier to be on this journey with them!”

Shudder echoes Boyle’s thoughts about the film, emphasizing his skill.

“After years of a creating a range of elaborate visual experiences through his work as a special effects designer on iconic films, we’re thrilled to give Steven Boyle a platform for his feature length directorial debut with The Demon Disorder,” said Samuel Zimmerman, Head of Programming for Shudder. “Full of impressive body horror that fans have come to expect from this master of effects, Boyle’s film is an engrossing story about breaking generational curses that viewers will find both unsettling and amusing.”

The movie is being described as an “Australian family drama” that centers on, “Graham, a man haunted by his past since the death of his father and the estrangement from his two brothers. Jake, the middle brother, contacts Graham claiming that something is horribly wrong: their youngest brother Phillip is possessed by their deceased father. Graham reluctantly agrees to go and see for himself. With the three brothers back together, they soon realize they are unprepared for the forces against them and learn that the sins of their past will not stay hidden. But how do you defeat a presence that knows you inside and out? An anger so powerful it refuses to stay dead?”

The movie stars, John Noble (The Lord of the Rings), Charles Cottier, Christian Willis, and Dirk Hunter.

Take a look at the trailer below and let us know what you think. The Demon Disorder will begin streaming on Shudder this fall.