“It Follows” is a movie that takes the classic horror tropes and gives it a modern spin for a modern audience.

It’s jarring, suspenseful at times and gives a feeling of unease. What newish director David Robert Mitchell understands about good suspense is that monsters are sometimes the most scary when they are right in front of you, but you don’t know when they will get you.

“It Follows” is about a curse that is transferred from person to person via sex. When the curse is passed on to our protagonist, Jay Height [played by actress Maika Monroe], she starts to see a creature in human skin following her at a walking pace who will not stop till it gets to its victim. This creature can take the appearance of anybody and cannot be seen by anyone else besides the person who has the curse.

The director intentionally tries to give the audience the feeling that they are watching an 80s horror movie. The sound track is composed of a techno synthesizer that at times has the same sounds of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” theme. If this reviewer had to guess what the greatest influence was for this movie, it would have to be “Halloween.” There are many shots that are modeled off of “Halloween” but the director doesn’t go as far as to duplicate the shots exactly. The difference between movies like “Halloween” and “It Follows” is that the creature in “It Follows” is not confined to the night and will walk right up to you in the middle of class.

The movie does not try to hide its metaphor of sexually transmitted diseases. Instead of coming right out and telling us to always be safe while having sex, they use the creature as a clever and scary device to get the

message across.

Mitchell plays with the classic horror movie trope that if you have sex you will soon be murdered by the killer. Sex and murder have been coincidental for most horror movies; “It Follows” is different because having sex is the reason why you get killed.

The movie does have some flaws, mostly due to the director trying too hard to make some of the shots look too much like an independent artsy movie. Also, the characters talk in that awkward way that most horror moviemakers think all teenagers talk like.

Besides those few problems, the story is pretty solid and suspenseful. It is definitely worth watching in theaters but I would advise against making “It Follows” a date

night movie.