Last night my girlfriend and I wanted to watch a horror movie, so we searched up some good ones and found "It Follows", a 2014 horror film about a sexually transmitted demon. We looked at some ratings, and, seeing that it was given a 96% on rotten tomatoes, we sat down and watched the whole thing, expecting a great movie given it's reception.

I think it was the worst horror movie I've ever seen.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The movie is ridiculously contrived right from the start. Hugh, the previous owner of this STD (demon, not disease), dumps a whole ton of exposition onto us as he explains to Jay what this creature is. He lists out a few main points, saying that it will slowly follow you wherever you go, it will blend in with the crowd, and it will take the form of people you know just to screw with you. This is mostly true, however throughout the course of the movie the monster only turns into 2 people our main character knows, it NEVER blends in with the crowd, and at one point in the movie (the hospital segment where Greg inherits the demon) it just flat out stops following them for over three days because the writers wanted it to. The movie is terribly inconsistent. Jay in particular has such a large amount of plot armor it distracted me from the rest of the movie because I got so caught up in how stupid and inconsistent the writing is at some points. Like at the beach. Our (dumb as nails) protagonist decides it would be a good idea to relax at a beach with her back turned, fully exposed, for hours. It's no surprise that the thing snuck up on her, she was practically asking for it. However this was the key moment in the movie that made me lose faith in the writers, and plot. Instead of brutally murdering Jay, as it had done to the girl at the beginning (and is soon to do to Greg), it stops, and slowly plays with her hair. For a good 15 seconds, it's doing nothing except holding her hair up saying "look at me! I'm actually real! See this floating hair? So spooky!". Keep in mind this is the same creature who , later in the film, kills Greg while he's aware of its presence nigh-instantaneously. You're trying to tell me that this creature wouldn't have killed Jay immediately when she had her back turned? Also, this monster can break bones with ease and punch holes in doors, yet it can't seem to take a hit from a folding beach chair. It gets shot in the head and gets back up, yet a scrawny teenaged boy can hit it once with a chair and it completely loses it's grip on Jay.

One last thing I have to point out is how hopelessly stupid Jay is. This girl has absolutely no intelligence. Neither do any of her friends. She idiotically drives away from all of her friends when the creature isn't even there, and ends up crashing the car.

Don't even at me started on the "climax" of this movie. This has to be the single dumbest thing I've ever seen. They break into an abandoned indoor pool that still has water in it (with little to no effort, I may add) and decide that the best course of action is to set a trap. Fair. But this trap is so dumb it actually made me laugh. They set up a bunch of electrical appliances around the perimeter of the pool with the obvious goal of luring the creature in and electrocuting it. But the way they go about this is comedically bad. The next thing they decide to do is place Jay in the center of the super dangerous pool and give Paul the only gun. Why? Why don't they decide to give the gun to Jay, the ONLY PERSON WHO CAN ACTUALLY SEE WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO SHOOT? I'll tell you why. It was that they had an excuse for one of the two useless side characters to get shot. They know that the creature walks in a straight line towards jay, so why don't they put her at one end of the pool and have the creature walk through it to get to her? That way she isn't in danger of getting electrocuted. But no, put her right in the center of the pool, because that's scarier. When the thing finally shows up, it breaks it's own established rules by avoiding the pool and throwing the electrical appliances at Jay. Okay, sure. We've already established that consistency is a foreign concept to these writers. I expected as much. But not only does she not get electrocuted (for some reason??) She does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO MOVE OUT OF THE WAY. This idiot sits in the middle of the pool pointing at the invisible sex demon while having heavy appliances thrown at her. WHY ISNT SHE MOVING! she can still point as she moves! Of course after this Paul shoots the creature in the head, something that has already been established as ineffective. It falls into the pool. Seeing this, Jay, like any reasonable, smart person would, SWIMS STRAIGHT TOWARDS THE CREATURE. I understand it's supposed to be scary and tense, but I had had enough at this point. Paul somehow lands another headshot on the thing which allows Jay to escape yet again for the dumbest reasons.

The ending of this movie isn't even an ending. Jay has sex with Paul and now they're together. The thing is still following them. The end.

What a joke.

This movie would have no real danger if any of the characters possessed any more intelligence than your average household plant. All of the tense moments come as a result of Jays stupidity. There isn't even really a story. There's no character development, and jays sister and other friend did nothing meaningful throughout the whole film. They didn't even have to exist.

I give this movie a 2/10. Terribly inconsistent and laughably predictable. I know horror movie protagonists are always dumb but this movie takes that statement and uses it as an excuse for bad scares over and over again. I can let it slide for other movies but this one uses the characters lack of intelligence to an egregious and unforgivable degree.

EDIT: if you disagree with me, tell me why. I want to know why everyone holds this movie in such high regard. I'm genuinely curious. And while I am angry at the movie, I am not hostile towards people who enjoyed it.

EDIT: one final note. I didn't come here to start arguments, or to anger anyone. This movie frustrated me, and I just want a well formulated response telling me why it's held in such high regard. I didn't like the movie, but I went ahead and explained why. Tell me I'm wrong on anything I said here. Please. But elaborate. I want a civil discussion. That's it.