Connect with us

News

David Robert Mitchell Answered A Bunch of Questions About “the It” in It Follows

Published

on

There’s been a lot of chatter about a potential sequel to It Follows. There’s been nothing in the way of any kind of official announcement, but given the film’s success story and plot device that caters to franchise potential, it pretty much seems inevitable.

Comments made by director David Robert Mitchell and Tom Quinn, co-president of distribution company Radius-TWC, only make it seem all the more likely. Luckily, there are a lot of angles that could be explored in a sequel thanks to how much Mitchell left to the imagination in his film.

In fact, while It Follows has clearly been a favorite among the horror community, a common theme among some of the less enthusiastic reviews of the film has been the very fact that so much was left to the imagination. In other words, a lack of explanation is sometimes brushed off as laziness.

Last week, Mitchell participated in a reddit AMA. He made some interesting comments about the nature of “the It” that could both serve as potential angles to be explored in a sequel and give a little bit of explanation about the villain. Not too much explanation, but at least some insight into the creator’s mindset about it.

One person asked how the Hugh character knew so much about the monster such as thinking he got it from a girl from a bar or how he would even know it came from sex.

Mitchell’s response was, “This suggests a much larger backstory within Hugh’s life. We can only imagine the circumstances that led to Hugh discovering this. The film offers a few clues.”

Mitchell talked a little more about this in an interview with Yahoo Movies, indicating that the rules laid out in the movie (which mostly came from Hugh) may not be the true rules of how the It works.

“The only rules that we hear are rules that we’re told by a character within the film, who has access to limited information,” he explained. “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.”

In other words, this could pretty much open the floodgates to potential ideas for a sequel.

Some other responses he gave in the AMA also show how he thinks about the It:

“For one, looking like normal people, it has the ability to approach the character without them being aware that it’s the monster. Also, it’s the way that the monster uses the human figure to hurt or disturb the characters.”

“I think most of the time It’s always walking. But It can choose to move in ways that might hurt or affect the person it’s following.”

“It could certainly cross the ocean. I imagine that it could get on a boat or a plane. Or it could move through the water, if it chose to.”

“It doesn’t spawn. It has to physically move from one place to the other. It could get on an airplane if it wanted to.”

“The monster’s form is directly connected to the person that it’s following.”

“If you give it to someone, then it’s only going to follow the next person that that person sleeps with. So it’s not like you can infect multiple people at the same time. Once you’ve passed it on, you’ve passed it on. Unless that person dies…”

Asked about whether the It can only be passed with male/female sex, he said, “I believe that any kind of sex counts.”

On the use of water in the movie: “There is symbolism behind it, but I also think the use of water within a film is transportive for an audience in a way – just hearing or seeing water represented in a film allows the viewer to connect with the physicality of what’s happening within the frame. And as for what it means, I hate to explain it. I prefer for people to simply experience it and decide how they feel about it.”

If (most likely when) a sequel gets made, it may or may not be Mitchell who directs it. While he has expressed interest in doing more horror at some point, he has also said it’s not likely that his next project will be another horror film. Either way, fans will no doubt be lining up to see it.

Read the AMA for Mitchell’s responses to many more questions about the movie, the genre, and his career.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

News

The Tall Man Funko Pop! Is a Reminder of the Late Angus Scrimm

Published

on

Phantasm tall man Funko pop

The Funko Pop! brand of figurines is finally paying homage to one of the scariest horror movie villains of all time, The Tall Man from Phantasm. According to Bloody Disgusting the toy was previewed by Funko this week.

The creepy otherworldly protagonist was played by the late Angus Scrimm who passed away in 2016. He was a journalist and B-movie actor who became a horror movie icon in 1979 for his role as the mysterious funeral home owner known as The Tall Man. The Pop! also includes the bloodsucking flying silver orb The Tall Man used as a weapon against trespassers.

Phantasm

He also spoke one of the most iconic lines in independent horror, “Boooy! You play a good game, boy, but the game is finished. Now you die!”

There is no word on when this figurine will be released or when preorders will go on sale, but it’s nice to see this horror icon remembered in vinyl.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Continue Reading

News

Director of ‘The Loved Ones’ Next Film is a Shark/Serial Killer Movie

Published

on

The director of The Loved Ones and The Devil’s Candy is going nautical for his next horror film. Variety is reporting that Sean Byrne is gearing up to make a shark movie but with a twist.

This film titled Dangerous Animals, takes place on a boat where a woman named Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), according to Variety, is “Held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. The only person who realizes she is missing is new love interest Moses (Hueston), who goes looking for Zephyr, only to be caught by the deranged murderer as well.”

Nick Lepard writes it, and filming will begin on the Australian Gold Coast on May 7.

Dangerous Animals will get a spot at Cannes according to David Garrett from Mister Smith Entertainment. He says, “‘Dangerous Animals’ is a super-intense and gripping story of survival, in the face of an unimaginably malevolent predator. In a clever melding of the serial killer and shark movie genres, it makes the shark look like the nice guy,”

Shark movies will probably always be a mainstay in the horror genre. None have ever really succeeded in the level of scariness reached by Jaws, but since Byrne uses a lot of body horror and intriguing images in his works Dangerous Animals might be an exception.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Continue Reading

Movies

PG-13 Rated ‘Tarot’ Underperforms at the Box Office

Published

on

Tarot starts off the summer horror box office season with a whimper. Scary movies like these are usually a fall offering so why Sony decided to make Tarot a summer contender is questionable. Since Sony uses Netflix as their VOD platform now maybe people are waiting to stream it for free even though both critic and audience scores were very low, a death sentence to a theatrical release. 

Although it was a fast death — the movie brought in $6.5 million domestically and an additional $3.7 million globally, enough to recoup its budget — word of mouth might have been enough to convince moviegoers to make their popcorn at home for this one. 

Tarot

Another factor in its demise might be its MPAA rating; PG-13. Moderate fans of horror can handle fare that falls under this rating, but hardcore viewers who fuel the box office in this genre, prefer an R. Anything less rarely does well unless James Wan is at the helm or that infrequent occurrence like The Ring. It might be because the PG-13 viewer will wait for streaming while an R generates enough interest to open a weekend.

And let’s not forget that Tarot might just be bad. Nothing offends a horror fan quicker than a shopworn trope unless it’s a new take. But some genre YouTube critics say Tarot suffers from boilerplate syndrome; taking a basic premise and recycling it hoping people won’t notice.

But all is not lost, 2024 has a lot more horror movie offerings coming this summer. In the coming months, we will get Cuckoo (April 8), Longlegs (July 12), A Quiet Place: Part One (June 28), and the new M. Night Shyamalan thriller Trap (August 9).

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Continue Reading