Tuesday Night Double Feature: IT FOLLOWS and ALIEN OUTPOST

[indianasmith]

I rented two new releases yesterday and really enjoyed them both.
First I watched IT FOLLOWS.
This is a grim morality tale for the "hookup generation" -
A young girl named Jay goes out on a date with a nice looking young man she met at a party a week or two ago.  They wind up doing the deed in his car near the beach, but after they have sex, he knocks her out and ties her to a chair.  When she comes to, he explains that she is going to be followed until she can pass it along, by having sex with someone else.  He doesn't know what it is that is following him, only that if it touches you, it will kill you.  It can assume any form, including that of a loved one.  If it kills her, it will turn back to him.  The only way to get rid of it is to pass it along to someone else, and have them pass it along before it kills them.  Jay and her friends spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out a way to break the curse without inflicting it on someone else.  This is a marvelously creepy little tale that preys on some very deep-seated fears in this age of date rape and STD's.  Don't go into it expecting lots of skin, though - for a movie that focuses on sexual encounters, there is very little nudity or explicitness. 4.5/5

After that one, I watched ALIEN OUTPOST.  This was a very well done fake documentary set in the year 2033 - 12 years after a race of aliens known as the "Heavies" invaded the earth.  The initial invasion was thrown back after great loss of life, but the Heavies left thousands of their soldiers on earth when they retreated.  The USDF (United Space Defense Force) created outposts in all the areas where concentrations of Heavies were located, and a long war of eradication ensued.  Now that war is nearly over, and a documentary team is visiting Outpost 37, located along the Pakistan-Afghan border, where the soldiers have to deal with local insurgents as well as lingering Heavy attacks.  The team's arrival coincides with a spike in attacks, leading the base commander to discover that the Heavies are up to something sinister and potentially disastrous.  This was a great film, very real in its feel - they get the military culture down pat (I wonder if some of the cast are recently discharged veterans), and the Heavies are very accurately portrayed and menacing.  As good a science fiction movie as I have seen in a long time.  5/5

[dean]

I really liked It Follows. Very old school feel which, like any good horror should, touches upon some modern fears. Its a pretty good double threat: nostalgia/vintage feel for the hip people with real world issues and a pretty decent concept.

Alien Outpost sounded interesting [and the poster was kinda cool] but it gets a realllllllllllly low rating on netflix so I may have to brave it one day when I don't expect much out of my entertainment.

[indianasmith]

I saw the low rating on IMDB, and frankly found it totally undeserved.

[Jack]

I'll have to check out Alien Outpost tonight, thanks for the tip Indy 

[Alex]

Liked It Follows, although I can understand the pacing not being to everyones taste.

[Jack]

Watched Alien Outpost, it was pretty good.  Didn't really 100% work for me though, they were so concerned with providing backstory for the conflict that they forgot to include a plot.  And after spending most of the movie getting to know the guys and seeing their conflicts with the locals, the alien stuff at the end almost seemed tacked on.

[Mofo Rising]

I quite like both of these movies.

It Follows got quite a lot of buzz. I don't think it's a perfect movie, but it really nailed that low-key, menacing quality I like in my movies.

Alien Outpost did not get any buzz, but I thought it was rather well done. If you pay attention, you'll notice that this movie flagrantly disregards its "found footage" conceit more than any other FF movie I've seen. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but it gets fairly ridiculous at points.

[Jim H]

I rented two new releases yesterday and really enjoyed them both.
First I watched IT FOLLOWS.
This is a grim morality tale for the "hookup generation" -
A young girl named Jay goes out on a date with a nice looking young man she met at a party a week or two ago.  They wind up doing the deed in his car near the beach, but after they have sex, he knocks her out and ties her to a chair.  When she comes to, he explains that she is going to be followed until she can pass it along, by having sex with someone else.  He doesn't know what it is that is following him, only that if it touches you, it will kill you.  It can assume any form, including that of a loved one.  If it kills her, it will turn back to him.  The only way to get rid of it is to pass it along to someone else, and have them pass it along before it kills them.  Jay and her friends spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out a way to break the curse without inflicting it on someone else.  This is a marvelously creepy little tale that preys on some very deep-seated fears in this age of date rape and STD's.  Don't go into it expecting lots of skin, though - for a movie that focuses on sexual encounters, there is very little nudity or explicitness. 4.5/5

I quite liked It Follows, very good eerie atmosphere and visuals, solid acting too, and a great "creature".  It's also nice seeing a film shot near where I grew up (southern Michigan), not too many of them.  Great visuals, great score too.  Creepy, without being too obvious.  I like the ending also, which seems to be tough for horror films to get right.

I also think you're quite right it's definitely a response to fears of rape, STDs, and hookup people - I can't imagine this sort of film being made in the 80s (at least, I'm not aware of anything like this) , when a lot more big horror films were coming out...  I find that interesting though, as young people back then were more sexually active than now.  Likewise, rape is down a lot from the 80s.  But, the perception is WAY up (STDs especially, after the HIV awareness campaigns).  It's a valuable lesson in film craft - effectively scary horror generally is what people are *actually* scared of now, not necessarily what you (the film maker) think the audience *should* be.  At least, if you want to find an audience.