Director David Robert Mitchell and actress Maika Monroe are reuniting on “They Follow,” a sequel to the 2014 cult horror film, “It Follows.” Hey, I’m as surprised as you are about this news. We didn’t need this.
Neon is set to co-produce the movie, with principal photography set for early 2024. Mitchell’s film is one of the many original horror films that have recently been greenlit for a sequel, the others include “Talk to Me,” “The Black Phone,” “Smile,” and “A Quiet Place.”
Mitchell is a rule-breaking filmmaker, and his work on “It Follows” was pretty incredible. However, why this sequel? The Variety piece does mention that Mitchell’s ‘80s-set Dinosaur movie, starring Anne Hathaway and Oscar Isaac, hasn’t been axed and is still in the early stages of development.
The minimalist and sexual “It Follows” is one of the best horror movies of the last ten years. The film refused to adhere to conventions of 21st-century horror. Mitchell delivered a stunningly authoritative movie — a blend of the surreal with the very real. Every scene in this film was filled with unbearable dread, bringing to mind early Carpenter. Scene after scene, the viewer was engulfed in an inescapable nightmare.
In “It Follows,” Monroe plays 19 year-old who loses her virginity and is later told by the same guy that he has passed on a curse to her that will follow and haunt her everywhere she goes, the film is imprinted with these clever undertones. The only way for our main protagonist to get rid of this “disease” she has inherited is to sleep with someone else and pass it on to them.
In the next decade, a slew of film school term papers soon followed, much about the film’s allegorical connection to STDs. Those sly open-minded students wouldn’t be far off in their theories, but there was much more to “It Follows” than just its fascinating dissection of STD allegories and teenage sexuality.
Mitchell is coming off 2018’s “Under the Silver Lake,” an unfairly maligned film. A passionate cult following has built up for that film, with even the creation of a popular subreddit still trying to figure out the film’s mysteries, more than five years since its release. It was a fascinating exercise in atmosphere and tension. Mitchell is one of the few directors out there who can capture what dreams really feel like.
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.