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 was as surprised as any of you when news dropped in 2023 that this would happen — nobody expected this sequel. Yet my pessimism has only grown over whether this film would actually get made. It was supposed to shoot in late 2024, then early 2025… and then, radio silence.
That is, until now. Speaking at a recent Q&A, Monroe confirms a summer shoot is in place, and that script for “They Follows” is “incredible.” Apparently, they only recently found financing for the sequel, which will be composed of both European and American money.
The sequel takes place ten years after the events of the first film. It joins the growing list of original horror movies recently greenlit for sequels, including “Talk to Me,” “The Black Phone,” “Smile,” “M3GAN,” “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” “Ready or Not,” and “The Curse of La Llorona.”
The one thing that has me semi-hopeful about “They Follow” is the filmmaker behind it. Mitchell is a rule-breaker, and his concise, subtle work on “It Follows” was nothing short of great. He’s currently in post-production on “The End of Oak Street,” formerly “Flowervale Street,” an ’80s-set time-travel dinosaur movie starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, slated for August 2026 release.
The minimalist and sexual “It Follows” remains one of the best horror films of the past decade. The movie refused to adhere to the usual conventions of 21st-century horror — Mitchell delivered a stunningly authoritative work, blending the surreal with the unnervingly real. Every scene dripped with unbearable dread, calling to mind early John Carpenter. Scene after scene, viewers were engulfed in an inescapable nightmare.
In “It Follows,” Monroe plays a 19-year-old who loses her virginity and is later told by her partner that he has passed on a curse — something that will follow and haunt her wherever she goes. The film is layered with clever undertones: the only way for the protagonist to rid herself of this “disease” is to sleep with someone else and pass it on.
In the decade since, a slew of inevitable film-school essays have dissected the film’s allegorical connections to STDs. Those allegories weren’t wrong — but there’s far more to “It Follows” than its fascinating commentary on sexual transmission and teenage anxiety. It’s a haunting, timeless nightmare — and if “They Follow” truly happens, Mitchell has another chance to further delve into the atmospheric dread. Here’s hoping the script is actually worthy of the original.