It Follows is an indie American slasher that debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. During its official theatrical release, the film grossed $23.3 million worldwide against a modest budget of $1.3 million and was also praised by critics and cinemagoers for its solid atmosphere and surprisingly original premise.
Directed by David Robert Mitchell, the film centers on teenager Jamie “Jay” Height (Maika Monroe), who, after sex with a stranger on a date, finds she’s being followed by a slow-walking nightmarish entity no one else can see. She soon realizes “It” has been passed on through sex and that she must find a way of outsmarting the demon before it gets too close.
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It Follows is one of the most terrifying horror films in recent memory, thanks to director David Robert Mitchell’s striking visuals and the deliberately unplaceable time period and equally vague season, Maika Monroe’s convincing performance as a desperately terrified teenager, and the nerve-shredding and instantly iconic score by Disasterpeace.
Though it channels iconic suburbia-set slashers like John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), It Follows is surprisingly original. Now, a sequel is in development. Last year, Deadline reported that David Robert Mitchell is returning to the director’s chair, with Maika Monroe also stepping back into the role of Jay.
Let’s take a look at everything we know about They Follow so far.
They Follow — Plot
Unfortunately, plot details for They Follow are virtually non-existent. However, during an interview with Collider in June, Monroe described the film as being “bigger, darker, and more f*cked up” than its predecessor. Then, in an interview with IndieWire, the Long Legs (2024) actress confirmed that the sequel will pick up 10 years after the first film.
Despite keeping plot details close to her chest, she seems very excited to be stepping back into the world of It Follows again, saying, “I just know that David wouldn’t do a sequel if it wasn’t going to be incredible, and the script is so f*cking good. I’m obsessed. I’m just so excited to step into playing Jay again and just where you find her, it’s going to be great.”
When asked how she’d get back into character after 10 years, she said, “I have no idea. This is going to be my first time [doing a sequel]. It’s going to be such a new kind of adventure for me. Probably a lot of conversations with David and kind of piecing together everything that happened in the 10 years between these films. I think it’s going to be very, very fun.”
In 2022, Monroe told IndieWire that she “got lucky with It Follows,” adding that “it sort of changed the game for the horror genre.” She explained, “I think back in the ’60s and ’70s and early ’80s, there was some really amazing, elevated horror in the genre, and then something got lost somewhere and it was about hot girls and sex and blood.”
“Of course, I had no idea what it was going to be. I had seen David’s previous film, The Myth of the American Sleepover, that was so beautiful and so dreamy, and I was like, ‘OK, maybe this style mixed with a horror film could be very interesting,’ but I had no idea the effect of it and that it [would be] such an important film to so many people, so many years later.”
So, we don’t really know anything about the premise for They Follow, but it’s going to be a lot of fun to speculate, and it’s possible the title already gives plenty away. After all, this time, “they follow”, which implies that there’s more than just the one entity Jay encounters in the first film. Will the sequel deal with a pandemic of some kind? It would certainly be topical.
They Follow — Cast
So far, only Maika Monroe has been confirmed to be reprising her role from the first film. It’s unknown whether Jay’s teen friends Paul Bolduan (Keir Gilchrist) and Yara Davis (Olivia Luccardi), and her sister Kelly Height (Lili Sepe), will be returning.
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They Follow — Release Date
There’s no release date for They Follow, however, it will begin shooting next year. Mitchell is currently working on his mystery project, Flowervale Street, which stars Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor and will take place in the ’80s, with dinosaurs reportedly involved.
Flowervale Street will be released in theaters on May 16, 2025.
They Follow — Trailer
As They Follow is yet to go into production, there’s no trailer. But check out the trailer for the original film to get yourself into the mood for a rewatch this Halloween:
Where Can I Watch It Follows This Halloween?
It Follows is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. It stars Maika Monroe (Jaime “Jay” Height), Keir Gilchrist (Paul Bolduan), Olivia Luccardi (Yara Davis), Lili Sepe (Kelly Height), Daniel Zovatto (Greg Hannigan), Jake Weary (Hugh/Jeff Redmond), Bailey Spry (Annie Marshall), Debbie Williams (Mrs. Height), and Ruby Harris (Mrs. Redmond).
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