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“It Follows” You Home on Blu-ray and 4K Home Video!

After sleeping with a young and handsome man in the back of his car, Jay wakes up strapped to a wheel cheer in an abandoned and dilapidated Detroit warehouse. The panicked and apologetic man explains that having sex passed something to him and now he has passed it to her. What it is is a supernatural force, a shapeshifter, always walking toward the last person implanted with an imperceptible sexually transmitted beacon. Slowly but surely, the entity continues with a steady pace until reaching the infected person and brutally murdering them. The only way Jay can unload this burdensome curse is to pass it along to someone else, but her tightknit group of friends aim to help her despite not being able to see the entity and drive her out beyond the stretches of her Detroit suburb home. Yet, no matter how far Jay travels the entity eventually catches up to her, endless following her to wherever she goes, leaving her and her friends without options to alleviate her paranoia and fear.

David Robert Mitchell’s breakout horror success “It Follows” is the 2014 released supernatural teen terrorizer with an immutable edge of not only absolute apprehension but also with a distorted real-world dreaminess not based in vague abstraction. Mitchell, who not only directed by wrote the film as well, is the sophomore feature from the “The Myth of the American Sleepover“ director who persists in the unravelling of apparent teenage problems, dramas, and sensations in the metro area and in the suburban borders of Detroit, Michigan, the state in which Mitchell was born. “It Follows” barely scratched a significant budget for production but managed to succeed expectations earning domestically here in the U.S. 13x the film’s budget amount plus the additional international box office revenue and at-home media sales saw Mitchell’s indie horror a major sleeper amongst surprised genre fans who couldn’t get enough of the sexual transmitted spook. Mitchell, along with Erik Rommensmo, Roby K. Bennett, Rebecca Green, Laura D. Smith Ireland, and David Kaplan, produced the venture under production companies Animal Kingdom and Two Flints with Northern Lights Films presenting.

At the center of a parentless predicament are a group of friends with the nucleate being the followed Jay under the performance of Maika Monroe, who also saw simultaneous and unexpected success in another 2014 thriller, “The Guest.” Monroe’s slow burn sauntering becomes hit with complete shock when her lover betrays her, sends her spiraling in post-trauma harm, and instills a paranoia that can’t be ignored. Jay no longer floats in life’s little wonders of love and romance; instead, she finds herself on the other side of the idyllic fantasy with the repercussions of her choices amplified by the supernatural spin. At her side is her sister Kelly (Lili Sepe, “The Intruder”), childhood friends Paul (Keir Gilchrist, “Dead Silence”) and Yara (Olivia Luccardi, “Kappa Kappa Die”), and the across the street cool guy Greg (Daniel Zovatto, “The Pope’s Exorcist”). Each play a role in Jay’s post-sex paranormal plight, some are a conductor of relief, such as providing a comforting presence as bodyguards per se or even become the next person to pass along the curse while others project future spurs of ominous ambiguity without the direct intention of doing so. Though Mitchell might be invoking a dream state of events that may play into the following, I still found the groups’ idle hands to be concerning, especially during a school period from which we see Jay and Greg sitting in class together in one scene. The cadence of time and responsibility doesn’t exist and that can be really jarring to our sense of natural order where school is an afterthought, juvenile attention is an afterthought, and the only thing that really matters is Jay’s imperceptible anxiety without any other exterior consequences pressuring their decision making. “It Follows’” complete cast consists of Jake Weary, Bailey Spry, and Leisa Pulido.

Many of the film critics and analysts deconstruct and piece “It Follows” as an allegory for the sexually transmitted disease that will always be with you and how easily, or naively, it can be spread amongst friends and peers in casual intimacy and while that point can be seen as valid, there’s definitely merit behind that theory, I have come to an alternate conclusion of what the entity might represent that has been following me much like the entity has been following Jay. Since parents, or adults in general, are faceless, absent, or represented as attackers, Jay and her friends represent teens having to deal with the peak problematic adolescence with suggestions of suicide, drugs, neglect, abuse running rampant without ever having to be laid out in exposition or be straightforward and evident. The entity represents time running out in their youth dwindling quickly with every adult choice that they make, sex being the main sample of a larger grouping. No matter how hard the teens try to run from their issues, time never ceases and will eventually cause their mortal coil to succumb at an early age. Mitchell’s weirdly timeless set productions and props add systematic value in what has been longstanding through the decades of wriggling deviant teenage behavior. The indifference adult caregivers in themselves can be much scarier than the entity itself, a lack of experience and control often turns wild, unpredictable, and irrational, and set the story’s backdrop as the tatterdemalion surroundings of a once booming Motor City and you have a complete and total degradation of city to soul in one tailgating terrifier.

Follow Second Sight Films for a special release of David Robert Mitchell’s “It Follows” on an AVC encoded, high-definition 1080p, United Kingdom Blu-ray with an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Looking sharp and retaining original grading, this particular new Second Sight product, the standard Blu-ray version of the two-part deal along with a 4K UHD release, doesn’t hinge on perfecting or upgrading the digitally record video. Still, image quality renders like definite de facto distinctness that separates objects with delineated depth and a realistic color palette while the master of the slow pan, Mitchell, keeps scenes alive with an ever-moving camera shooting alternative, odd angles. Backside of the Blu-ray suggests a bitrate decoding at 23 Mbps but I had clocked it higher at low 30s that better suppresses any kind of compressions issues on the more than adequate BD50. The release comes with two English audio options: a Dolby Atmos produced by Second Sight and a DTS-HD 5.1 master audio surround sound. The Atoms provides a pedestal for the original composed score by Disasterpiece aka Richard Vreelord with his note firmly pressed on the slasher pulse while keeping a discordant arm’s length away from being too terribly catchy; instead, we shrill in fear with ever crescendo in letting us know the entity is here and near, foot-over-foot toward the target. Depth and range fathom well to create space and provide more than just a dialogue robust narrative with suburban ambiance as well as the exertion surrounding motivation to stay alive or to be followed and killed. Though not an A/V level up, Second Sight pours all their love and respect in new special features including new experience and opinion-laden interviews with Keir Gilchrist Chasing Ghosts, a new interview with Olivia Luccardi Following, a new interview with produce David Kaplan It’s in the House, new interview with composer Disasterpiece (Rich Vreeland) Composing a Masterpiece, and a new interview with production designer Michael Perry A Girl’s World that focuses on the out of time and oddly placed set dressings for era ambiguity. There’s also new commentary by author Joshua Grimm, an archived commentary with authors/film scholars Danny Leigh and Mark Jancovich, and a Joseph Wallace video essay surrounding “It Follows” Architecture of Loneliness, providing a deep-dive look into Mitchell’s curation of isolating loneliness in all areas of the cinematic story. The green Blu-ray casing has new simple, yet effective, artwork of Maika Monroe floating head bathed in small strips of rainbow glints contrasted against a dark background. No reversible cover or insert inside the Blu-ray but the disc pressing contains an equally color arrangement to the front cover with Monroe bound to the wheel cheer from a plot point moment. The region locked B release plays at a 100-minutes and is UK certified 15 for strong threat, sexualized nudity, violence, gory images, and strong language. Architecturally sound to be great horror movie of originality and inspiration, “It Follows” never succumbs to the frustratingly breeziness with when the entity enters the picture as director David Robert Mitchell is able to keep us ever vigilant with high suspense, stunning visuals, and keep characters from wandering too far off path.

“It Follows” You Home on Blu-ray and 4K Home Video!

Scott and Annie Russell have it all. Two successful millennials living and working comfortably and successfully in urban San Francisco. There’s just one issue with their life, Annie wants children to raise outside the city. Their house hunting ventures takes them more than an hour outside the city to wine country, Napa Valley, where a serene and beautiful English style cottage rests privately around a nature preserve and becomes the ideal home prospect for Annie. The homeowner, Charlie Peck, seems eager for the married couple to purchase his home that has been in his family for three generations, even knocking down the price and leaving all the furnishings to sweeten the deal. After purchasing the house of Annie’s dreams, Scott makes due with his work in San Francisco, leaving Annie home alone for most of the week, but when Charlie keeps showing up at their doorstep, a frustrated Scott knows something just isn’t normal about the former owner who develops an obsessive fascination with his wife and won’t let go of his beloved home so easily.

From Deon Taylor, the director of “Traffik,” comes the 2019 suspenseful horror-thriller “The Intruder.” Penned by David Loughery, a writer who knows a little something-something about obsession thrillers with his work on “Lakeview Terrace” and “Obsessed,” “The Intruder” becomes a trifecta completing hit of dark compulsions shot actually not in California, but in Vancouver as an alternative in filming in the sacred Napa Valley. What could be said as a concoction of the over-friendly cable guy from “The Cable Guy” mixed thoroughly through a Bullet blender with Ray Liotta’s fixated Officer Peter Davis in “Unlawful Entry” and out pours “The Intruder” with all the creepy niceties of a mania driven illness to a subconsciously dangerous idiosyncrasy set in today’s paradigms for a new generation of thrill seekers.

With a couple of exceptions, “The Intruder’s” cast doesn’t impress, especially with Michael Ealy who shutters a range of intensity and temperament as once showcased as the psychopathic Theo in Fox’s television hit, “The Following.” Ealy, who will be the lead star in the upcoming “Jacob’s Ladder” remake, designates a flat and removed performance for a rather more than ordinary husband with a checkered past with women who are not his wife. Opposite Ealy is “Saw V’s” Meagan Good as a brighter star amongst the relatively small key cast with a tighter grip on the wholesomely ingenuous Annie. Perhaps very similar to herself according to the behind-the-scenes feature accompanying the home video release, Annie’s humble positivity blooms the potential weight effect of Charlie Peck’s devious charisma that explodes to a head when Peck’s good guy mask has been removed. Like many reviews before this one, Dennis Quaid opens incredulous eyes as Charlie Peck. The then 64 year old actor, whose worked with screenwriter Loughery in the 1980’s as the star of “Dreamscape,” flaunts a muscular physique upon an inclusive depth and range of his character that really puts Quaid into a new light. “The Intruder” rounds out with Joseph Sikora (“Jack Reacher”), Alvina August (“Bad Times at the El Royale”), along with minor performances in a handful scenes or less from Erica Cerra (“Blade: Trinity”), Lili Sepe (“It Follows”), Lee Shorten (“In the End”), and “iZombie’s” Kurt Evans.

Getting through the first act without whiplash was nearly a struggle. With hardly any buildup through a speedy introduction of the Russell’s, who are the central focus of this film, one of “The Intruder’s” themes became nearly neutralized. Emotional triggers, the things and events that set us off or make us anxious, make up the very fiber of these characters, so importantly so, that their weaponized to divide and conquer the morality of their being. Annie’s emotionally deteriorating trigger is receiving a working late text from Scott because of his pre-martial affairs, verbally ripping into him when he returns home and reminding the circumstances of his last text of that nature and Scott’s traumatizing trigger stems from his youth when his brother was gunned down so every time he sees a gun, Scott’s visibly agitated and shaken. These coattail effects of these backdrop moments were implemented into the heart of the story, never emphasized initially as a flaw the character would overcome; instead, the triggers are thrown kind of haphazardly into the middle, jostled out indirectly or directly by Charlie Peck, and then revisited for the finale but doesn’t warrant a viewer appreciated response as anticipated. Peck’s trigger, of course, is losing the precious home to a relatively ungrateful couple and his trigger has been present since the start, making Charlie a more well-rounded character, even if an antagonistic one.

Screen Gems, a Sony Pictures sub-label, presents the Hidden Empire Film group production, “The Intruder,” onto DVD home video. The DVD is in an anamorphic widescreen presentation, a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, on MiniHawk Lenses digital camera as noted on IMDB. The aesthetic picture has virtually no issues, as typical digital recorded films go, but was taken aback by the lack of eloquence into cinematographer Daniel Pearl’s work. The man who began his career with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” turned more toward his forte in the music videos, patterning sleek speedy cars with some warm neon tinting into a delicate, woven tapestry that really should have focused on the cottage itself, as a calm before the storm character in the film, but the interior and partial exterior became the game plan for Pearl. There was a scene or two where thick mist envelops the house that forebodes a menacing factor much needed throughout. The English language Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound has ample qualities and will deliver range and depth as Charlie Peck moves through a creaky old house. Dialogue is clear and welcoming. Bonus features include an alternate ending, which to be honest was about the same, deleted and alternate scenes, a gag reel, cast and crew commentary, an interview style behind-the-scenes featurette. Dennis Quaid was destined for Charlie Peck, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, who shines as an absolute emphasizer on the “The Intruder’s” belaboring shock palette worthy of an effective modern horror-thriller available July 30th. Pre-order your copy below!