Animeranku

Anime. Manga News & Features

They Follow: How The Horror Sequel Can Expand The Lore Of It Follows

Highlights

  • “They Follow,” the upcoming sequel to “It Follows,” has the potential to expand on the lore of the supernatural entity and its curse.
  • The unknown nature of the entity in the original film created a sense of fear, and “They Follow” must strike a balance between expanding the lore while keeping some aspects mysterious.
  • Fans of the original movie hope that “They Follow” will be a smart and inventive sequel that expands on the lore without revealing too much, avoiding becoming a cash-grab horror franchise.



It Follows was a cult horror classic upon its release in 2014, and there have been rumors circulating for years to suggest a sequel may be on the way. It was finally officially confirmed last month that an It Follows sequel is indeed on the way very soon, with Maika Monroe confirmed to return in the lead role.

The It Follows sequel will be titled, They Follow, which hints at what might be in store for the characters in the upcoming sequel. In the first movie, Jay Height was a carefree teenager who discovers she’s being stalked by a supernatural entity. The fatal curse passes from victim to victim via sexual intercourse. When her friends start being killed off, Jay must do her best to pass the curse on before it hunts her down.

RELATED: What Makes It Follows Such A Popular And Enduring Horror Movie?

It Follows was one of the most original horror movies of recent times, and really played on the iconic horror movie trope where sex equals death, as sexually promiscuous teens are usually the ones to be killed off, especially in slasher movies, leaving virgins to live to fight another day. This trope has been played around with and deconstructed, most notably in Scream, where the final girl, Sidney Prescott survives after breaking the horror rules surrounding sexual activity. Fans of It Follows will be hoping its sequel, They Follow, will expand on the lore set out in the original movie, and become an instant classic like its predecessor.


How does It Follows End?

images/news/2023/11/12/they-follow-horror-sequel-expand-lore-it-follows_1.jpg

Director

David Robert Mitchell

Writer

David Robert Mitchell

Cast

Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe, Bailey Spry.

Release Date

2014

Runtime

1 hour 40 minutes

Box Office (Worldwide)

$21,947,454

Rotten Tomatoes Score

95%

It Follows concludes with perfect pace and tension, as the group enacts a last ditch attempt to kill the supernatural entity following Jay and her friends, the group comes up with an ambitious plan to break into an indoor public pool after it has closed, and they plug loads of electrical appliances including toasters, hair dryers, televisions and much more all around the edge of the pool. Jay then swims into the center of the swimming pool and waits patiently for the monster to rear its ugly non-existent head.

Things don’t go exactly according to plan when the entity arrives, as it starts picking up the electrical devices and throwing them at Jay in the pool. Jay struggles to keep her head above the water when her friends intervene to save her. Paul starts shooting at where he thinks ‘IT’ is, but he ends up hitting Yara in the leg. Kelly throws a sheet over the invisible monster, which gives Paul a better target to shoot at, hitting it in the head. The terrifying entity then falls into the water, and when Jay tries to swim her way out of the pool, she is caught by it and is held underwater. Paul manages to shoot it again and, thankfully, it stays dead this time.

It Follows is available to stream on Netflix

The movie ends with Jay and Paul going home and having sex. Afterward, Paul drives through the city, seemingly looking to hire a sex worker. In the very final scene, the two teenagers walk down the road together while a figure in the distance slowly approaches them from behind.

How They Follow can expand on the lore?

images/news/2023/11/12/they-follow-horror-sequel-expand-lore-it-follows_2.jpg

The Entity in It Follows is an unknown curse that is left extremely vague, meaning there is plenty more to expand on the lore of the creature in the It Follows sequel, They Follow, which is due to start filming in 2024. All that’s known in the first movie is that it passes through sexual intercourse, and then follows this person until they are dead.

It could look like someone you know or it could be a stranger in a crowd. Whatever helps it get close to you.

There is no time frame for when the victim will die, but once they are dead, it goes down a line in order of who infected the most recent victim. The audience doesn’t know how long the line is as the movie doesn’t explain it. In the It Follows sequel, there is a potential to expand on the rules of the entity and how it came to originally take form and hunt down promiscuous teens.

She can do the same thing I did. It should be easier for her, she is a girl. Any guy would be with you. Just sleep with someone else and tell him to do the same thing. Maybe it will never come back.

However, the reason It Follows works is that the unknown is a lot scarier than the alternative. They Follow must strike a fine line between expanding the lore of the original movie, while keeping the audience a little bit in the dark about exactly what is going on. Nobody wants to see this classic cult horror movie turned into a cash cow for studios trying to find the next big horror franchise. The It Follows sequel needs to be a smart and inventive sequel which cleverly expands on the lore of the original movie without revealing too much of the Entity’s hidden motives.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *