Hi, my name is Gabe and in this video I'll be looking into It Follows and A Quiet Place.
I think we're in the midst of an incredible era for horror, with these two films leading the pack.
Not only that, but they are surprisingly complimentary, in a way I'll get into in this video.
Before I begin, you should know that spoilers are ahead.
Like major, ruin the film spoilers.
If you haven't seen these movies, watch them before watching this video.
On the surface, It Follows and A Quiet Place may not seem very similar.
Sure they're the same genre, but their universes are totally different:
It Follows being supernatural and in a civilized yet undefined time,
while A Quiet Place is realism set in a post-apocalyptic future.
Both films are also monster movies, and they do share a similarity in that each monster is unstoppable,
resulting in stories about evading, not destroying, them.
But the similarities end here, for the monsters themselves are practically opposite:
It Follows featuring one slow but smart invisible shapeshifter who always knows your location,
while A Quiet Place features multiple fast but dumb animals who must use their senses to find you.
But despite their differences, the monsters are what make these films so complimentary.
Actually, it's not the monsters themselves, but what the films are doing with them.
For beneath the surface of these films, the monsters aren't just monsters, they are much more.
One of the most powerful aspects of genre filmmaking, whether it be horror, sci-fi, crime, whatever,
is their ability to tackle subjects that would be taboo or boring if tackled directly.
Like how The Godfather is actually a critique of capitalism,
Your father wouldn't want to hear this! This is business, not personal!
They shot my father! It's business, your ass.
Even the shooting of your father was business, not personal Sonny.
District 9 is about modern day immigration and xenophobia,
We didn't have a plan. There was a million of them.
Carrie is a premonition on school shootings, and so on.
Tackle these topics directly and people won't want to watch them,
but who doesn't want to see a great gangster, alien, or high school horror film?
Monster movies are the same, with the monster being a classic way to create deeper meaning in storytelling.
Examples include: the Babadook representing depression,
Alien and the fear of female sexual reproduction,
Aaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!
Ah! God!
zombies satirizing braindead consumer citizens, the list goes on and on.
The fact that the mobile deceased retained their primal instincts make them ideal recruitment
for the service industry.
It Follows and A Quiet Place do the same thing, and it is in this aspect that they are so complimentary.
First, let's look at A Quiet Place.
Every aspect of this film revolves around the parent/child relationship, specifically:
the parent's duty to protect their kids and to teach them how to live, to survive,
to find joy and meaning and love in their life.
None of this is questioned in the film; it is so fundamental that it is presented as a given,
so fundamental that when the parents fail to protect their youngest,
they respond by creating another, giving themselves a second chance.
This despite them living in a world where babies and childbirth all but guarantee their death.
The monsters of course are the reason for this; they are why the world is so dangerous
and are the antagonists to everything parents must do for their kids.
The monsters are why strangers can't be relied on,
Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
why moments of joy are fleeting and must be secretive,
♪♪ ...lets go out... ♪♪
why everyone must have contingencies and plans and be ready for everything.
The monsters are also the cause of all the emotional and psychological conflict in this story,
Do you blame her... for what happened?
of which there is plenty.
As such, in A Quiet Place, the monsters represent the dangers and difficulties of parenting,
the fact that, at any moment, from anywhere, something terrible can happen to your kids.
This is what the kids fear in the film,
but the adults' fear is even deeper.
They actually don't fear the monsters, standing up to them twice, not even flinching either time.
Instead, the parents fear failing to protect their kids.
They did it once in the beginning, and their fear is failing as parents again.
Who are we... if we can't protect them?
This is really deep stuff, and is a lot of material for one ninety-minute film to cover.
Because of this, there is one aspect of the parent/child relationship that A Quiet Place doesn't get to:
how kids become adults and take on the other side of the relationship.
The film does move towards this: Regan going from reckless child to supportive fighter,
Marcus going from being taken care of by mom to taking care of his brother,
and they even mention it here.
Maybe if the film were longer it could have gotten there completely,
maybe it's what the sequel will be about, but as it now stands,
when A Quiet Place ends, despite the kids' growth,
they are still being protected by their parents, by mom and her shotgun and all the contraptions dad made.
It is this aspect: how one transitions from a kid who needs protecting to an adult who protects,
that is exactly what It Follows is about.
In It Follows, kids are restricted to the sidelines and parents are practically non-existent,
the film instead focusing on young adults, on characters growing from children to adulthood.
Just listen to every conversation they have,
We used to daydream about being old enough to go on dates, and drive around with friends in their cars...
it's always about growing up: about milestones,
That's where I had my first beer.
first experiences,
Do you remember the time that we found those porno magazines?
and other aspects of becoming an adult.
I had to ask permission to go to the state fair with my best friend and her parents
only because it was a few blocks past the border.
My mom said the same thing.
The monster also fits this dynamic, it revolving around sex, which is how children are created
and is also a major rite of passage.
And the monster's most defining characteristics: its invisibility and slow following, also fit this dynamic.
For in It Follows, the monster represents death, and how, whether we can see it or not,
death is always coming for us.
As a child, we may know this, but we don't experience it because our parents are protecting us.
Teenagers also don't experience this, for teenagers are known for their feelings of invincibility,
like death will never get them, or at least is way off in the distance.
Eventually though, you do understand that death is real,
that one day it will get you and there is nothing you can do.
You can't run, can't stop it, can't pass it on or hide behind your parents.
The only thing you can do is accept it, and live life the best you can.
This is what Jay and Paul do, the film ending with them acknowledging their fate,
death always following and there's nothing they can do about it.
Also, notice how they're walking hand in hand, and dressed the same?
To me this clearly represents marriage, two adults coming together to support each other,
till death do they part.
Compare this with Hugh, who passes death off and never grows up,
We shouldn't even be in the same place. I'm sorry, you guys need to get the fuck out of here.
Hey! Watch it.
or Greg, who thinks death doesn't apply to him.
And then there's Yara, a seemingly superfluous but actually critically important character in this movie.
For Yara is by far the most immature of the group,
Hey, I have an idea.
What?
[fart]
It got away.
and because of this, death barely affects her.
Until it does
Yara!
and she accepts it, and starts on her own journey to adulthood.
And the most terrible agony may not be in the wounds themselves, but in knowing for certain
that within an hour, that within ten minutes, that within half a minute, now, at this very instant,
your soul will leave your body and you will no longer be a person.
And that this is certain: the worst thing is that it is certain.
There's a cycle here: kids learning about life and protected from death grow up by accepting
that life inevitability ends in death, then starve off death the only way one can:
by having kids and passing on their knowledge and protection to them.
Then those kids grow up and become adults who have kids, and those kids grow up
and the cycle continues, ad infinitum.
It's the entire existence of the human species, captured succinctly in two films:
A Quiet Place, It Follows, A Quiet Place;
A Quiet Place, It Follows, A Quiet Place; on and on, until the end.
This is quite an achievement, especially for films that on the surface seem like two simple horror movies.
But It Follows and A Quiet Place aren't just horror movies, they're so much more:
about life, the human condition, our survival as a species.
Ggggaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
These are deep subjects for any film to tackle, but for genre films?
For films that are fun and suspenseful and scary?
That they're fun and scary makes them good, that they're so deep and powerful?
That's what makes them great films.