It Follows and Rape Culture: Critical Response as Disavowal

ABSTRACT

In 2014, the independent horror film It Follows debuted, garnering rave reviews from those who deemed the film subversive. In our view, this subversive potential could be generated from the ways the film explicitly references and counters rape culture. Yet so many critical responses to this film fail to even acknowledge that It Follows portrays or addresses sexual violence. We argue that while the film offers ample opportunity for the audience to grapple with the horrors of sexual violence, critical responses suggest that audiences do not overcome the entrenched violence of rape culture. Taking a novel path, this article first details the elements of the film that attempt to overturn horror film conventions and then analyzes critical responses to It Follows. We contend that critics use a variety of tactics to disavow rape in this film and thereby indicate the limits of filmic subversion.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical response
• film
• horror
• rape
• subversion

Notes

Following Foucault and others, we conceive of ontology as an expression of our reality that is both inherently politicized and constructed through social and political practices. See Oksala 15–17.