Watching movies is about as relaxing of an activity that one can engage. Or is it? This poses an interesting question. How should one watch a movie? If movie watching is an aesthetic experience, then there are underlying rules for watching a movie. One should focus their attention on elements of a film such as: how the soundtrack blends with whats happening on the screen or how successful different colors in a scene evoke the appropriate emotional reaction. These are obvious elements of a film that even the most amateur viewer, such as myself, are able to identify. A viewer is more likely to recognize these elements if that viewer is paying attention to the movie. A distracted viewing of a film is surely not going to have the impact on a viewer that an active, even semi-active, viewer will have.
A subtle yet almost imperative faculty one should possess when watching film, especially one like “It Follows,” is that of patience. Patience is a lost art in the fast paced, sound bite, and twitter induced nausea culture that has unfolded in the last decade or so. Afraid of the implications of the loss of patience as a virtue, I began to contemplate those implications on film and viewership. This contemplation manifested itself during my viewing of “It Follows.”
This movie, of which I have posted a brief review with no spoilers, is a slow-paced, slow-developing, suspenseful movie that requires a complete level of patience and focus. There are no explosions, limited gore, no scream queens, and no dumbass decisions made by characters that do not reflect a shred of rationality -- which we are regularly exposed to by Hollywood films. With the Hollywood status quo as of late, there is no need for patience because everything is intense all of the time. “It Follows” deviates from the Hollywood formula and actually spends quite a bit of time building suspense.
During my viewing of "It Follows," I initially suffered from action withdraw. However, after some brief introspection, I became aware that I had a problem. I was not being patient and allowing a sufficient amount of time to pass for the movie to develop meaningful suspense and anticipation. Time is required to develop suspense within a plot which, hopefully, leads to an eventual climax. A viewer should have a high level of patience and be actively focused on the film in order to allow the film to work on their consciousness. “It Follows,” is arguably an example of a film that requires this level of patience and focus in order for the story-line to work on the viewers consciousness so that the viewer feels a sense of climax at the appropriate time.
There are a lot of reviews suggesting that slower-paced films, such as “It Follows,” are poor films because they are boring or not catchy which implies a fault in the film. However, I argue that while the film may have its faults, it is strongly correlated with a viewership not mentally equipped to watch it. A viewer who has their reserves of patience and focus tapped before a film like “It Follows” builds even a ounce of suspense has fallen victim to the nausea. A culture pregnant with people demanding unlimited attention and patience, ironically, have none to give. Unfortunately, this may be leading to a surplus of passive, distracted, inattentive people, which seemingly has implications on how movies develop the element of suspense.
Let me know what you think in the comment section.
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