it follows

Is it important that the antagonist must die in the climax of a horror movie?

Most of us who like horror films, know very well that it doesn’t happen. Antagonists of horror films (demons-ghosts-aliens-serial killers) die in the end of the films but actually they don’t die. As in the last scene, suddenly a hand will come out from the grave (Carrie), or a ghost will come out from the lake (Friday the 13th), or the dead body of the antagonist will strangely disappear (Halloween). All of this happens to leave some sort of scope for a sequel of the film.

Forwarding this invincible antagonist theory in recently release horror film It Follows, director Robert David Mitchell has added something very fresh. Generally the villain is defeated in the horror film by a brave and fearless protagonist, who has a plan, which no one else could conceive. But It Follows shows a bizarre ending where the antagonist doesn’t die because of the stupidity of the protagonists. The film follows the story of a teenage girl who after a physical relation with a boy begins to feel strange happenings around. She along with her friends decides to delve into this and they actually do find the reason behind this.

In the unconventional finale (we don’t want to be spoilers), the bunch of kids derive a plan, which proves to be too stupid and immature in front of the powerful enemy. Now after watching the film, which is a highly acclaimed horror film of 2015 the opinions are divided on this issue. Some took this as a refreshing idea and others found it so irritating that they felt completely out of sync with the movie. Now it also reminds me of the famous cartoon character Scooby Doo, where our stupid dog Scooby is always trying to fight evil without any courage or plan.

carrie final scare

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