With the spooky season in full flow (happy Halloween!), we can probably expect quite a bit of news related to the horror genre over the next few days.
Last night, we got word that a sequel to 2014's It Follows, which is widely viewed as one of the scariest movies of the past decade, is officially in the works. Titled They Follow, THR has confirmed that director David Robert Mitchell and star Maika Monroe are set to return.
Plot details are still under wraps, but one possible outline that was reportedly floated a few years ago would focus on the unnamed Entity's victims turning the tables on their shape-shifting pursuer and tracing the origin of the curse.
The original had an unusual, but rather terrifying premise, and dealt with a sexually-transmitted curse which could only be passed on to someone else via intercourse. Once afflicted, the person would be followed by phantoms only they could see, and if they were caught before they had a chance to pass it to someone else, they'd be killed in some pretty horrific ways.
Mitchell conceived the idea for the film while reflecting on recurring dreams he had in his youth about being followed.
"I didn't use those images for the film, but the basic idea and the feeling I used. From what I understand, it's an anxiety dream. Whatever I was going through at that time, my parents divorced when I was around that age, so I imagine it was something to do with that."
Neon is co-producing the sequel along with Good Fear Content. Mitchell will produce with Jake Weiner and Chris Bender of Good Fear, with the first film's producers David Kaplan, Erik Rommesmo, Rebecca Green and Laura Smith also expected to return.
No release date has been announced, but the project is set to shoot at some point next year.
"After carefree teenager Jay (Maika Monroe) sleeps with her new boyfriend, Hugh (Jake Weary), for the first time, she learns that she is the latest recipient of a fatal curse that is passed from victim to victim via sexual intercourse. Death, Jay learns, will creep inexorably toward her as either a friend or a stranger. Jay's friends don't believe her seemingly paranoid ravings, until they too begin to see the phantom assassins and band together to help her flee or defend herself."
It Follows also stars Keir Gilchrist as Paul Bolduan, a friend of Jay, Kelly, and Yara; Olivia Luccardi as Yara Davis, Kelly's friend; Lili Sepe as Kelly Height, Jaime's sister; Daniel Zovatto as Greg Hannigan, Jay and Kelly's neighbor; Jake Weary as Hugh / Jeff Redmond, Jaime's former boyfriend and a target of the entity; Bailey Spry as Annie Marshall, one of the entity's victims; Debbie Williams as Mrs. Height, Jaime and Kelly's mother and Ruby Harris as Mrs. Redmond, Jeff's mother.