She Follows: A Haunting For His Own Good

Gio Randazzo’s She Follows, written with Miranda Rausch, emphasises that it is based on “some real sh*t”. While the substance of that point may be endlessly debated, what is worth paying attention to is that the film aspires to the kind of grief-haunting relationship that has made Mike Flanagan such hot commodity. 

Played by Randazzo, Jack starts seeing a woman in white around the same time that he has become avoidant with his girlfriend (Angelique Pereira). The film runs to fifteen minutes, and as such, there is no time for Jack to contemplate or question himself. The spectre is definitely there, and what’s more, she is not interested in being elusive either. Up close, she is Nercys, the girlfriend Jack is avoiding. The true face takes a few tries before it reveals itself, and in the meantime, visions of a dying Nercys has Jack scrambling to find safety with his brother (Michael Egues) and a friend (Alec Ludacka). Amidst the possibilities of horror during the night, the shared relationship between the men is a source of humour and gruff tenderness. After all, despite grumbling about it, they do spend the night on the sofa to keep Jack company (and stand outside the door when he needs to use the bathroom).  

The non-paranormal Nercys storyline is of the everyday variety. She is a voice on the phone requiring definite answers that Jack is unwilling or unable to provide. The friction of it presents itself in brief, interrupted conflicts from which Jack literally runs away. It would be comedic but there’s a woman in white coming for him. 

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the film is that Jack is not alone in the experience. His brother sees her too, and most interestingly, refrains from reacting. It makes for a compelling contrast against the total, fit-for-action-movies, disruption Jack faces. Right here are the seeds of a story that the film could have prodded, but the woman in white (we learn she is Emily, played by Cynthia Zitter, whose grief has kept her walking the earth for over a century) has very specific business to take care of with Jack and it simply cannot wait. 

There are a couple of jump scares, but Emily’s haunting echoes the approach of the film as a whole: no nonsense and straight to the point. Even the mystery of who she is and why she is here is not laboured too far. It is only that said point is so very painful and fear riddled; it gives Jack the conflict he needs to overcome. 

The aim of She Follows is to thread the past and the future along the shared line of regret and loss, to prevent the kind of mistakes now that would turn it into the kind of haunting past that keeps ghosts around. Don’t be a ghost, it seems to say, don’t set yourself up for a haunting. But do we learn the lesson? Does Jack heed the warning? 

Watch She Follows Horror Short Film Trailer