The best horror films of the 21st century? You can’t go past It Follows

‘We share Jay’s fear that every person is a danger, never knowing if someone is who they appear to be’ … Maika Monroe in It Follows. Photograph: AA Film Archive/Alamy

The central idea of It Follows is simplicity itself: a creature stalks you slowly, relentlessly, with no obvious motive other than to “get” you. It feels like the basis of a playground game. And yet, combined with the deadly consequences, and executed to heart-racing perfection by writer and director David Robert Mitchell, It Follows is 100 minutes of heebie-jeebies.

Jay (Maika Monroe) goes on a seemingly pleasant date with her new boyfriend, Hugh (Jake Weary). But after they have sex, Jay discovers she is being stalked by a terrifying and homicidal entity. There are a set of rules that, if she can follow them, might just keep her alive.