Production has wrapped on They Follow, the sequel to 2014’s It Follows that horror fans have waited the better part of a decade for. Writer-director David Robert Mitchell confirmed this week that principal photography, shot in Los Angeles, is complete.
Maika Monroe returns as Jay, whose entanglement with a shape-shifting, sexually transmitted curse turned the original into a modern classic and a fixture of horror studies syllabi. The new film reportedly picks up roughly a decade later, though Neon and producing partner Good Fear Content have kept most plot details sealed. Joining Monroe are Naomi Ackie and Jackie Earle Haley in previously undisclosed roles, alongside Justine Lupe, Michael Gandolfini and Melora Walters.
Mitchell, who has not directed a feature since 2018’s Under the Silver Lake, described the script as “its own unique thing, while still being very much connected to the first film.” He also confirmed that Disasterpeace, whose pulsing synth score helped define the original’s sense of dread, returns to compose again, adding he “wouldn’t want to do a sequel without him.” Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis and editor Julio C. Perez IV, both back from the first film, round out the returning crew.
“It’s very dark, we’re pushing the boundaries on this one for sure.”
Monroe has hinted at a darker turn for the follow-up, telling press earlier this year that “it’s very dark, we’re pushing the boundaries on this one for sure,” though she offered no specifics. Given that the original’s premise, an unkillable curse passed hand to hand until someone else takes it, already ranks among modern horror’s bleakest ideas, that is a considerable promise.
No release date has been confirmed. Trade reports have floated a possible 2027 debut, which would put it roughly in line with the festival run that turned It Follows into a Cannes discovery back in 2014, though nothing is official yet.
