Dorastanie w Detroit jest straszne. Krajobraz amerykańskiego koszmaru w „Coś za mną chodzi”
Growing Up in Detroit Is Dreadful. An American Nightmare Landscape in “It Follows”

Author(s): Karolina Kostyra
Subject(s): Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: David Robert Mitchell; landscape of Detroit in cinema; space in horror films
Summary/Abstract: Detroit has been recently dubbed “the new city of American horror.” The landscape of abandoned, derelict industrial buildings and desolate streets was already utilised in such landmark horror‐genre film productions as: Lost River (2014), Don’t Breath (2016), or Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). In David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows (2014) urban spaces of Detroit are set in contrast with the city’s suburban areas. The latter sphere is, according to the words of teenage characters’ parents – friendly, as opposed to the dangerous city centre. However, the borders between both the worlds become blurred as a result of curse placed on the said teenagers. Dread apparitions emerge out of the neat alleys of suburbia. The well‐trimmed lawns and shapely houses induce anxiety even when no one is looming on the horizon. The director, by arranging the sphere of horror that way, takes advantage of American horror tradition of the 1970s and 1980s, in particular referring to the depiction of suburbia in John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). Yet, whereas in majority of horror films landscape remains merely a more or less conspicuous backdrop, in It Follows it emphatically comes to the fore. The visual code used by Mitchell refers to the post‐crisis landscape of America, where de‐industrialised setting of “Rust Belt” appears to yield quite literal monsters.

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