In 2015, David Robert Mitchell's It Follows released and immediately garnered impeccable responses from both fans and critics, yet never got a sequel and doesn't really need one. It Follows took the horrors of the daily life of teenagers and transformed it into an inescapable haunting. While there has been mention of a sequel happening—and even room to create one within the existing narrative—there's a few reasons why it hasn't been given a green light yet and possibly never will receive one.
Starring Maika Monroe as Jaime "Jay" Height, It Follows focuses on Jay shortly after she has sex with Hugh/Jeff Redmond (Jake Weary). When she wakes up in an abandoned warehouse, she is informed by her boyfriend that he has ed on a curse that can only be transferred through the act of having sex. Now that he has rid himself of its danger, Jay is forced into a situation where she must avoid the inexplicable ghost-like creature that will follow her until it can finally kill her. After having sex with Paul Bolduan (Keir Gilchrist), he seeks out a sex worker with the assumption that they will continue to it on for many years to come, but that may not be the case.
The ending of It Follows perfectly sets up a sequel, so why didn't they make one? The answer is rather simple if one considers the fact that the movie follows a very basic cycle where one person gets "it", gives it to another, that person dies, and then "it" comes back to the originator. It Follows works perfectly as a standalone movie, but the fact cannot be ignored that it could've also made an impressive franchise if approached correctly. At the same time, there were far too many risks when taking into consideration other teenage horror flick franchises and their pitfalls, which likely led to a sequel being kiboshed before it could ever get off the ground.
If It Follows had been given a sequel, the proper way to do one would've been to go to the root of the curse. It could've unpacked the origins of the strange, sexually transmitted infection in order to uncover a way to stop it altogether. While this would've been the best way to go about creating a sequel, that decision ran the risk of mirroring the long-running Final Destination franchise. Both movies have a similar structure in regard to their shared concept of the inescapability of death.
Even when indestructible, ghost-like sexually transmitted infection as a way of constructing its horrors. While STIs are present in the horror genre, with movies such as Contracted and Contracted 2, those are zombie flicks, and It Follows is more similar to works in the paranormal sub-genre.
Ultimately, if a sequel had been made, it's likely that it would've ended up exactly like the Final Destination franchise due to its cyclical nature. A proper sequel to It Follows would have to be attentive to the existing teenage horror franchises that have a similar structure in order to avoid becoming too predictable. Shortly after the movie was released, the studio was debating on creating a sequel about the origins of the curse, but, as of this writing, there has yet to be any word on its development. Even so, It Follows doesn't really need a sequel; the movie in and of itself is one of the most inventive and creative to come out of the 2010s, and will remain relevant for many years to come.
