‘It Follows’: Maika Monroe Teases Possible Clamshell E-Reader Merch For Upcoming Sequel
If you haven’t had the chance yet, be certain to check out our July Cover Story featuring an interview with Longlegs star Maika Monroe. The feature is the first in a new series, and Josh Korngut knocks it out of the park in his conversation with Monroe, who at this point is basically horror royalty, right? The behind-the-scenes insights have me more excited for Longlegs, but there was one snippet of the conversation that really caught my attention—the clamshell e-reader from It Follows.
It Follows remains one of the century’s most distinctly terrifying movies in large part because director David Robert Mitchell adeptly cultivates a kind of illogical dreamscape, the cinematic equivalent of a hypnagogic hallucination. It’s not as easy as it looks, and It Follows is consequently terrifying because the atmosphere is both grounded and frighteningly hypnotic. The seashell e-reader perhaps conceptualizes that best because, well, what is it?
Mitchell wisely never explains that in It Follows, though he did clarify in post-release interviews.
Speaking with the AV Club, Mitchell noted,
“So I wanted modern things, but if you show a specific smartphone now, it dates it. It’s too real for the movie. It would bother me anyway. So we made one up. And all of that is really just to create the effect of a dream—to place it outside of time, and to make people wonder about where they are.”
Reasonable explanation or not, horror fans have been (get ready) clamoring for a clam phone of their own. In the July Cover issue, Korngut asked Monroe about the device and whether fans could expect to see it again in the sequel, They Follow. “I’m hoping that we can bring a slightly more advanced shell phone to the sequel,” Monroe answered, adding, “Maybe I’ll talk to David about that. Right. Maybe it can be something a little more upgraded… I’ll have a little chat with them about that.”
Monroe spotlighted NEON’s sensational marketing, especially with Longlegs, and how They Follow might endeavor to do something similar. Is she hinting at the possibility of some kind of clamshell e-reader marketing campaign? Will be finally be able to buy our own readers in the form of official merch? A boy can dream.
Until then, don’t forget to catch Longlegs on July 12, and keep an eye on Dread Central for all the latest on They Follow.
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