Plot Explained Spoilers guaranteed!
Plot Explained

Browse by genre

It Follows (2015) movie poster

Plot Summary

It Follows (2015) Plot Summary & Ending Explained

Release, runtime and language
2015 · 100 min · English
JustWatch #196 434
Directed by
David Robert Mitchell
Starring
Olivia Luccardi, Maika Monroe, Jake Weary, Bailey Spry, Daniel Zovatto, Keir Gilchrist

As autumn arrives, 19-year-old Jay finds her life irrevocably changed by a strange and terrifying curse. After a brief encounter, she becomes the target of an unseen entity, relentlessly pursuing her with chilling whispers and a palpable sense of dread. With the help of her friends, Jay desperately seeks to understand the origin of the curse and find a way to stop the persistent threat, struggling to survive the escalating danger that looms ever closer.

On this page (6)
  1. 1 Where to watch
  2. 2 What happens: full plot
  3. 3 Plot questions answered
  4. 4 How it ends
  5. 5 Movie threads
  6. 6 Every angle

Where to watch

Where to Watch It Follows (2015)

Where can you watch It Follows? Stream, rent or buy it in the US, including on Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus and Philo: current JustWatch availability with up-to-date prices.

Streaming availability powered by JustWatch

Full plot summary · contains spoilers

What Happens in It Follows: Full Plot Summary

The whole story of It Follows (2015) explained, from the opening scene to the final frame: every key event, every twist and what it all adds up to. Read it as a quick recap before the sequel, to check a scene you missed, or to finally understand what really happened.

Annie Marshall bursts out of her home, seemingly on the run, yet she insists she doesn't need assistance from those nearby. She hops into her car and speeds away. That evening, she finds herself alone on a beach, where she makes a heartfelt call to her parents, expressing her love for them. Tragically, the next morning reveals her brutalized body lying on the sand.

Meanwhile, carefree university student Jay Height attends a movie with her boyfriend, Hugh. During the film, Hugh's attention is drawn to a girl dressed in yellow, but Jay insists she can't see her. Feeling uneasy, Hugh suggests leaving. Later, in his car, Hugh and Jay have their first sexual encounter, but things quickly take a dark turn when Hugh uses chloroform to incapacitate her. When Jay regains consciousness, she finds herself bound to a wheelchair. Hugh reveals shocking news: he has transmitted a sinister curse to her through their intimacy—an invisible entity will now pursue her, one that they alone can see.

This entity moves at a slow pace, but it has an uncanny ability to know Jay's location at all times. If it manages to catch up to her, Jay's life will be forfeit and it will then go after the one who passed it to her. To illustrate the reality of the threat, Hugh waits until a naked woman slowly approaches them, urging Jay to act quickly and sleep with someone else to pass on the curse. He then drives her home, disappearing into the night. The following day, the police find both the mysterious woman and Hugh—whose real name is revealed to be Jeff Redmond—missing.

Back at school, Jay is unsettled when she spots an old woman approaching her, a figure invisible to everyone else around. That night, Jay's sister Kelly, along with their friends Paul and Yara, gathers at her home. Suddenly, someone throws a rock through a window; Paul looks around but finds nothing. Later, Jay is alarmed to see a ragged, half-clothed woman coming toward her and rushes upstairs to alert her friends, who can't see the danger. Jay's fear escalates when an unsettling tall man enters her bedroom, prompting her to escape on a bicycle.

With help from their neighbor Greg, the group uncovers the truth about Hugh's identity. Jeff explains that he was marked by the entity after a one-night stand and emphasizes the need for Jay to pass it on to someone else for her safety. He advises her to drive away to give herself time to formulate a plan. Greg takes Jay, Kelly, Yara, and Paul to his family’s lake house for some respite. The next day, while they enjoy the lakefront, the entity makes its presence known when it takes on Yara’s form and attacks Jay from behind. Fleeing in Greg's car, she crashes and wakes up in a hospital with an arm injury. In a desperate move to gain some time from the entity, Jay ends up sleeping with Greg in the hospital.

Despite Jay's insistence on the entity’s existence, Greg dismisses her fears. Soon after, Jay spots the entity disguised as Greg and panics, rushing into his house where she unexpectedly encounters the entity taking on the grotesque appearance of Greg's mother, leading to a tragic outcome. After that harrowing event, Jay finds herself isolated outdoors, contemplating her situation.

On the beach, she spots three young men on a boat, and in a moment of impulsive relaxation, she wades into the water. Back at home, Paul, willing to confront the entity’s threat, proposes that Jay pass it on to him. She declines, choosing self-preservation over passing the burden.

The friends coordinate one last attempt to defeat the entity by luring it into a swimming pool, intending to electrocute it. While waiting in the pool, Jay faces a horrific apparition when the entity appears as her father. Instead of entering the water, it hurls electrical devices at her, prompting chaos as Paul tries to defend her by firing at the invisible threat. In the struggle, Paul accidentally injures Yara but manages to shoot the entity multiple times, causing it to sink into the pool. Jay narrowly escapes as it pulls her down, only to find herself watching in horror as the pool fills with blood.

Later, back at Jay's house, she shares a moment of vulnerability with Paul, leading to intimacy between them. After a drive through town, where they pass sex workers, Yara recovers in the hospital. As the narrative unfolds, Jay and Paul walk down the street, hand in hand, only to have a figure lurking ominously behind them, hinting that the nightmare may not yet be over.

Last updated: November 16, 2024 at 12:30

Was this helpful?

Plot questions answered

It Follows Plot Explained: Your Questions Answered

The questions people ask most about It Follows (2015): what happens in the confusing scenes, why the characters do what they do, the twists, hidden details and what the ending means. Each answer contains spoilers.

Q1

How does the curse spread in It Follows?

The curse is transmitted exclusively through sexual intercourse. When someone has sex with an infected person, the curse passes to them, and the entity stops pursuing the previous carrier. This is why Hugh deliberately infected Jay, once he passed the curse to her, the entity no longer hunted him and instead began pursuing Jay.

  • curse transmission
  • sexual intimacy
  • how it spreads
  • hugh infects jay
Q2

Why did Hugh give Jay the curse?

Hugh was already infected and had been stalked by the entity for months. By passing the curse to Jay through their sexual encounter, he transferred the entity's pursuit to her, giving himself freedom from the constant threat. He explained this to Jay by showing her the woman who had originally infected him, demonstrating that passing the curse is the only way to survive.

  • hugh motive
  • jeff redmond
  • why he did it
  • passing the curse
Q3

What is the entity in It Follows?

The entity is an invisible, supernatural being that only infected people can see. It takes various forms, often appearing as people the victim knows or strangers, and walks slowly but never stops. It can appear anywhere and knows the victim's exact location at all times. If it catches the victim, it kills them, then pursues the person who originally passed the curse.

  • the entity
  • monster
  • supernatural
  • what is it
Q4

Why does the entity take different forms?

The entity manifests as different people, sometimes strangers, sometimes people the victim knows, like Yara at the lake or Jay's father at the pool. This ability to shapeshift makes it more psychologically terrifying and harder to recognize as a threat. It often uses forms that would not raise suspicion, allowing it to get close to victims.

  • shapeshifting
  • forms it takes
  • appearance
  • yara
  • fake people
Q5

Does the entity really follow them at the end?

The final scene shows Jay and Paul walking down the street holding hands, with a figure walking slowly behind them. This strongly implies the entity is still pursuing Jay, meaning she never successfully passed the curse to Paul, she chose not to pass it to him when he offered. The ambiguous ending leaves the threat unresolved.

  • ending
  • final scene
  • final shot
  • ambiguous ending
  • figure following
Q6

What happens to Greg's mother?

After Jay sleeps with Greg at the hospital to buy time, she later sees the entity disguised as Greg and panics, rushing into his house. Inside, she encounters the entity taking on the grotesque form of Greg's mother, which results in Greg's death. This demonstrates how the entity uses the identities of loved ones to get close to victims.

  • greg mother death
  • killed
  • house scene
Q7

Why can't Jay just run away from the entity?

The entity always knows the victim's location regardless of distance. Jay cannot escape by moving to a different city or hiding somewhere remote. The only survival method is passing the curse to someone else through sex, which temporarily stops the entity's pursuit. This makes the threat inescapable and creates the film's oppressive tone.

  • escape
  • running away
  • can't escape
  • location tracking
Q8

Why does Jay sleep with Greg?

Jay sleeps with Greg in the hospital as a desperate attempt to pass the curse to him and buy herself time from the entity. She hopes that by transferring the curse, she will be free from pursuit, at least temporarily. This reflects the film's central theme that survival comes at the cost of involving others.

  • hospital scene
  • passing curse
  • greg
  • desperation
Q9

What happens if the entity catches you?

If the entity catches its victim, it kills them brutally. After killing the current victim, it then pursues the person who originally passed the curse to them, creating a chain of victims. This is demonstrated when Annie is killed, and then the entity begins pursuing Hugh, who had slept with her.

  • death
  • what happens if caught
  • killing
  • consequence
Q10

What happens in the pool scene?

Jay and her friends attempt to electrocute the entity by luring it into a swimming pool. The entity appears as Jay's father but refuses to enter the water. Instead, it throws electrical devices at her. Paul shoots the entity multiple times, causing it to sink into the pool, but it drags Jay underwater and the pool fills with blood before it disappears. The attack fails to kill it.

  • pool scene
  • electrocution
  • father form
  • paulo shoots

Ending explained

What Happens at the End of It Follows?

How It Follows (2015) ends, in short: the final scene, the last twist and what it means for the characters. The full ending explained, with every spoiler, lives on its own page.

Read the full ending explained

The ending of It Follows leaves viewers with a strong sense of ambiguity and lingering dread. After a tense plan to trap and kill the entity at a swimming pool, Jay and her friends believe they might have succeeded when the creature is shot and seemingly vanquished. Yet, the film's final scenes cast doubt on this victory. The creature’s form disappears after being shot, but the shadow of a figure still approaches them from behind, and earlier in the film, the creature was shown to be an intelligent being capable of deception and strategic behavior. The story makes it clear that the entity is not just a ghost or a spirit but a physical, relentless force that can take many forms, which adds to the mystery of whether it can truly be killed.

Even days after Greg’s death—and after the attempt to end it—the entity’s reappearance remains possible, suggesting that passing the curse to others may not guarantee safety or even a permanent escape. The characters' casual sex and passing of the curse imply a cycle where the entity can hop from one person to another, perpetuating infection and terror. The final shot, with Jay and Paul holding hands as a shadowy figure silently approaches, hints that the threat persists, and they remain caught in an endless chase. The open-ended nature invites viewers to interpret whether the monster is truly defeated or merely momentarily stopped, with some believing that the creature is still out there, waiting. The film’s lingering ambiguity underscores its themes of inevitable fate, the unpredictability of death, and the inescapable fear that no matter what, the threat of the entity—and perhaps death itself—is always nearby, shaping the horror’s lasting impact.

It Follows ending explained in full

Movie threads

More Movies Like It Follows, by Mood & Story

Curated lists built around what makes It Follows tick: the same mood, the same kind of story or the same emotional payoff. Each list explains why these movies belong together.

Supernatural Stalking Horror like in It Follows

Stories where an inescapable supernatural entity relentlessly stalks its victims. If you enjoyed the relentless dread of It Follows, this collection features movies with similar supernatural stalkers. These films focus on a slow, constant threat that creates intense paranoia, forcing characters into a desperate fight for survival against an invisible, patient enemy.

  • dread-filled
  • paranoid
  • unsettling
  • oppressive
  • anxious
  • claustrophobic
  • Tone: tense, paranoid, bleak
  • Pacing: steady, deliberate
Why these movies?

The story pattern: Narratives in this thread typically follow a straightforward survival structure. After an initial transgression or encounter, a character becomes the target of a persistent supernatural entity. The plot revolves around their attempts to understand the rules of the threat and find a way to escape, often with ambiguous or bleak results.

Why they belong together: Movies are grouped here for their shared core premise: a patient, inescapable supernatural stalker. They create a similar viewing experience defined by high tension, psychological dread, and a feeling of vulnerability that lingers long after the credits roll.

Metaphorical Horror with Heavy Themes like in It Follows

Films where horror manifests from psychological fears and societal anxieties. For viewers who appreciated the metaphorical weight of It Follows, this section highlights horror films that use their supernatural elements to explore heavy themes. These movies are tense, emotionally heavy, and leave a lasting impression by tapping into deep-seated anxieties.

  • psychological
  • unsettling
  • melancholic
  • oppressive
  • thought-provoking
  • dread-filled
  • Tone: tense, melancholic, unsettling
  • Pacing: steady, atmospheric
Why these movies?

The story pattern: The narrative journey in these films is often internal. Characters grapple with a horror that symbolizes a larger issue, making their struggle both literal and allegorical. The plot serves to explore the psychological impact of the threat, with a focus on mood and thematic resonance over complex plotting.

Why they belong together: These films are united by their use of horror as a vehicle for exploring weighty psychological and societal themes. They share a similar tone of earnest seriousness, a steady pace that builds unease, and an ending that often provides more thematic resolution than narrative closure.

Every angle

It Follows (2015) Explained: Plot, Ending, Timeline & Characters

Everything about It Follows in one place: what happens in the plot summary, the timeline in chronological order, the characters and meaning, the ending explained and a spoiler-free summary. What's After the Movie adds the cast, box office and post-credit scenes.

Coming soon on iOS and Android

The Plot Explained Movie Summary App

Plot summaries, endings explained and timelines on your phone. Catch up on any movie in minutes, save your favorites and never miss a twist again.

Be the first to know when we launch. Your email stays private, always.

Learn more about the app