Rising star Maika Monroe on her role in acclaimed horror movie It Follows

All you horror fans have no doubt been following the hype on It Follows quite carefully. The second feature film from director David Robert Mitchell, it's released in Cineworld from 27th February, and has generated considerable acclaim for its unsettling take on slasher movie conventions, as well as teenage sexual anxiety.

The film stars Maika Monroe as teenager Jay, whose seemingly innocent sexual encounter with Hugh (Jake Weary) soon turns to terror when she begins to be plagued by a spectral figure...

Drawing on the wellspring of classic John Carpenter movies like Halloween, Mitchell's film occupies the knowingly intelligent end of the horror movie spectrum and it also features a terrific performance from Monroe. Perhaps best known for her role alongside Dan Stevens in last year's blackly comic potboiler The Guest, the rising star says her love of horror movies drew her to the script.

"I remember when me and my friends had sleepovers, we would watch all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies", she tells The List. Not only that, Monroe says the darkness present in the character of Jay provided more weighty substance than the standard slasher flick.

"I felt that my character was in a very dark place for most of the movie, so on set I would keep headphones in my ears and stay distant", she explains. "I think she goes through a pretty interesting arc. In the beginning of the movie, I don’t think she thought of herself as a hero or someone who could survive such a horrific event."

Fingers crossed we'll be seeing a lot more of Maika in future. It Follows is released on 27th February.