There’s a lot of dread associated with sex when you’re a teenager. Your body is changing, you’re experiencing urges for the first time, there’s and cultural and peer pressure to start experimenting. Meanwhile, the threat of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases looms heavy over every thought. If these feelings were externalized, what physical manifestation would they take?

That’s the question that writer/director David Robert Mitchell answers in the novel new horror picture “It Follows,” now at Liberty Hall. The “it” of the title is a curse passed on through sexual intercourse, and it takes a different human form each time you see it. It creeps — slowly, surely. And it doesn’t stop until you’re dead or you have sex with another person. How’s that for turning 1980s AIDS panic on its head?

Speaking of the 1980s, “It Follows” is set in a time period that isn’t exactly named, but Rich Vreeland’s synth-heavy soundtrack sounds like a throwback to John Carpenter’s most fruitful decade, while the cars and houses that populate the film are at least that old. Meanwhile, however, the teenagers use nondescript mobile devices. The result paints a mythic picture of teenage disquietude that can be relatable across generations.

Maika Monroe, who was so good in last year’s underrated throwback thriller “The Guest,” plays Jay, the new target of this unrelenting force. Her mysterious boyfriend from another part of town (Jake Weary) explains the curse to her, but only after tying her to a chair.

“I want to you to see it,” he says. The problem is that she’s the only one who can see it. This means Mitchell has free reign to play with our and Jay’s perspectives. Is the lumbering figure in the background of any given shot a real threat or is it just a person walking slowly?

Cinematographer Michael Gioulakis also employs some pretty sophisticated tracking shots to immerse the viewer in the perpetual anxiety of its characters. There are several 360-degree shots that increase dread with each passing rotation, point-of-view angles that ramp up the voyeurism, and the director’s penchant for long takes keeps the audience on edge, wondering what’s just outside the frame.

In the “Twilight” series, the fear of teenage sex manifested itself as a supernatural soap opera where the young girl had her pick of hot boyfriends. Which dangerous creature should she trust: the vampire or the werewolf?

“It Follows” gives its teenagers no such choice. The only control they have in the situation is to pass on the curse — and increase their sexual guilt tenfold. It’s a brilliantly clean metaphor, not just for sexual nervousness, but also the transience of youth.

“It Follows” is rated R for “disturbing violent and sexual content including graphic nudity and language.” It should be noted that the nudity is decidedly not sexy, but rather just kind of unnerving in context.

Local film gets distribution, free screening

There’s a free screening of KU professor and local filmmaker Kevin Wilmott’s “Destination Planet Negro” at the Lawrence Public Library on April 2. The satirical comedy, newly distributed by New York-based Candy Factory Films, made its New York City debut last Saturday at the SR Socially Relevant Film Festival at Tribeca Cinemas.

“Destination Planet Negro,” in which prominent African-American leaders leave Earth to colonize Mars, is at once a parody of the low-budget, cheesy sci-fi films of the 1950s, as well as a satire of racial issues in America past and present.

Candy Factory Films will distribute the movie in a limited theatrical release this year, followed by a DVD. The company also has distribution partnerships with Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Hulu and other online platforms, so we can hope for availability there in the future as well. But the Library screening is free and includes a Q&A with Willmott right after the movie, so why wait? More information on the screening is here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjz16xjeBAA

He’s (still) not the Messiah

Liberty Hall is presenting its third straight year of showing the classic “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” as part of its Film Church series.

This notorious and controversial religious satire in which a young Jewish man named Brian (Graham Chapman) gets mistaken for the Messiah was produced by The Beatles’ George Harrison, among others. When I saw Python’s John Cleese in Kansas City last fall he wanted to make the distinction that the movie isn’t making fun of religion, it’s making fun of how people follow religion.

“Monty Python’s Life of Brian” is so rich with commentary that still rings true today that it probably deserves to be viewed once a year. See it with a crowd at 7 p.m. April 5.