It Doesn’t Follow: Linares Villegas’ Queer Horror Forgets the Fright Factor
Horror has long been a safe space to explore queer stories; from cult classics Jennifer’s Body and Ginger Snaps to horror villains found in The Babadook and the androgynous gender fluid figure Pinhead from Hellraiser. Dominican filmmaker Victoria Linares Villegas ambitiously threads themes of closeted homosexuality into a horror framework in her debut feature Don’t Come Out (No Salgas). Invoking a homophobic killer as both threat and metaphor, despite its conceptual promise, the film struggles to generate genuine scares, fully realized characters, or a narrative pulse strong enough to sustain tension.
Being young and gay is a confusing time and coming out can be a truly horrendous experience with conservative backgrounds looming like deathly shadows. Secretly lesbian medical student Liz (Cecile Van Weile) is reeling from the mysterious murder of her girlfriend with whom they held a closeted relationship amongst their friendship group. After other violent deaths in her contemporary Dominican town, Liz begins to believe they’re rooted in homophobia and gets a boyfriend, Carlos (Jonathan López) in order to protect those around her. The presence is not rooted in reality and possess those around Liz. In order to escape her grief and misery she sets off oin an impromptu trip with her two friends but the arrival of a mysterious woman named Jessie (Camilla Santana) pushes up old desires long withheld.
Given its provocative premise — and a jolting opening in which a young woman is inexplicably killed by her own mother — audiences might expect a ferocious descent into chaos. Instead, the film stalls, taking far too long to gather momentum and never deepening its central characters beyond broad sketches. Liz’s girlfriend remains a blank presence, while her supposedly ultra-conservative parents are reduced to a single perfunctory scene. Van Weile and Santana as Liz and Jessie are unconvincing and the chemistry feels forced, coupled with the surrounding malaise of holiday antics this sometimes comes across as an unintended YA drama. When the violence finally escalates in the closing stretch, the gore lacks both brutality and conviction, with several schlocky set pieces that render the carnage unconvincing rather than shocking.
It’s impossible not to think about David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows and regardless of budget constraints, a lot of ideas found here feel stilted and familiar with an underdeveloped quality that undercuts its more melodramatic gestures toward sacrifice and the painful compromises forced upon queer youth in situations like Liz’s. Don’t Come Out projects itself as a potentially fun haunted house (or villa) subgenre and its a shame that the central “monster” isn’t presented in a showier way whilst keeping its argument nuanced.
Reviewed on February 18th – 2026 Berlin International Film Festival (76th edition) – Generation 14plus section. 105 mins.
★½/☆☆☆☆☆