One of the best horror movies of the 2010s featured an entity taking on various different forms as it pursued a young woman. Sometimes these forms were the woman’s friends, or their parents, but sometimes it was just an extremely creepy man. The most terrifying form that the entity takes in 2014’s It Follows is of an extremely tall man with no eyes, who suddenly enters Jay’s (Maika Monroe) bedroom behind Yara (Olivia Luccardi).
The producer of It Follows, Rebecca Green, recently tweeted some backstory to the casting of one of the most memorable horror movie villains of the last decade; “Casting this ‘It’ seemed impossible, until one day when our location manager was telling a homeowner about our ridiculous casting search and the location rep told her that actually there were twins just down the street who were 7’7 and one wanted to be an actor. True story.”
Lanier and his brother were in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s tallest twins. Lanier unfortunately passed away in 2018, aged just 48, of pancreatic cancer and acromegaly, which is a condition where too much growth hormone is produced. Extremely tall people tend to die young, due to complications related to their height.
Lanier had wanted other acting roles, according to MovieWeb; “I’ve got a real love for sci-fi. I’ve always told people I want to be in one of the Star Wars movies. I’ll be the first 7-foot, 7-inch Jedi.” Unsurprisingly, he played college basketball, but was working for General Motors in Michigan before he passed away.
It Follows made $23.3 million on a budget of $1.3 million and has a 95% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Star Maika Monroe has gone onto several other horror movie roles, including 2019’s Villains with Bill Skarsgard and 2022’s Watcher with Karl Glusman and Burn Gorman – both of which are highly recommended.
Check out our guide to the best slasher movies and the best monster movies.