--- title: Republican Debate: Here's the Movie Ted Cruz Referenced description: Ted Cruz said a columnist compared him to the evil spirit in the horror movie 'It Follows.' Here's what the movie was actually about. canonical: https://time.com/4181918/ted-cruz-horror-movie-it-follows-republican-debate/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-15T02:42:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:43.468Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's the Horror Movie That Ted Cruz Referenced at the GOP Debate og:description: It's not quite what Cruz thinks it is og:url: https://time.com/4181918/ted-cruz-horror-movie-it-follows-republican-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77dd2229f8869eb0/6988794c8e0601076746425e/republican-presidential-debate-gop-ted-cruz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3148 og:image:height: 1771 og:image:alt: GOP 2016 Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's the Horror Movie That Ted Cruz Referenced at the GOP Debate twitter:description: It's not quite what Cruz thinks it is twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77dd2229f8869eb0/6988794c8e0601076746425e/republican-presidential-debate-gop-ted-cruz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's the Horror Movie That Ted Cruz Referenced at the GOP Debate  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 15, 2016 2:42 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during the Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during the Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C.Chuck Burton—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 15, 2016 2:42 AM UTC Ted Cruz joked about the[ animosity between him and the New York _Times_ ](http://time.com/4180061/ted-cruz-goldman-sachs-citibank-loan/)at the [Fox Business Republican debate Thursday](http://time.com/4179941/republican-debate-charleston-fox/), even referencing a column in the paper that compared him to a ghost from a horror movie. “\[A New York Times columnist\] wrote a column comparing me to an evil demonic spirit from the movie ‘It Follows’ that jumps apparently from body to body possessing people,” Cruz said. The actual column, written by Frank Bruni in October, compared the Texas senator to a “menacing, stalking, relentless force to watch for and run from, like the body-hopping spirit in this year’s most celebrated horror movie, _It Follows_” The _Times_ [also reported Wednesday](http://time.com/4180061/ted-cruz-goldman-sachs-citibank-loan/) that Cruz failed to disclose roughly $1 million in loans from Goldman Sachs and Citibank during his 2012 Senate campaign. Here’s the actual deal with the movie: yes, ‘It Follows’ was a well-reviewed horror movie that was released in 2015, and yes, it is about an evil spirit that possesses people. But there’s an extra element to the plot that Bruni and Cruz didn’t mention— the spirit is passed through sex. “A young woman is followed by an unknown supernatural force after getting involved in a sexual encounter,” reads [the movie’s IMDB page](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3235888/). And on Wikipedia: “After carefree teenager Jay (Maika Monroe) sleeps with her new boyfriend, Hugh (Jake Weary), for the first time, she learns that she is the latest recipient of a fatal curse that is passed from victim to victim via sexual intercourse.” Here’s hoping Cruz isn’t exactly like the spirit in the movie. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4181918/ted-cruz-horror-movie-it-follows-republican-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4181918/ted-cruz-horror-movie-it-follows-republican-debate/"},"headline":"Here's the Horror Movie That Ted Cruz Referenced at the GOP Debate","datePublished":"2016-01-15T02:42:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:43.468Z","description":"It's not quite what Cruz thinks it is","url":"https://time.com/4181918/ted-cruz-horror-movie-it-follows-republican-debate/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","ted cruz"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77dd2229f8869eb0/6988794c8e0601076746425e/republican-presidential-debate-gop-ted-cruz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77dd2229f8869eb0/6988794c8e0601076746425e/republican-presidential-debate-gop-ted-cruz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP 2016 Debate","caption":"Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during the Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C.","creditText":"Chuck Burton—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4181918/ted-cruz-horror-movie-it-follows-republican-debate/","name":"Here's the Horror Movie That Ted Cruz Referenced at the GOP Debate"}}]}] ```