--- 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: 2026-10-05T08:40:46.228Z 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 > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=8e9cff4c-e9dc-45a0-946c-fa34b3c212bb&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: GOP DEBATE 011416: Cruz responds to Goldman Sachs loan controversy [Watch (HLS stream): GOP DEBATE 011416: Cruz responds to Goldman Sachs loan controversy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2n9gKFMj.m3u8) (1:45)  _Published 2016-01-15. GOP DEBATE 011416: Cruz responds to Goldman Sachs loan controversy_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 15, 2016 2:42 AM UTC GOP DEBATE 011416: Cruz responds to Goldman Sachs loan controversy  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. ## Transcript A million dollars is inadvertent. Well, thank you Maria for passing on that hit piece on the front page of the New York Times. You know the nice thing about the mainstream media, they don't hide their views. The New York Times a few weeks back had a columnist who wrote a column saying anybody but Cruz. Actually that same 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. So the New York times and I don't exactly have the warmest of relationships. Now, in terms of their really stunning hit piece, what they mention is when I was running for senate Unlike Hilary Clinton, I don't have masses of money in the bank, hundreds of millions of dollars. When I was running for Senate, just about every lobbyist, just about all of the establishment opposed me in the Senate race in Texas. And my opponent in that race was worth over $ 200 million. He put a $ 25 million check Up from his own pocket to funded that campaign. And my wife Heidi and I, we ended up investing everything we own, we took a loan against our assets to invest it in that campaign to defend ourselves against those attacks and the entire New York Times attack Is that I disclosed that loan on one filing with the United States Senate that was a pubic filing but it was not on a second filing with the FEC both of those filings were public and yes I made a paperwork error disclosing it on one piece of paper instead of the other, but if that's the best hit the New York Times has got, they better go back to the well. 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