Pearl, like its predecessor, is a loving tribute to classic cinema, only this time instead of 70s horror the genre being explored is Classic Hollywood. He teamed up with Goth to write a screenplay exploring Pearl’s backstory and they filmed two movies for the price of one. Indeed, West realized he still had access to the sets on the New Zealand farm where he filmed X and figured he might as well put them to use. Then came the post-credits scene teasing the surprise release of Pearl, a prequel depicting the origin story of X‘s main villain. I finished X still buzzing over the amount of fun and cinematic artistry I found in a slasher film. And while a lot of people die, the film subverts expectations around who gets to be the “final girl.” He utilizes split-screens and stutter cuts, and flirts with the avant garde when employing color and music. The surprises come in the delightful ways West frames and edits the action. Things go the way they usually go in a movie like this. Howard is played by Stephen Ure, while Mia Goth - made unrecognizable in old age makeup - does double duty as the murderous Pearl. The villains are Pearl and Howard, an elderly couple who view their guests with a toxic mixture of jealousy and anger. Everyone gets a chance to deliver a nuanced performance before things turn deadly more than halfway through the film. Martin Henderson does his best Matthew McConaughey impression as the film’s director, while Owen Campbell and Jenna Ortega play a couple running the camera and sound. Mia Goth and Brittany Snow play the actresses and Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi to music fans) plays their leading man. In another departure from typical slasher fare, West spends a lot of time with the characters, exploring their motivations and desires. We get more of that square aspect ratio in scenes of their raw footage, as West draws neat parallels between porn and horror, sex and death. The film is set in 1979 and follows the small cast and crew of a porn movie who have rented a guest house on that farm as a location for their film. I was thrilled to see West playing with form right out of the gate. Then director Ti West slowly pushes in until the scene fills the full frame. The barn doors shroud the sides of the image in darkness, giving the impression that the film has been shot in the boxy aspect ratio common to low-budget 70s horror films. X‘s opening shot is of a Texas farmhouse - a grisly crime scene, we learn - framed through the doors of an adjacent barn. I knew early on I was watching something special. I figured I could get past my aversion to jump scares just this once. Not only does X have a 94% Rotten Tomato ranking but critics praised the movie’s meta focus on the filmmaking process, something I always appreciate. But that’s a far cry from a slasher movie that owes its biggest debt to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.Īgain, it was great reviews that broke me down. I remember wrestling with the decision to see Get Out in the theater before finally giving in because it was clearly dominating the cultural conversation. In the past I’ve made time for well-reviewed scary movies, within reason. I credit X with kickstarting my new interest in horror. But given that Ti West’s horror film X and its prequel Pearl were shot at the same time and released just six months apart it seems fitting to pair them. Here’s where I’m cheating to fit 11 movies on my “top ten” list. Continuing the countdown of my favorite 2022 movies…
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