What we have here is a film by Ti West, who explicitly uses the traditional slasher structure but ultimately gives it a wholly new twist. West’s X is a cunning, enjoyable thrill journey that embodies a modern interpretation of the psycho-biddy horror subgenre. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this specific genre sub-division, we are emphasizing older ladies who portray violent characters.
Details will be revealed when we begin our exploration of the film and discuss the history of the slasher killer later in the video. Returning to the film, X is seen paying homage to famous horror films like Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by Tobe Hooper, The Shining by Stanley Kubrick, and Alligator by Lewis Teague, among others.
You might also be astonished to learn that Pearl, a prequel picture that was shot immediately after X, is scheduled for release in September of this year. A sequel film is also now in production. This takes us to today’s video, in which we will explore X in great detail and discuss what we currently know about its planned prequel. X is a video about the obsessive, psychotic slasher killer. You would better get ready for this, and just so you are aware, there will be some significant spoilers!
Dying to Show You a Good Time – X (2022)
The opening shot takes us, viewers, someplace in rural Texas in 1979. We get a panoramic view of farmland but with the sheriff’s car coming into view, it gets pretty clear something must have happened there. He is seen pulling up the car in front of a farmhouse.
There is a dead body right in front of the house that he inspects, and the front entrance is splattered with blood everywhere. He steps inside the house; the television is on, one that has a preacher giving his speech. Another officer, having found something asks the sheriff to come along with him. We find the duo entering the cellar, and there’s something there that has the sheriff shocked beyond measure.
The movie is seen going back to the events of the previous day. We are introduced to aspiring adult film star Maxine Minx, who is seen taking a road trip with her producer boyfriend, Wayne, director RJ and his girl friend/sound operator Lorraine, and actors Bobby-Lynne and Jackson. The group is on their way to shoot a low budget adult film titled, The Farmer’s Daughter. Given the current flourishing home video marketing scenario, RJ thinks it is possible to make a good dirty movie and has plans of reinventing the adult film genre.
They are seen arriving on the very farmland, in fact at the same farm house that was shown in the beginning of the movie. Wayne tells the rest of the group to wait inside the car and goes to speak to the owner, the elderly Howard, who literally greets him with a shotgun.
Howard takes Wayne and the group to the guesthouse but then he tells Wayne that he doesn’t remember him mentioning anything about bringing others. Despite Wayne throwing in more money to sweeten the deal, Howard makes it pretty clear that he doesn’t like any of them and leaves. Lorraine realizes that the old man isn’t aware of the kind of shooting that’s about to take place and knowing Wayne, he intends to keep it that way.
Seeing Howard leave in a truck, the group begins filming. Maxine, on the other hand, starts exploring the farmland and upon seeing a lake inside the property, she goes for a swim having not even the slightest bit of knowledge that she is being stalked both by an alligator in the lake and Howard’s wife, the elderly Pearl. Maxine gets out of the lake seconds before becoming the predator’s hearty meal.
Speaking of the shooting, we are taken to the first scene that has Jackson coming to Bobby-Lynne’s home. With his van having broken down, he is seen asking for help. Bobby-Lynne informs they don’t have a phone and that he can wait inside for her father to come. This is what sets the wheels in motion to have the rest of the scenes follow. Maxine, on the other hand, gets invited by Pearl inside the farm house.
Pearl is seen to express grief about her ageing and ends up making a pass at Maxine much to the latter’s shock. Later, Pearl witnesses the steamy shooting scenes from the guest house window, especially Maxine in action with Jackson, and with the crew settling themselves down for a relaxing night ahead, Lorraine announces in front of the whole group that she wants to play a part in the movie.
Unlike RJ, who is absolutely appalled to hear this and doesn’t seem visionary anymore about the project, the rest of the group are pretty cool with her being a part of the movie. This leads to a scene between Lorraine and Jackson being thrown in and RJ left with no option, shoots them. RJ is seen breaking down later while taking a shower and eventually decides to leave everyone behind at the guesthouse and drive back in the middle of the night. He gets in the car but stops to find Pearl in front of the gate who tries to seduce him.
With RJ stopping her, Pearl simply stabs him in the neck and it’s only fair to say that she does so to the very point of his decapitation. The old woman is even seen performing a strange dance after that and takes the car keys with her. Realizing RJ is missing, Lorraine and Wayne start looking for him. A barefoot Wayne, while looking for RJ at the barn steps on a nail and starts bleeding profusely. Thinking he saw someone, he starts looking through the tiny holes of the barn wall only to have Pearl drive a pitchfork through the very holes straight into his eyes thereby killing him.
Lorraine, on the other hand, is encountered by Howard, who claims to be looking for Pearl and asks Lorraine to help him find her. As directed by Howard, she goes to the cellar to get a flashlight but finds herself locked inside. With Lorraine wandering in the cellar, she makes the horrifying discovery of a rotting corpse of a naked man shackled there.
Howard is next seen approaching Jackson to help him find Pearl. Jackson asks him why he is carrying a gun to which Howard tells him about the alligators in the lake. The duo starts looking for Pearl. Jackson finds a submerged car and comes back to Howard telling him that he could not find Pearl anywhere around the lake. It is then that the old man tells him that he knows exactly what his wife is up to and blames Jackson and his group along with the former tenants of the guesthouse for his wife’s actions.
Post this, he shoots Jackson in the chest with his shotgun thus disclosing himself. As for Pearl, she having found her way to Maxine’s bedroom in the guest house, takes off her own clothes and climbs into her bed. With Pearl rubbing her bloody hands all over Maxine’s bare body, the latter wakes up in horror with a blood-curdling scream, one that’s enough to wake Bobby-Lynne in the next room.
Lorraine, on the other hand, having found a hatchet in the cellar, attempts to break through the door only to have Howard come back and hit her using his ax and severing one of her fingers in the process. He points the shotgun toward Lorraine and tells her to go back to the cellar. Howard is even seen switching on the television to drown out her screams.
As for Bobby-Lynne, post seeing a naked Pearl get out of the guesthouse, she follows her and finds her at the edge of the lake. She hurries towards her, covers her up with a shawl, and tells her about her nana who used to be as confused as her. With Bobby-Lynne trying to get Pearl back at the house, the latter slaps her and calls her a whore before pushing her into the lake where she gets viciously attacked and eaten by the alligator.
Meanwhile, Maxine sees the old couple coming towards the guesthouse and she decides to hide from them. Howard and Pearl are seen talking about the murders when Pearl tells Howard about her interest in Maxine, calling her special. Howard is seen giving in to Pearl’s temptation and makes love to his wife unbeknownst to the fact that Maxine is hiding right under the bed. While the elderly duo is at it, Maxine crawls out of the room and heads straight to the van parked outside. Not only does she find the tires flat but also discovers RJ’s mutilated body right in front.
Post-hearing Lorraine’s screams, she takes Wayne’s gun out of the glove compartment and goes inside the farmhouse. Even with her helping Lorraine get out of the cellar, the latter blames her for everything. A highly terrified Lorraine tries getting out of the house only to get shot in the very face by Howard. The old couple has plans of framing the whole group as intruders and making their own actions seem like acts of self-defense.
With the duo dragging Lorraine’s body inside the house, blood gurgles out of her mouth shocking Howard and causing him to have a fatal heart attack. Taking this as an opportunity, Maxine arms herself with Wayne’s gun and gets the keys to Howard’s truck. With Pearl insulting Maxine and addressing her as a whore, the latter states to her that she will not accept a life that she does not deserve and shoots at her only to realize that the gun is empty.
Pearl is quick enough to grab her husband’s shotgun but she misses her aim when she fires. Instead, the shot backfires on her making her land out of the house and causing her hip to break. An injured Pearl asks Maxine to help her out but the latter refuses and is seen to sit inside the truck. However, with Pearl berating her further, Maxine simply decides to run over her, crushing her head in the process and driving away from there.
With this, we are taken back to the very events that the film began with – the police at the crime scene. We find the television has been on since the previous night; as for the preacher on screen, he is finally seen to disclose a picture of Maxine, whom he states as his beautiful, little daughter, one that has been lured into a life of sin.
It gets pretty obvious that he has been looking for her and his whole campaign has been against his daughter. As for the sheriff, he can hardly make out what is it that caused things to go so wild in the first place. With one of the officers laying their hands on RJ’s camera and asking the sheriff what he thinks might be in it, the sheriff says, “By the looks of everything, I see one goddamn fucked up horror picture’.
Exploring The Maniac Slasher Killer
Say hello to Pearl, the disturbing slasher killer of Ti West’s 2022 slasher flick, X, as well as the upcoming prequel movie also directed by Ti West and titled Pearl. Oh, she is pretty messed up in the head; add to that delusional, demented, and one who is literally obsessed about youth and jealous of young people at the same time. This elderly housewife here is of the opinion that young people don’t deserve their youth and the beauty that comes along with it leading her to berate her female victims often and address them as ‘whores’.
She has her carnal urges but her husband’s heart condition does not allow her to indulge in one. As someone, who is clearly stuck in the past reminiscing about her youth, she badly misses who and how she was once and craves to have her old life back!
If we take a look at the beginning part of the movie, Pearl is seen stalking the whole group when they arrive at her farmland, up from her very window, and takes a particularly special interest in Maxine amongst the others. With Maxine exploring the farmland and going for a swim, Pearl secretly stalks her maintaining a distance. She even invites Maxine to her home on her way back to the guesthouse and offers her a glass of lemonade.
With her not saying anything to her, there is this awkward silence between the duo, which obviously gets broken when they stop in front of a few old pictures. Pearl starts telling Maxine about her younger days of how she used to be a dancer. She is seen mostly expressing grief about her youth and also makes it pretty obvious that she is jealous of Maxine’s youth, her supple skin, and her looks.
She is seen going to the extent of even making a pass at Maxine, obviously creeping her out. But what is even creepier is her telling Maxine that whatever she did will be their little secret. Pearl is seen going to the guesthouse later and witnessing a steamy shooting scene of Maxine and Jackson from the corner of the window outside. She gets so aroused by them that she comes back home and literally begs her husband to get intimate with her. No points for guessing, Howard turns her down stating to her the bad condition of his heart.
When RJ tries to leave the farmland all by himself, he gets stopped by Pearl from doing so. She is seen standing in the middle of the road. Of course, a concerned RJ tries to get her back home but Pearl has different plans. She tries to seduce RJ who for obvious reasons does not reciprocate. This only makes him earn Pearl’s wrath as she is seen to stab him right in the neck till the very point of his decapitation.
When she is done killing RJ, she even performs a dance in front of his dead body before taking the car keys with her. Her next victim happens to be Wayne; she leaves a piercing nail in the barn for Wayne and no points for guessing he steps on it. This gives him a pretty nasty wound but is Pearl satisfied with that? Not till she stabs him in the eye using a pitchfork. Next, she is seen going to the guesthouse and heading straight toward Maxine’s room.
There, she undresses and climbs into her bed. Her perverse desires make her rub her bloodied hands all over Maxine, caressing her and eventually waking her up. With Maxine letting out a terrifying scream, she runs out of her room and eventually out of the guesthouse without any clothes. Bobby-Lyn follows her and finds her at the edge of the lake. With her attempting to get Pearl back to the house, she slaps her, addresses her as a whore, and throws her right into the lake where she gets mauled and eventually eaten by the alligator.
Post this, Pearl is seen returning back to the guesthouse along with Howard looking for Maxine. Not able to find her in her room, both end up making love unaware that Maxine is hiding right under the bed. The old couple is so busy at it that they don’t even realize it when Maxine crawls out of the room. Both are seen heading back to their farmhouse when they encounter a panicked Lorraine on the porch.
Howard wastes no time in blowing her face off. It is then that we learn of the duo’s plans of framing the whole group as intruders so as to make their own actions appear as acts of self-defense. They are seen dragging the dead body of Lorraine inside their home when a bit of blood gurgles out of a dead Lorraine’s mouth causing Howard a fatal heart attack. Pearl tries to help Howard out and revive him but to no avail. Maxine takes the very opportunity of this situation and approaches Pearl armed with Wayne’s pistol gun asking her for the keys to Howard’s truck.
While Maxine is able to grab the keys, Pearl blocks her way and berates her. Maxine has enough attempts to shoot at her only to realize that the gun is not loaded. Pearl is fast enough to grab Howard’s shotgun but she misses Maxine when she fires.
The force from the shotgun is strong enough to blast her out of the house and onto the ground, resulting in her breaking her hip. An injured Pearl asks Maxine to help her out but the latter simply walks to the truck. But with Pearl calling her a whore again, Maxine is seen backing the truck and running over Pearl’s body, crushing her head to be more precise, before driving away.
Okay, there’s another important thing that we don’t want to miss out on when it comes to exploring Pearl. Remember the movie has Lorraine getting locked inside the cellar, one where she encounters the rotting corpse of a naked man? Well, it all just makes more sense now; obviously, the man was staying at the couple’s guesthouse before he became a victim of Pearl’s psychopathic nature. It is pretty clear that Pearl murdered the man and kept his body in the cellar. Now, for those of you who are wondering why was the man still kept naked, it is possible that his body was kept there for Pearl to enjoy him later or in other words, abuse his body in ways she wanted. We know this whole thing is sick but so is Pearl and there are no two ways about it.
Upcoming Prequel Of X
Having two films released within a span of six months is clearly not a big deal for filmmaker Ti West. Apparently, West was done writing the prequel movie, titled, Pearl, during a two-week mandatory quarantine in his hotel. In fact, West began writing the script for Pearl while X was being shot. Brownie points to A24 for supporting West’s idea and also Mia Goth for jumping on board to play the lead character yet again and also co-writing the movie this time. The prequel is shot in the same set where X has been filmed and the movie is set for a September 16 theatrical release.
The trailer of Pearl has the haunting farmland making a comeback but it is a different timeline. The year is 1918 and the trailer is seen digging into the back story of the elderly Pearl in X. Hard to imagine Pearl in playful pigtails after her performance in X but that’s how the trailer begins. We get our old Pearl back when she is seen almost pitch-forking a goose, when she lets a goat lick her bloody hands, and when she is about to feed her sick comatose father, who is obviously bound to his wheelchair due to if-we-are-not-really-wrong the same alligator in X.
Come on, it is a joke – not the alligator, that is very much real and probably a different one. Anyway, coming back to the storyline, it is pretty clear Pearl has her own dreams. Of course, she does not want to stay as a farm girl for the rest of her life. In fact, she wishes to be a movie star.
She wants the whole world to know her name, she wants to be loved by as many people as possible but she is also seen to worry knowing that something is wrong with her. She knows the truth – the truth about her not being a good person in real and her having committed terrible awful murderous things.
There will be blood, there will be drama and there is no denying that the prequel is bound to blow your mind!
Why Should You Watch X?
If you are a fan of the slasher genre know that Ti West’s X is the filmmaker’s new love letter to the slasher genre. With X, not only does West pay homage to the 20th-century slasher flicks but he also does this movie in style. West knew exactly what he wanted out of his movie, he believed in his work and the result is right there in front of you. We are talking about its prequel that is set for a September release and you definitely don’t want to miss that!
With this, we have come to the end of our video here. Do hit us with your thoughts in the comments section and let us know if you have seen X. Also, on a level of ten, how excited you are for the upcoming prequel? Heard, that there’s a third movie in development already. Stay tuned with us for more interesting content!