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Movie of the Week #34 - X
Next horror film is the cannibal horror movie X from 2022 directed by Ti West. A prequel Pearl was filmed at the same and released later the same year. Comments on that is welcome as well in the discussion.
Since this is the month of horror movies, did you find it scary, unsettling, creepy, eerie, spooky or horrifying?
The rest of the schedule for June is:
- 24th: The Exorcist (1973)
I didn't really care for X the first time I watched it, and I liked Pearl enough. But over the past two years they've really grown on me.
I love the idea they had in shooting two movies like this back to back. One an evocation of 70s grindhouse films and another a dark character study in the clothes of a technicolor film. I do still think Pearl is the better of the two, but I think X has a lot to offer.
I like the soundtrack of X, specifically their use of In The Summertime by Mungo Jerry and Act Naturally by Loretta Lynn. And I disagree about the look of the film, I think it looks like a grindhouse film while being more subtle about it than say Planet Terror. And I think Goth gives an outstanding performance both Maxine and Pearl in both films.
I do feel that without Pearl, X would have been forgotten though. Pearl is really where everything shines, and it really shows West's technical proficiency as a filmmaker. Martin Scorsese ended up writing a positive review of Pearl, something he hasn't done for a movie since. That must have made West go crazy, and then to top it off he got an invite into The Academy's director branch.
Pearl also features a supporting performance from our next Superman, so that's also something.
TikTok has gone crazy for these films in the years since their release. With Pearl occupying a similar "literally me" space for women that characters like Tyler Durden and Patrick Bateman do for men.
I'm looking forward to MaXXXine's giallo aesthetic. An inspired horror trilogy to try mimicking different style of horror with each one.
This was a weird double feature, but I am glad I also gave Pearl a chance as X was somewhat disappointing. A bit odd to release both the same year, especially with a prequel. Maybe the other way around would have been better. Pearl had a pretty good technicolor Wizard of Oz imitation style going and Mia Goth was spectacular in her role as Pearl, where we start with feeling sympathy for her dire situation only to gradually learn about how messed up she is.
X didn't really succeed at anything in my opinion. It looked too bland and ordinary for a proper 70s exploitation pastiche and it lacked any character focused narrative, so I didn't care much about anyone who got killed off one by one. Maybe Lorraine a bit, she was interesting. The elderly couple wasn't convincing at all, as it was very obvious that it was just younger actors in tons of makeup. All the kills were bloody but not really creative enough to have that as a redeeming factor. I wanna watch more of Mia Goth though, but Ti West not so much.
I think it works well the way they released it. One of the things I liked was the set up pay off of why Pearl doesn’t like Blondes. Pearl was also given a premiere at Venice, and I think they all knew Pearl was the better of the two and wanted that flashy premiere.