In 1918, 61 years before the events of X, Pearl, trapped on her family’s isolated Texas homestead, must tend to her infirmed father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl’s ambitions, temptations and repressions collide.
- Released:
- Runtime: 120 minutes
- Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thrillers
- Stars: Mia Goth, Tandi Wright, David Corenswet, Emma Jenkins-Purro, Matthew Sunderland, Alistair Sewell, Lauren Stewart, Amelia Reid, Todd Rippon, Gabe McDonnell, Grace Acheson
- Director: Ti West
Comments
- Neekyrodrigues - 11 January 2023
Interesting Character Study
A character focused thriller of a character study into the life of an early 1920s suburban housewife struggling to cope under the pressure of family life, societal pressures and her deep sinister urges. It's slow but dramatic. If you're looking for a typical slasher movie, then you'll low-key be disappointed.
Mia Goth is great as the titular character, her monologue is superb - she truly grows into the character on this prequel. If there's any reason to watch this movie it would be for her performance.
My biggest critique of this film is that it feels incomplete. We're left with the husband returning from war finding Pearl living in insanity but why does he stay? Does he know she's killed his sister? You'd assume he knows everything and stays with her "out of love" or a sense of duty/loyalty because of marriage. - hellholehorror - 1 January 2023
Pretentious vanity project
I wanted to like it, just like X (2022) but I didn't because it's boring. I mean really boring. And forgettable, even more boring and forgettable than the first film. Barely anything happens, it took me two attempts to finish it. It's all character led which is fine and I like the character of Pearl but there is literally no story or action to support the characters. The charismatic and interesting lead character carries the movie except, unlike the first movie, the supporting characters do not have equal acting ability or memorability of Mia. Because of this, it became the Mia show, possibly even a vanity project for her. At least the first film had Jenna Ortega supporting along with some other great actors. But I haven't reached the worst bit yet, it is the tedious ego-driven monologue, it is so so terrible, it goes on for so long and is so utterly boring. We are just watching Mia's ego. Why do they think this is what people want to watch or do they want to prove they can do a really long take for no reason. Ugh hate it. Try sitting through it without looking at your phone. The long take is over five and a half minutes, the scene itself is nearly 15 minutes. I hate to say it but I think that this is the film that Ti West gave up entertaining and made films he wants to make. Probably the same for Mia but I haven't followed her career to realistically make a fair assessment on that. The split-screen montage is annoying. They fail to depict the filmmaking style of the time that it's set, unlike the first film. There are a lot of continuity errors and I never normally notice them. I absolutely hated the ending. I liked the dance number. Overall it is best described as pretentious rubbish. On the plus side, the technical aspects are really good, it looks and sounds nice.
