X (2022)

Studio:     A24
Director:    Ti West
Writer:     Ti West
Producer:  Ti West, Jacob Jaffke, Kevin Turen, Harrison Kreiss
Stars:     Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, Scott Mescudi

Review Score:

---

Summary:

In 1979, six young people secretly filming a porno discover a startling secret about the elderly couple they are renting a farmhouse from.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Acting as executive producer, Wayne Gilroy rents a boardinghouse from elderly curmudgeon Howard on a remote farm outside of Houston where Wayne plans to secretly shoot a cheap porno film titled “The Farmer’s Daughter.” For their cast and crew, Wayne is joined by his stripper girlfriend Maxine, who is later revealed to be a televangelist’s fame-obsessed daughter, Maxine’s fellow stripper Bobby-Lynne, Bobby-Lynne’s boyfriend Jackson, aspiring filmmaker RJ Nichols, and RJ’s straight-laced girlfriend Lorraine, who records audio for the movie.

While everyone else films a sex scene between Bobby-Lynne and Jackson, Maxine goes skinny-dipping in a pond outside. Howard’s elderly wife Pearl, who oddly resembles an aged Maxine, secretly spies on Maxine.

After her swim, Pearl beckons Maxine inside the main farmhouse. Pearl shows vintage photos of herself to Maxine as she speaks cryptically about beauty and youthfulness. Pearl has Maxine sneak out when Howard returns home, but Howard notices two lemonade glasses on the kitchen table.

Maxine films a sex scene with Jackson in the barn. After putting on makeup and a nightgown, Pearl secretly spies on Maxine once again. She then returns to the house to try to seduce her husband, but Howard turns down Pearl’s advances.

As everyone eats after filming, Lorraine asks why Wayne would allow his girlfriend to have sex with another man on camera. Lorraine’s confusion sparks a group discussion about sex, love, and aging. Lorraine surprises everyone when she suddenly insists on also filming a scene for the movie.

RJ objects to his girlfriend having sex with someone else. Wayne privately tells RJ that young women are going to do whatever they want regardless of their boyfriend’s approval. RJ reluctantly shoots the sex scene between Lorraine and Jackson.

Emotionally upset by what happened, RJ later tries to drive off alone during the night, but Pearl blocks his path. Pearl tries to seduce RJ, but he rejects her sexual advances. Pearl suddenly stabs RJ in his throat repeatedly.

When she notices RJ missing from their bed, Lorraine asks Wayne for help finding him. Wayne searches in the barn where he is brutally killed by Pearl. Claiming he needs help finding his wife, Howard lures Lorraine into a storm cellar where he locks her inside with RJ’s mutilated body.

Pearl watches Maxine sleep. Pearl undresses and lies down beside her. Pearl then starts caressing Maxine’s skin with her bloody hand.

Jackson offers to help Howard search for Pearl. Howard cryptically tells Jackson that he cannot give his wife what she wants anymore and Jackson wouldn’t understand what that’s like. Howard implies infidelity is going on before suddenly shooting Jackson in his chest with a shotgun.

Maxine screams when she finds Pearl in her bed. The scream rouses Bobby-Lynne, who follows Pearl outside to the pond. Pearl accuses Bobby-Lynne of being a whore before pushing her into the water. A crocodile mauls Bobby-Lynne to death.

Howard tells his wife about the girl he trapped in the basement. Pearl tells Howard she only wants Maxine because Maxine has something “special” like Pearl did when she was young. Although he worries his heart won’t be able to handle it, Pearl convinces Howard to have sex with her.

Maxine leaves her hiding spot beneath Howard and Pearl’s bed to flee outside. Lorraine’s pleas for help draw Maxine to the basement. Maxine rescues Lorraine but, blaming Maxine for causing the trouble she is in now, Lorraine runs away by herself. Howard shoots Lorraine dead on the porch. Howard then suffers a heart attack while moving Lorraine’s body.

Armed with Wayne’s pistol, Maxine demands that Pearl tell her where she can find the missing keys to a truck outside. Pearl calls Maxine a deviant whore who will end up just like her. Maxine accuses Pearl of being a murderous sex fiend. Maxine fires the pistol only to discover it isn’t loaded. Pearl retaliates with a shotgun blast, but the gunfire’s force propels Pearl violently through the front door frame.

Maxine refuses to help Pearl recover. Pearl tells Maxine she isn’t special and adds, “It will all be taken from you just like it was taken from me.” Maxine runs over Pearl’s head as she drives away. Sheriff Dentler’s deputies later recover RJ’s film camera when they process the crime scene.

---

Review:

Whether you’re reading this in “X’s” release year of 2022, ten years later in 2032, or any year in between, odds are this isn’t the first piece you’ve seen on the film. You’ve probably already heard hot takes, hive mind takes, and about how “X” pays homage to a certain fictional massacre by being a Texas-bred thriller set in 1979 that mirrors early Tobe Hooper in cinematic style, gritty slaughter, and rebellious tone, practically to the point of plagiarism. That’s a load off my shoulders to know you’re already informed, because I was so nonplussed by the movie, I’m not sure what I really have to add to the discourse.

Like a lot of genre film fans, I consider writer/director Ti West to be one of the top contemporary talents in the field. His mastery of retro atmosphere mesmerized me in “House of the Devil.” By blending my affinity for “found footage” with my fascination for the Jonestown tragedy, “The Sacrament” (review here) solidified him as someone from the same generation, cut from a similar pop culture cloth, making movies seemingly tailored specifically to my tastes. Even when he wandered into westerns with “In a Valley of Violence” (review here), he was still speaking my language by showing a mutual love of gunfighting outlaws too.

Also like a lot of genre film fans, I wondered when West might finally take a trip back to feature-length frights after his hibernation from horror, and anxiously baited my breath as soon as “X” was announced. Overwhelmingly effusive film festival reviews soon rolled in with trumpets blaring, “Ti West is back, baby!” to keep the hype hot. Then I saw “X” for myself and thought, “Wait, what? This is all there is?”

“X’s” simplistic story follows six stereotypes, all of whom could be fully described in a half-sentence per person, as they clandestinely film a porno on a farm where they’ve rented a cabin from a crusty curmudgeon. The old man’s even older wife Pearl feels strangely drawn toward own of the young women, Maxine, even seeing Maxine as a “special” reflection of her own glory days as an adventurous beauty. Pearl quickly becomes conflicted between wanting to remember the taboo lustfulness her current body no longer allows, and punishing such impulses for being desires only a “whore” would indulge. Due to her brittle bones and elderly age, Pearl makes for maybe the most unusual cinematic serial killer anyone will ever see, although it still wouldn’t be inaccurate to think of her like Jason Voorhees, except she speaks and also moves like a mummy who just unwrapped its bandages for the first time in centuries.

I’m not sure what anyone is supposed to get out of “X,” either as entertainment or as a thoughtful metaphor for anything in particular. In trying to parse why there is so much praise out there, I went through several reviews that called the movie wickedly funny for having sharp gags and great comic timing amidst its bloody violence. Yeah, no. First of all, if you think the porno crew driving a van labeled “Plowing Service” constitutes a clever joke, maybe your sense of humor could benefit from an upgrade. And if you’re enthralled with an hour of arguably irrelevant buildup before the first onscreen kill, then we also have conflicting ideas for what a supposed slasher movie should prioritize.

Ti West has been rightfully recognized for his technical craftsmanship before, specifically with editing, but I can’t figure out what he might be trying to accomplish on that front in “X” either. More than once West tries a transition where he rapidly cuts back and forth between two shots three times. This makes some suggestive sense when he does this with alternating shots of Maxine and Pearl. However, if you have an unimpeachable theory on why he also does this between shots of a televangelist on TV and cows in a field, I’d be open to an explanation.

Other tricks that should be beneath West’s trade include sudden cutaways to a couple of creepy dolls and a jump scare that’s just someone unexpectedly running into a harmless person. This is the kind of hollow horror I routinely see in Amityville indies and disposable DTV’ers that debut on Tubi. Why is Ti West wading in these shallow waters?

“X” teases themes of how aging influences sexuality, yet never goes far enough to pull a meaning out of its meandering around that periphery. Take it from someone in the midst of middle-age, “X” is shockingly silent on unsettling insight that should scarily speak directly to personal fears about a libido passing its peak. Instead, “X” feels like just an ordinary horror movie, which sounds serviceable enough, except seasoned veterans of his films have come to, and should, expect more from a Ti West production.

One mediocre movie can’t crack my overall admiration for West, so I’m settling on an “eh, whatever” rating of 50-50. Still, “X” is the one movie of his that I can’t see myself ever having a need, much less a desire, to revisit. I’m only mildly more interested in the promised prequel “Pearl.” And that’s only because I’m holding out hope that “Pearl” may become the engaging horror story I thought “X” was going to be before I came out of it underwhelmed.

Review Score: 50

---