The quirky retro-seventies splatter-fests of writer-director Ti West (such as THE ROOST and HOUSE OF THE DEVIL) are given a slight tweaking in this 2022 effort with the addition of a new element: sex.
… the addition of a new element: sex.
In a set-up that seems intended to recall THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, a group of young folk are seen driving through Texas (actually New Zealand) in a van. Their aim: to shoot a porno movie in a rural cabin rented by Wayne (Martin Henderson), the film’s sleazy executive producer. His cohorts include the fetching starlet Maxine (Mia Goth), for whom Wayne left his wife; the mousey brunette Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), the film’s boom operator; Jackson (Scott Mescudi), the well-endowed male lead; the blonde Bobby-Lynne (Britanny Snow), the film’s other major starlet; and the nerdy director RJ (Owen Campbell), who harbors pretentions of making a “real” movie.
In a nod to the British gore fests of the late Peter Walker, the villains are an elderly couple: the ancient Howard (Stephen Ure) and his wife Pearl (Mia Goth again, sporting unconvincing old age make-up), who own the cabin in which the film is being shot. Howard is a suspicious coot who makes it clear that he doesn’t like or approve of Wayne and his crew, and Pearl a half-senile old bag who shows an unhealthy interest in the doings of the youngsters in her midst. When she spies a sex scene being filmed she snaps entirely, and begins killing off her guests in various nasty ways, with Howard offering an eager assist.
No, I’m not giving anything away by revealing that Pearl and Howard are the killers, as West never attempts to hide that fact. This makes for an extremely simplistic narrative with little that’s surprising or unexpected plot-wise (the most interesting element, the casting of Mia Goth in dual roles, doesn’t really go anywhere, with the apparent aim being to bolster the prequel film PEARL, which stars Goth and was filmed concurrently with X). That’s in keeping with Ti West’s filmmaking aesthetic, which isn’t renowned for its narrative ingenuity.
What West’s films are renowned for is artful and atmospheric direction. He’s unique among modern horrormeisters, who all claim to be inspired by the films of the seventies, for his dedicated replication of the aesthetics of those films (rather than those of episodic television or music videos, which appear to have exerted a much greater influence on today’s moviemakers). This means pacing that’s quite slow by contemporary standards, naturalistic performances and richly textured visuals.
What West’s films are renowned for is artful and atmospheric direction.
West’s artful touch is evident in the 1970s period décor, which is always convincing, and the scare scenes, which delight in the unexpected (in a way the overall narrative doesn’t). A suspenseful lake set alligator pursuit is rendered all the more harrowing because it’s presented in such an oddly languid manner, while a Nail-through-the-foot gag is quite deliberately telegraphed, with the up-thrust nail placed in the foreground as bare feet walk slowly toward it. Where the jolts don’t work is when they’re presented in more conventional fashion, as in an eyeball piercing that ranks far below average in the roster of filmic eye-pokes.
West’s artful touch is evident in the 1970s period décor, which is always convincing, and the scare scenes, which delight in the unexpected (in a way the overall narrative doesn’t).
Appropriately for a film about pornography, the sexual content is startlingly graphic, indeed about as much so as it’s possible to get without breaching hardcore territory. This is, again, the one thing in X that diverges from Ti West’s standard aesthetic, because otherwise the film is utterly typical of his filmography at its best and worst.
Vital Statistics
X
A24
Director: Ti West
Producers: Ti West, Jacob Jaffke, Kevin Turen, Harrison Kreiss
Screenplay: Ti West
Cinematography: Eliot Rockett
Editing: David Kashevaroff, Ti West
Cast: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, Scott Mescudi