11/34
The prequel was released later in 2022
Narrative
In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film on a rural Texas farm, but when their lonely, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the crew finds themselves fighting for their lives. The day after the South by Southwest premiere of X (2022), writer/director Ti West revealed that he had written a prequel, Pearl (2022), during a mandatory two-week COVID-19 quarantine at his New Zealand hotel before production could begin on that film. A24 saw the script and gave the film the green light before production on X had even wrapped. He asked star Mia Goth if she would like to stay in New Zealand to shoot Pearl, and she happily agreed.
Edited in MaXXXine (2024)
When Lorraine goes into the basement and turns on the light, there is a modern halogen light bulb that wasn’t there in 1979. Maxine: I won’t accept a life I don’t deserve. There are no opening credits. The title doesn’t appear on screen until the end.
I knew it was a horror movie and that was it
Act NaturallyPerformed by Loretta LynnWritten by Vonie Morrison, Johnny RussellCourtesy of Geffen Records under license to Universal Music Enterprises. Zero expectations or knowledge of this movie when I turned it on. Watching it, I could feel the love the creators had for the old era of horror movies, the era of slashers and everything that Scream had once dismantled and downplayed, the era of horror movie rules where you expect sex to equal death and the final girl to overcome all odds and face the terrifying creature that terrorizes her. The idea of this movie seems like something I should really like.
It was okay
The reality was more disappointing. I never felt a connection to the characters, so when things started going wrong, I had no interest in their existence. They were just red shirts in a horror movie. I expected them to die, and most of them lived up to that expectation.
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It never really tipped the scales to love or hate, it stayed in a zone of quiet acceptance of what was happening, a positive tolerance that never quite reached the point of true pleasure. A24 has produced some of the most memorable horror films of the 21st century.