From the opening frame of X, which serves as writer-director Ti West’s return to movies and specifically the horror genre for which he’s known, you see the meticulous detail and ingenuity that you’ve come to expect from A24 films. While the film intentionally pays perfect homage to horror classics of the past, most notably Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it still provides something uniquely its own.
Featuring inventive shot transitions, a creepily breathy score, and a story that slowly builds in an unexpected direction, X is full of enough misdirection, well-earned jump scares, and satisfying moments that you see coming soon enough to cheer for them. The film turns the familiar trope of punishing teens for having sex and using drugs by being very sex-positive and having its star treat cocaine like Popeye’s spinach. It also delivers what has to be the most uncomfortable couple of minutes you’ll experience watching a movie all year.
Looking to cash in on the success of the infamous adult film Debbie Does Dallas, a group of filmmakers and actors travel to a remote farm in Texas, intending to shoot an elevated porn of their own. The elderly caretaker (Stephen Ure) providing the lodging and his less-reclusive-than-described wife Pearl (Mia Goth) don’t know that their cabin and barn are about to become a film set, and the young filmmakers have no idea the demented situation they just rolled into, with prying eyes watching their every move.
What makes X fun right away is this entertaining and likable cast. Maxine (Mia Goth) wants everyone to know her name, and her older boyfriend and producer, Wayne (Martin Henderson), knows he can make that happen through his low-budget film, “The Farmer’s Daughters”. Joining her as the on-screen talent is the jaunty Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow), who seems to fully be living in the moment of “find a job you enjoy doing, and you’ll never work a day in your life”, and her sometimes boyfriend Jackson (Kid Cudi), a former marine who seems confident in any situation—with or without clothes. Capturing it all on film is the very passionate RJ (Owen Campbell), who is looking to take an avant-garde approach to this movie, and he’s brought along his quiet girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) as the boom operator to assist him.
Nobody seems like a throwaway character, serving as emotionless fodder just waiting to get gutted. Instead, the small group all have their moments to be the center of attention. So much so, that while you know Maxine is the odds-on favorite to fill the final girl role as the star of the movie you’re watching and the film within the film, you genuinely question who else may be right beside her at the end.
You don’t have to question that for too long, though, because while the characters are given their time in the sun–even if that sun is on a creepy dock, on a disgusting pond, inhabited by a very large alligator–things eventually take the dark turn that you wish you could put off a little longer because you’re having so much fun with this group.
When the violence starts, it’s brutal, inventive, and often accompanied by great music. Some of the moments you easily see coming, so you squirm in your seat in long anticipation. Others are much more abrupt and catch you off guard. There are a lot of great setups throughout the film that pay off at the perfect time, both in regards to the kills, and with the overall plot.
Classic horror films are traditionally heavy on the violence, and heavy on the sex, and X certainly checks both those boxes, but it’s also heavy on existential thinking, with characters lamenting their stage in life. These themes are carefully woven into the batshit crazy events playing out in the story, and brought to life through crafty camerawork and editing, all perfectly encapsulating the place and time represented. It feels like you’re watching an older film in the best way.
Mia Goth really must be commended for brilliantly playing dual roles both as Maxine and as Pearl under the guise of heavy prosthetics. Her performance helps to add a deeper layer to the story, and it also aided West’s ability to shoot a prequel to the film concurrently. With X, West has delivered an exceptionally fun movie that’s a love letter to classic horror, but also a surreal journey through the unexpected, and at times, very uncomfortable.
