Sommerleigh Pollonais, Horror Head Writer
Plot: In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas. But when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives.
Review: I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter about this movie since its release, with word of mouth claiming it’s a must-see filled to the brim with all the decadence and depravity of yesteryear. I’m paraphrasing here but the gist of it all is X (named for the rating given to adult/pornographic films) is “excellent”. After watching it for myself, I can admit that a lot of the praise is well deserved, but as far as excellent goes, that might be a bit of an overstatement.
The story of a group of actors who set out to make a porno and run afoul of an elderly couple (think Boogie Nights meets TCM) is both instantly hilarious and rife with old school possibilities, most of which director Ti West (The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers) expertly tackles. First and foremost, X looks fantastic. I would go as far as to say it’s the best looking horror I’ve seen for the year thus far. With an opening that brings to mind The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and a hook that immediately draws your attention, West deftly delivers with his meta take on filmmaking, in this case a porno inside of a horror movie, and his themes that revolve around youth, beauty, aging and envy.
The visuals are the definitive strength of this film that draws inspiration from classics such as the aforementioned TCM, Friday the 13th, Psycho and The Evil Dead (it’s all about that creepy house our aspiring stars are staying in). Hell, even the colours and kills bring to mind giallo flicks like Blood and Black Lace. Basically West is having a ball paying homage to these genre classics while trying to make one of his own. The music, the visual filters with its grainy look and sepia tones, these all show the director did his homework when it comes to the adult films of the 70s and (not surprisingly) how well that particular genre fits with horror, as anyone who grew up watching the classics know sex and death tend to go hand in hand.
I also have to give props to the cast as well who bring these characters to life. Each and everyone felt true to the timeline the story was set in with Brittany Snow (Prom Night, Pitch Perfect) hamming it up as a mid-Western Marilyn Monroe type (or maybe adult film actress Bambi Woods of Debbie Does Dallas is a better fit considering), rapper Kid Cudi nailing it as her co-star and sometimes boyfriend Jackson, and Martin Henderson, who most will recognise from 2002’s The Ring, as their producer and the one who came up with the idea to shoot their movie in the countryside.
Rounding out the cast is Owen Campbell (Super Dark Times, Depraved) as director RJ, Jenna Ortega (Scream 2022, The Babysitter 2) as RJ’s girlfriend Lorraine, and Mia Goth (Suspiria 2018, A Cure for Wellness) as aspiring star Maxine who, and I mean this in the most respectable of ways, has a look that was made for 70’s X-rated movies. Goth plays dual roles here as both the beautiful Maxine and the old but still very randy Pearl, another smart choice by West as these characters could almost be mirrors of each other.
I honestly don’t think the film would’ve worked as well as it did if not for the cast who makes you genuinely care for them and their survival. Showing a true love of the genre, West (who also wrote X) subverts a lot of what you would expect from a film such as this by taking character types that would normally be written as one-dimensional and disposable and making them the ones you’ll want to root for, instead of just expecting them to die in horribly entertaining ways.
The film also has a great sense of humour, granted a nasty one, and while it’s gory as all hell, you can’t help but smile at over the top ridiculousness of it all. Pearl and her husband Howard are not the usual antagonists of slashers, so I found myself laughing out loud while also cringing at every creepy thing these old bags got up to. Unlike Jason or Freddy, no one is going to see these two coming until it’s too late, which makes for more than a few memorable kills.
Where things get messy is when the film switches up its tone and the Meta stuff takes a backseat to the more common slashers we get today. Some of the cinematography, while well utilised to tell the story, hurt the overall feel they were going for and it would pull me out of the experience. An example of this was a moment where the scene was shot in split screen to depict what was going on in two locations at the same time. I get what West was trying to do but it didn’t gel for me with the whole 70’s atmosphere and I instantly felt disconnected from the story in that moment. And as for the story, there’s not much here beyond a simple tale of a road trip gone wrong.
In the end X is a movie that I can see people enjoying to the fullest on their first viewing due to the beautiful cinematography and fun characters (not to mention all the nudity), but beyond the visual or visceral there isn’t much left. And unlike the classics this film draws inspiration from it doesn’t leave much of a lasting impact.
I’ll remember Leatherface dancing with a chainsaw while poor Sally loses her mind in the back of that pickup truck for the rest of my life, but ask me in five years how X ended and I’m pretty sure my response will be, “I have no idea”.
Sommer’s Score: 6.5 out of 10
So have you seen X? What is your take on it? And you can check out more slasher content below:
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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