While you can watch scary movies all year long, October is objectively the best time to watch it. And this October, I have been looking at the concept of the horror series. There are a lot of really great older series, Freddy Kreuger, Chucky, Jason, but are there a lot of new ones? I would say in recent years, the horror movie sequel has come back into style, and one of my favorite ones is the X trilogy from A24. X, Pearl, and MaXXXine, starring Mia Goth, is a type of horror that’s not only scary and gory, but camp. It mixes time periods and storylines, telling them out of order in a way that gets you hooked. Now in my experience, I watched them out of release order, and accidentally watched them in chronological order. They were released in the order of X, Pearl, and MaXXXine, but they chronologically go Pearl, X, MaXXXine, which is how I watched them. Funny enough, this was not on purpose either. I went and saw Pearl on a whim, and went home and realized it was the second movie in a series. With this in mind, I’m going to talk about these movies in chronological order today, rather than release, because that’s how I first saw the series.Â
Pearl, 2022
The first (chronological) movie, Pearl, came out on September 16th, 2022, and was directed by Ti West. The movie is set in 1918 on a small rural farm, and follows the character of Pearl, who wants more from her life than this farm. She lives here with her conservative German parents, with a father who is paralyzed and a mother who is cruel. The curiosity she holds for the world and the entertainment industry is frowned upon by her mother, making her feel ashamed for normal curiosity. As the movie goes on, though, Pearl (Mia Goth) begins to go from a sympathetic character, to a monster of sorts. We see the inside of her twisted mind as the movie goes on and begins to turn. It’s chilling, gruesome and uncomfortable from beginning to end. Ti West had some gorgeous shots and narrative choices within this movie, which makes it a cult classic in my mind. Pearl’s life story is dull and sad from the beginning, but the movie is juxtaposed with colors similar to The Wizard of Oz, when Technicolor first began to be used. It creates a vibe that you don’t really know how to follow, but are hooked on from the beginning. When I saw it in theatres, I had no idea where it was going from start to finish, and I left with my jaw on the floor. It was visually and audibly gorgeous, but haunting within the story, which left me thinking about it for weeks.Â
X, 2022
The second (chronological) movie, X, came out on March 18th, 2022 and was directed by Ti West. This movie jumps forwards 60 years, and is set in 1979, following a troupe of Adult Film actors getting ready to film a movie. They rent out a guest home on Howard and Pearl’s farm to film the movie, but don’t inform them of their real intentions for being there. Something to note here, both Pearl and Maxine are played by Mia Goth throughout the entire series. Pearl has an infatuation with Maxine, due to how much she reminds her of herself in her youth. She watches her throughout their entire time at the farm, trying to essentially live her youth again. With this, Pearl begins losing it when she is not seen as the young sensual woman she wants to be, and the insanity of the rest of the movie ensues. If you watch the movie Pearl first, like I did, it is less surprising when this old woman begins going insane, but if you watch this movie first, it comes out of NOWHERE. The cast in this movie is stacked, and it really cemented Mia Goth’s place in the horror genre. Some other famous faces in this movie are Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, and Kid Cudi! The thing I think separates this movie from the others is the mix of sensuality and horror together. It is a prevalent theme in all three movies, but with the idea of the troupe filming an adult film, it is very prevalent here. It mixes the feelings of fear and lust together, changing the ways that both emotions are used. These two things don’t usually go together, but are successful in creating the sinister and alluring vibe of this entire movie.Â
MaXXXine, 2024
The third move, MaXXXine, came out on July 5th, 2024 and was directed by Ti West. This movie jumps forwards ANOTHER 20 years from X and is set in 1985, following Maxine as she is expanding herself as a “real” actor. The movie opens with an interesting clip of her and her father, where he is having her repeat the words, “I will not accept a life I do not deserve.” over and over again on tape. She is still working as an adult film actor, doing movies along with a peep show, while also working at a VHS store. Throughout the entire movie, she is trying to continue her work moving away from the adult industry into the horror industry, while concealing her past that we see within X. There are multiple factors working against her, from a dirty PI, a leather clad figure following her, to the LAPD themselves. Something different about this movie is the use of The Night Stalker as a figure, who was a real serial killer in L.A. at the time, named Richard Ramirez. He’s used to show the real fear people were having at this time in L.A. while not necessarily being the main villain of this storyline… or maybe he is… This one is not my favorite of the three, but is a really interesting take on the ideas of televangelism (you have to watch it to understand this point, so sorry, not!), women’s places in society, and trying to make yourself better as a person, and the ways the world can work against you.Â
With all of this in mind, I’m hoping I’ve persuaded at least SOME of you to check out this new, in my opinion, cult classic horror trilogy. It explores ideas of women’s identities, femininity, the adult film industry, and how your time period can affect you in a way I haven’t seen done before. Both Pearl and Maxine have been some of my favorite “cool girl” Halloween costumes in the past year as well, because there are so many different ways it can be done. I know for me, it’s a yearly watch that I love to show to someone new or watch on my own. Ti West has done a wonderful job with Mia Goth in developing this trilogy in a way that is not only visually gorgeous, but also intellectually rich. After this, I hope you choose to watch it, and have a fun and spooky watching experience! Get your friends together, and have an unhinged watch party even! And maybe don’t watch them all in one day, from personal experience. Happy spooky season!Â