By: Samantha Romano
Ti West’s X is a genre-bending horror film that follows a group of people traveling to rural Texas for a filming location, though is inhabited by an elderly couple with a thirst for blood. It’s a nostalgia festival for any slasher lover with a myriad of references to the genres’ greatest hits. What differs Ti’s work from other similar works was his open criticism of female victimization.
It’s no secret that horror movies love watching women die…brutally. Audiences have become desensitized to these deaths and might not realize the underlying implications. Female victimization has progressed to a point just short of snuff films. Grace Lemons writes “whether you believe that film reflects culture or culture reflects film, traditional depictions of women within this genre perpetuate violence inflicted toward women and a suppression of female sexuality”.
Have we, on a large-scale, questioned why the entirety of the horror genre loves to watch women be brutally mutilated after engaging in sexual activity? We’re punished for promiscuity while most serial killers never face accountability. Additionally, the genres’ slashers are idolized while female victimization becomes the butt of the joke.
These concerns are addressed masterfully in X. Mia Goth plays Maxine, a former preacher’s daughter turned amateur pornstar. She represents promiscuity, temptation, and most overarchingly female sexuality. Another character is Lorraine, the girlfriend of the cameraman played by Jenna Ortega. Lorraine is highly unsupportive of the fact her boyfriend is filming an adult film. Her innocence represents the typical “final girl” trope. Think Sidney Prescott from Scream.
The two characters represent the conflict between female sexuality and purity. Audiences are expected to think that Maxine would be the first to die. Her so-called impurity is shown off very early in the film and typical horror plots dictate those characters never make it far. Lorraine faces the opposite problem with her survival almost being guaranteed. Throughout the movie, Ti West even plays with his audiences. Several moments show Maxine being an inch from death’s door leaving us on the edge of our seats. Ortega on the other hand escapes every dangerous situation (despite discovering her dead boyfriend) almost the entire movie…until she doesn’t. Her death was sudden and caused by nothing but her cruel judgment of Maxine.
Mia Goth opened the doors for a whole new generation of final girls. Her character broke the rules of who traditionally is allowed to fit this trope. Maxine’s popularity shows directors that audiences are tired of seeing imperfect, innocent role models. Audiences want characters they resonate with. That means creating flawed, complex characters that might require a little bit more depth to understand than the one-dimensional roles women are typically casted in.
The next installment Maxxxine is expected to follow Goth’s character as she navigates early stardom in Hollywood. There’s no release date yet but viewers like me await anxiously to see how the next installment will further break the curse of female victimization in horror.