As an origin story, Ti West’s prequel to his hit horror comedy X seems under-conceived, and, according to reports, West and his star, Mia Goth, mostly came up with the idea on the fly not long after X finished shooting, fully confident that they could make it quickly. In X, Goth played two roles, that of a crew member of a porn shoot on a Texas farm in the 70s, and that of Pearl, the sex-crazed old lady who terrorizes the production. X didn’t explain how Pearl had turned into an axe murderer. Pearl the movie attempts to.

And just as X successfully achieved a 70s-era production design look, Pearl achieves an even more retro feel, mimicking mid-century Hollywood Technicolor movies replete with big musical cues and an eye-popping credit sequence. Set in 1918 when World War I and the flu pandemic were happening simultaneously, the movie takes place on the same Texas farm where X took place, with Pearl a teenage bride whose husband is fighting in Europe and who dreams of becoming a professional dancer and maybe even a film star. Her strict mother (Tandi Wright) forbids her to even think about it and orders her to take care of her catatonic, wheelchair-bound father (Matthew Sunderland). But the headstrong Pearl is determined to be on the silver screen, and secretly sneaks away one day to participate in a regional audition for a film studio, encouraged by the local movie house projectionist (David Corenswet), the town’s self-styled “Bohemian,” who also has the hots for Pearl and, at one point, shows her a contraband stag film from France, where he promises to take her someday.

It’s not revealing much to say that all of Pearl’s dreams are dashed and that it’s this disappointment that brings out her  cruelty, which, so far, she’s only visited upon barnyard critters. Though the tone up to this point has been that of a playful pastiche of all the old film cliches you’d expect, the murder scenes lack anything distinctive, either as comedy or horror. And because this is a prequel, the movie also feels truncated, unfinished, even if you’ve seen X. There’s not a whole lot of obvious continuity between teenage Pearl and the crazy old lady, unless you assume, after seeing Pearl, that she’s driven to murder not so much because of the sex she witnesses, but rather because she’s reminded of her stalled show biz career. Still, I’m not curious enough to want to sit through X again just to find out.

Opens July 7 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Shibuya Cine Quinto (03-3477-5905), Shibuya Parco White Cine Quinto (03-6712-7225), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Pearl home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2022 Origin Picture Show LLC