Horror fans if asked the question, would all agree that the seventies was a very transformative decade for the genre. Hollywood had finally opened up their perspective on creative and original films that took chances. Because of this shift in focus, many filmmakers who are now looked at as icons of the genre were able to experiment and create some of their greatest works. These include Tobe Hooper with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, George A. Romero with “Dawn Of The Dead”, Bob Clark with “Black Christmas” and the one that everyone thinks of first when asked about 70s horror John Carpenter with “Halloween”. Something that all of these films proved was that you could make some effective and timely horror films even if the budget is low if you allow your artists to work without restrictive boundaries. The smaller budget and the limited capabilities with the technology led to some truly frightening cinema and the limitations caused these filmmakers to get creative and try some bold and new techniques. In modern time, horror has become a genre that everyone knows with many projects coming out every calendar year. A common complaint with those in the horror community is that modern horror is too commercial and there isn’t too much of it that comes off organic or fresh. This is where the topic of discussion comes in as A24 has been helping in the creation of such vibrant and original horror cinema for the last decade. The specific film i’m diving into is X directed by Ti West and the two sequels that came out of it, those being Pearl and MaXXXine.
X follows a film crew who go up to a cabin in hopes to shoot a new porno. They are soon interrupted by the old woman who lives in the house beside the cabin as she begins to kill the film crew one by one. Many would say that this film has a bit of Texas ChaInsaw in it and they would be right. Ti West took the style of Texas Chainsaw and used the formula to dissect the societal changes and politics of the 70s as times were changing drastically. Ti West himself states that “ I wanted this sense of the entrepreneurial Americana of the late ’70s and being an outsider filmmaker trying to break into an industry — whether it’s horror or porn. I just wanted to get that sort of entrepreneurial go-getter spirit of it. Ti West is not an outsider filmmaker in anyway but he wanted to capture the feeling of being a Carpenter or Hooper in the 1970s while also examining the way that cinema was changing as society was becoming more accepting of certain ideas. With X and the two sequels that make up the trilogy, Ti pitched the concept of the trilogy to A24 and they were on board with the concept right away. Ti states “It’s very strange, but it’s cool. I’m super grateful to [the distributor] A24. When I first pitched it to them, I was like, “X” can come out and then we can announce “Pearl,” and it can come out soon after — that will be so fun. We’ll never get that opportunity ever again, because this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.” A24 liked the concept of doing these movies as they felt very much like something that no one else was doing. The vision was clear with Ti and he was channeling those indie filmmaker stylings with this concept. X had a budget of 1 million dollars, which to some people might be a lot but in comparison to films being made at this moment in history, it’s definitely a low budget even for horror films. Like Carpenter and Hooper previously, West was given a small budget and because of his choice to make it feel like a 70s film he also gave himself some restrictions in terms of the technology leading Ti to put himself in the shoes of those who came before him.
Production for the film was quite fascinating as Ti West shot the film and the prequel “Pearl” during the COVID pandemic. They shot the film mostly in New Zealand as their COVID numbers were not as large as those in the US. The setting of the farmhouse and cabin helped with the safety precautions at that moment because the only people we see in this film are the needed characters and no one else. Both films don’t rely on scenes with a crazy amount of extras as it would have been to unsafe at that moment. Because the film was shot during the lockdown, the film’s size had to be smaller than some, but that wasn’t really a concern for the crew as the film was already a low budget horror film and they would have to cut corners already. The setting of the world at that period was almost fitting as the way that this film was shot and the story contained in the film felt very personal and small. The film shot for only one month from February 16thto March 16th. The crew utilized the size of the film to quickly get the film fully shot. That shoot time is quite impressive as the film looks really good and they also had to deal with the prosthetics that Mia Goth had to get into to play Pearl. The crew used their short time in New Zealand effectively as they were able to complete the bulk of the filming for X and they still had some time on the backend for Ti and Mia to shoot Pearl right after.
The film was screened at South by Southwest on March 13th 2022 to very positive reviews. Some stated that the film was a triumphant gory return to form while others states that the film was one of the best at the festival. The film was released wide a week later on March 18th. Those in attendance during its first week shared the sentiments of those who saw it at South by Southwest as the scores on certain review pages were heavily positive. Rotten Tomatoes has X at a 94% for critics and a 75% for audiences. The film went on to gross 4 million on its opening weekend and 13 million as a whole worldwide on a 1 million dollar budget. Looking at those numbers on a commercial level, the film was a success as it made 13 times its budget just in theatres alone. That number isn’t counting how well it did on physical or on digital platforms like iTunes and Google Play. The film did very well commercially and critically and that’s because of the fresh approach to the genre and the smaller budget that would make it hard for the film to be a failure.
The film did really well on a commercial basis, but did it do well artistically. This is where my read on the film will come into play. The film took the style of 70s horror (specifically grindhouse) and porn films at that time and used the aesthetic to dissect both concepts and their impacts and people’s perceptions of them at that moment in time. The film shows off how society disregards the idea of these films at that moment through the opinions of those around the film crew (specifically the old couple at the farm). They spend the first half of the film sneaking around and shooting the film and the second half running around trying to escape the old woman as she kills the crew because of some deep jealousy. They showcase through this narrative how taboo the idea of horror films, pornos and sex in general was to society in the 70s. Many of the horror films at the time were a warning to teens at that time period. They tried to scare teens from doing anything irresponsible. This film does quite the opposite as it sees the act of sex specifically as more of a positive thing.
The whole motive of the old woman is that she just wants to have sex and no one wants to have it with her. The lack of sex leads her to snap and kill people. She feels undesired leading her to take it out on those that she sees as desired. It flips the script and offers a more sex positive story over the traditional warning tale that we usually get in the genre and that shift is probably based upon that fact that as a society we have gotten more comfortable with talking about these “touchy subjects” such as sexuality. Maxine survives to the end because she is comfortable in herself. The others feel at a loss with themselves or others in the crew but Maxine knows who she is throughout the film. This seems like Ti West is sending a message of being comfortable with ones self in terms of every aspect of ones being with a focus on a person’s sexuality. Ti West takes this old formula and breathes new life into it as be changes the focus from being scared of what we are unsure about in ourselves to being getting in tune with ourselves to a comfortable point. Ti West uses scenes of them shooting the movie to showcase the taboo and show the audience that there isn’t anything wrong with it. This definitely harkens back to the way that people treated horror films and sex at that time. They were taboo concepts that should be avoided, but once people actually took time to learn, they realized that it wasn’t something evil. Seeing the film shoot scenes in the theatre was definitely was a bit off putting at the time, but that’s the point that Ti was trying to make. He was trying to take the taboo out of the concept. It was weird to see with other people in a theatre, but as time went on, I understood what Ti West was trying to say by using the imagery. We are trained by society to find those things taboo and shocking, but in actuality they are natural parts of life that we all (including myself) experience and we as humans are drawn to it because we are meant to.
The film also tackles ageism very well. Ti West uses the lens of horror to examine how we as society deem old age as undesirable. When we see the young actors having sex, the scene is bright and they use shots and music that makes the act seem very desirable, but when we get to the scene where the old people have sex, the scene is shot with dark colours and an anxiety inducing score. Ti is taking this act and showing how it’s seen differently depending on whether you’re seen as desirable or not socially. That’s something that I caught onto right after I saw the film and it has stuck with me since.
If we want to look at the film on a purely aesthetic level, Ti West does that very well. He clearly is inspired by those films that came out in the 70s and he does everything he can to make it feel like those films. From the camera lens, to the colour grading, to the dialogue and the songs on the soundtrack, Ti West crafts a 70s nightmare akin to those he cites as inspirations. The budget helps that out too as he makes an authentic low budget horror film like one you would have seen at that moment in time. He uses the style accurately to examine the substance of the story and the time period that the film is set in. Because he decided to keep it authentically 70s, he was able to examine how people in that period viewed horror films and sex and how that affected those who found themselves apart of those two communities. Ti West beautifully takes the style and structure of a 70s horror film and asks the question “why were we afraid of horror films and sex in the first place?” Ti West took the path that those 70s icons took in terms of production and storytelling to promote a sex positive message that also ended up becoming a very profitable film that led to Ti creating a very smart and thought provoking trilogy of horror films that will be remembered for the rest of time. My own feelings about the film are quite simple, I love this film and I very much appreciate the big picture that Ti is going for with this trilogy. Ti crafted a successful horror film and trilogy that examines the genre and the beliefs around that said community and it ended up being a very profitable and engaging film that proves that low budget horror cinema is still alive and well.
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