Pearl Review

Pearl is a prequel to the slasher throwback X. This film shows the origins of X’s slasher villain.

Pearl (Mia Goth) is a Texan farm girl who lives with her mother (Tandi Wright) and disabled father (Matthew Sunderland). She longs to leave her hum-drum life and become a dancing star in the pictures. She may get a chance when a dancing trope plans to host audiences in her town. Pearl just needs to overcome her dominating mother and her own sadistic tendencies.

X was a throwback to slasher films from the ‘70s and ‘80s with its styling and storytelling. It was a solid horror with lots of tension, but it was a simple picture. Pearl was a more character-driven film and that made it a much more interesting experience. Pearl felt more fitting to A24’s back catalogue because of its themes and classical approach.

Pearl was a Norman Bates-like figure, a morally questionable person who has a dominating mother. On one hand, Pearl seems like an all-American girl who enjoys dancing in front of her farm animals, dressing up, and going to the pictures but also has sadistic traits. She’s willing to kill her animals and harms her father because he wasn’t able to defend himself. Pearl’s actions could be interpreted in numerous ways. Her abuse of her dad could be seen as acting out her resentment, punishment for an unspoken trauma, or simply because she enjoyed causing pain to others.

Pearl was a character that was filled with resentment. She was resentful of her mother for her harsh discipline and for making her work on the farm. She was resentful of her husband who left to serve in Europe. Pearl did come across as a twisted version of The Wizard of Oz, particularly the 1939 film. Pearl was Dorothy who was trapped on a drab farm and longs to escape from her elderly dominating guardians. A direct reference to The Wizard of Oz was when Pearl goes into a cornfield and finds a scarecrow and her conflicted personality was on display when she interacted with it.

Pearl was also a sexually repressed character. She’s married but her husband was overseas, her mother was a religious woman and she lived in a time where any sexual activity outside of marriage was frowned upon, to say the least. Yet Pearl was a woman with desires, and she becomes drawn to the handsome projectionist who shows her a blue movie. It foreshadows Pearl’s journey and the thematic throughline in X.

Ti West wanted to pay homage to golden era Hollywood with Pearl. The film started with a grand opening with its title card, bright Technicolor cinematography, and music. A fantasy dance sequence felt like something that came from a classic Hollywood musical. The performances also had a grandiose quality to them. The character of The Projectionist (David Corenswet) felt like he could have been a rakish love interest in a classic film. Goth gave a larger-than-life performance yet she really got to shine when she gave an emotional monologue near the end of the film.

Pearl attempted to bring in some wider themes beyond the domestic situation. It was set in 1919, just after the First World War. Pearl’s mother was concerned about anti-German discrimination and the Spanish Flu was rampant. These issues made Pearl’s mother wary leading her to try and shelter her family as much as possible. The images of people walking around in face masks and worrying about a deadly pandemic will make audiences think of more recent events.

Pearl was a grand picture that mixed classical Hollywood, a psychological analysis of a troubled character, and a bloody horror film.