X Review

X sees horror filmmaker Ti West and the acclaimed production company A24 team up for the ‘70s set slasher flick.

In 1979, a small team of actors and a crew from Houston go to a farm to film a pornographic film. The team included Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), a cocaine-addicted porn star, and her producer boyfriend, Wayne (Martin Henderson), the director RJ Nichols (Owen Campbell) who wants to make an artistic porn film, and his meek girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega). Completing the team are the experienced porn stars Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and Jackson (Scott Mescudi). Whilst on the farm the crew must deal with the odd elderly couple as well as the production challenges of indie filmmaking.

A24 has an amazing reputation. In their decade’s long period of operating they have produced and distributed many acclaimed films like Eighth Grade, Amy, Lady Bird, and Room, just to name a few. They have played a major role in the rise of the elevated horror movement of the 2010s. They distributed Robert Eggers and Ari Aster’s first couple of films, and they even produced three of the four. So, the bar was set really high for X.

Considering A24’s previous work X was an unexpected film. It was less an art-house horror and more a throwback to ‘70s slasher films. The film critic Mathew Buck jokingly dubbed the film “Texas Deep Throat Massacre.” That was an apt description of X because it was a mix of the oddball terror of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the sexual liberation of the famous porn film Deep Throat.

X does have a typical setup for a horror-thriller: it sees a group of city slickers go to a conservative, rural area and meet hostile locals. This happened in films like Deliverance and Straw Dogs and happens again in X. The slasher genre has a conservative tint to them because many of them focus on teens whose hedonism gets punished. X pushes the idea to the extreme since the lead characters were working in the sex industry – there were going to be a lot of titties.

Social conservatism had a big presence in the film. Throughout the film there was a religious sermon that was playing on TV. It was typical preaching of morality. As the film crew goes deeper into the countryside they receive judgement and disapproval from the locals. The elderly couple was suffering from sexual frustration and because of this they took it out on the film crew. Pearl (also played by Goth) becomes obsessed with Maxine, and the young woman triggers Pearl’s sex drive, something that can’t be fulfilled. X does play on the issue of generational conflict. The film crew and the elderly couple had different attitudes on sex and social issues and this does tap into a modern issue since there is currently a big clash between generations.

X had a bit of commentary about the horror. RJ had ambitions to make an artistic porn film. He wanted to prove that porn can be more than smut. This was how horror movies, especially the slasher subgenre used to be seen by critics. Within the film there was a clash between paying homage to the schlocky nature and style of ‘70s grindhouse with a more avant-garde style of editing because there were transitions that quickly cut between two establishing shots.

X did have a similarity to the original Halloween because the killings don’t happen until the final third of the runtime. The majority of X focused on the character interactions between the crew as they made their film. West ensured the film had an eerie atmosphere due to Pearl’s voyeurism. She was obsessed with Maxine and the audience didn’t know how she was going to act. There were also moments of tension like when Maxine goes for a swim in the river and there was an alligator nearby. There was a wonderful use of music to heighten the tension in scenes even if the outcome could be foreseen.

When the killings do happen X becomes an extremely gory affair. It was extremely violent and shocking: it was one of the most violent films I have seen in a while. One character’s fate was particularly shocking and horrific. It was a film that deserved its 18 rating.

X isn’t as deep as other horror films made by A24. It was a cinematic throwback that happened to have some of the stylings of the elevated horror movement. For fans of a more exploitive style of horror, they should get a kick out of X.