★★★★☆
Ti West’s follow-up to his gnarly slasher X is a viciously good time at the movies. Read our review of Pearl.
Although they never really went away, it felt like Ti West brought slashers back from the dead with his 2022 horror film X. It’s not so much what the film did, but how it did it. The story of a small film crew filming a porn film at a reclusive farm, where they’re suddenly killed one by one by an unlikely killer, was an intriguing story that somewhat abandoned the “elevated horror” style of horror and went for a more grimy, erotic tone.
Mia Goth pulled an impressive double performance as both the final girl Maxine (who is getting her own sequel soon) as well as Pearl, the old woman killing beautiful youngsters in search of her own lost youth. A prequel to X, Pearl was announced soon after, with Goth returning to play a younger version of the titular killer.
Pearl premiered at Venice Film Festival last year to rave reviews and no wonder. This is stylish, well-crafted horror with interesting undertones and themes. If X was about the horror of growing old and the loss of sexuality, Pearl is largely about finding your own desire and acting on it as a form of liberation.
Credit: Universal Pictures
Set in 1918, during the influenza pandemic, the film follows Pearl and her mundane life at her family’s farm. She harbours deep-rooted hatred of her disabled father and her strict mother, who scolds Pearl for not being devoted enough. Pearl learns from her sister-in-law Mitsy that auditions are to be held for a dance troupe and Pearl, who fantasises of a more exciting life in the limelight, sees this as her chance to leave her old life behind and become the star she was destined to be.
For most of its runtime, Pearl isn’t a straightforward horror film but a dramatic character study with a huge helping of violence. It’s one of the rare films that benefits from being a prequel. Pearl is undoubtedly a tragic character, especially as we already know how her story ends.
READ MORE: Actually, slasher films are smarter than you think
Mia Goth delivers a powerhouse performance in the film. She perfectly balances Pearl’s psychotic behaviour and violent tendencies with the more tragic qualities of the character. Goth manages to find tenderness even in moments of the most grotesque violence. Even if Pearl isn’t quite your jam on the whole, it’s hard not to be impressed by Goth’s beautiful, nuanced performance, especially in the film’s final 30 minutes.
Arguably, Pearl is better in its quieter moments. Goth is a lot more compelling during the more internalised moments in Pearl where West and cinematographer Eliot Rockett’s camera just observes the conflicting emotions Pearl is experiencing. The film’s visually dynamic look is obviously modelled after Hollywood Technicolor films of the 1950s.
Credit: Universal Pictures
West’s direction here is confident and he proves to still be a master of tone and tension. Pearl is equally as funny as it is devastating, as well as completely fearless in the exploration of its themes. Pearl’s sexual awakening is juxtaposed with her love of cinema and her increasing desire to inflict violence. The film never resorts to the nastiness of West’s The Sacrament but it also never quite reaches the intensity of The House of the Devil.
Thanks to the influenza pandemic depicted in the film, Pearl feels all too familiar with the COVID pandemic rendering the world still. Characters are terrified of someone bringing the disease into the house; it reminds us of the times we wiped down milk bottles with antibacterial wipes. If Pearl can be considered a pandemic film, it’s one of the best of its kind.
What works against Pearl is its departure from the much grittier style of X. Pearl is a far more ambitious film than X was and that in itself isn’t a bad thing, but it comes at the expense of some of the fun. Pearl is bigger but not necessarily always more effective than X was. Pearl is brutal, emotionally satisfying and horrifying, in all the best ways.
Pearl is in UK cinemas 17 March
