'X' by Ti West - Movie Review

 by Rhett Rhodes @rhettrhodes98

    Just like everyone else, every year I am absorbed by some kind of new A24 movie. A24 of course being the film production company responsible for some of the most successful and bizarrely entertaining hit films such as Harmony Korine's 2013 film Springe Breakers, and 2018's Hereditary. While that first film I named is a personal favorite, the latter of the two I named was insanely successful worldwide and has literally become something of a cult classic. I'm not going to lie, but I firmly believe that Ti West is on his way there with this film.

    Taking place in the year 1979, the film follows a group of people who try to secretly make a pornographic film on a rural farm that is owned by an elderly couple named Howard and Pearl. I mean that plot alone could definitely bring in just about anybody, but to be honest I truly wanted to see this movie because of the people who were in it and the decade it takes place in. Anytime a movie that has a budget of one million dollars (like the movie I'm talking about) can manage to make an entire period piece using whatever they can, it's going to be a pretty bomb movie. And I definitely did enjoy this movie.

    The acting for sure had me hooked the entire time, and I can for sure why Mia Goth and Jenna Ortega are top billed on this one. They actually did incredibly; convincingly on screen and in such horrifying and strange situations, I could literally feel the anxiety during their scenes in general. And (SPOILER WARNING) when I say I liked Mia Goth's acting and felt the anxiety, I of course am talking about when she is portraying Maxine, although it's fair to note that she did well as Pearl. The make-up department did not do it justice for Pearl either; they made her look like she had just gotten out of a terrible forest fire. Scott Mescudi, a.k.a. Kid Cudi also did really well in this for it being his first major role in a horror film. Surprisingly to me he has a lot more roles in other films and things, but this movie tops pretty much them all as it sticks out a bit and to be honest it was promoted heavily all over the internet.

    The special effect and  make-up (besides Pearl) were phenomenal. I watched this movie with my girlfriend and even she thought a lot of the death scenes and stuff looked pretty realistic. My only true issue is the overly dramatic blood splatter in the last half of the film. A lot of the violence seemed unnecessarily gory, almost like they wanted to be overly shocking on purpose. In one scene Martin Henderson's character Wayne searches the barn for RJ and accidentally steps on a large nail, and when he pulls it out a huge stream of blood unrealistically shoots out; it doesn't ooze out, it just jumps right out of that foot, and then he walks on it to go investigate a shadow behind the back barn door.

    At the end of it all, this was an incredibly fun movie to watch and the ending was nearly panic inducing as I was always so overly excited to see what happens. This movie has not a lot of jump scares as it's genuinely creepy in many, many other ways but I'll have you know I jumped unironically at scenes that weren't supposed to make anyone jump. If you like a raunchier slasher film, definitely give this one a try! The prequel 'Pearl' which was filmed back to back with this one, is set to release theatrically tomorrow, Friday, September 16th.

6.6/10