Pearl is Ti West’s origin story of the now famous villain from the hit early 2022 slasher movie X. This villain, Pearl, was the subject of much conversation and speculation about her beginnings when… X premiered in March 2022. But now we finally get to see what brought this character to her breaking point. The first part of Ti West’s growing story was more of a tribute to 1970s slasher movies, but it also introduced audiences to his vision that combines a classic aesthetic with original storytelling.
Pearl takes things to a level audiences have never seen before and is quite ambitious. It represents the fantastic elements that made movies like The Wizard of Oz so unique, but also psychological thrill in the same way as a similar origin story film, joker. West’s recent film revolves around Pearl (Mia Goth) and her reclusive life on a farm in 1918. She begins to derail psychologically and shows the world what she is really capable of. Ti West and co-screenwriter Mia Goth did this world justice by seamlessly merging the two films while leaving speculation about what might come next.
Pearl: a period piece
Like X, which took place in the 1970s, Pearl is very much a period piece. With a setting like 1918, we get to see how the main character deals with elements that plagued the world around her at that moment. The way the opening credits play and the choices in score and soundtrack make for a classic horror presentation we haven’t seen on film in a while.
World War I, the Spanish flu and the rise of movies are crucial factors influencing Pearl’s boiling point. Pearl is housebound with an emotionally abusive mother (Tandi Wright) and a sick father (Matthew Sunderland). Pearl’s mother, Ruth, forces her to live within their four walls and forbids her even to talk about the outside world that goes into the future without her.
One of the elements in this film that connects it to his previous one is the film industry, from silent movies to adult movies. There is a sequence where theater operator (David Corenswet) shows Pearl a movie that no one has seen before. He shows her an adult film and she becomes mesmerized by the rawness and animalistic style. He tells Pearl that this is the future of movies. In the early days of 1918, a movie like the one Pearl witnessed would be hidden from the public eye. However, she sees the return of this industry knocking on her door in X when the group of filmmakers wants to make an adult film on its premises. Pearl just wanted to be loved and be able to share her on-screen talents in any way possible, but there was always a darkness inside her that linked both of her roles.
Mia Goth as Pearl and Maxine
In X, Maxine wanted to break through to stardom and the only way to do that was in the adult entertainment medium. In the 1970s, this type of entertainment boomed and became more accessible than before. Therein lies her chance to be seen and loved by viewers. However, there is a line in the film that connects her character Maxine to her character Pearl, which is much more common when you watch both films in succession.
Maxine: “I don’t accept a life I don’t deserve.”
This rule is mentioned several times everywhere X. However, it’s just as important when seeing Pearl’s breakdown. She is stuck on a farm and has to deal with the same routines over and over again. We see bits of sparkle as she dances in the barn in front of her cattle crowd. She dances and imagines a romantic bond with a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield. She also falls in love with movies that she has to watch in secret from her mother. Pearl sees opportunities to break through and escape a life she doesn’t deserve… or does she?
From the very beginning of the film, Pearl is unhinged. She kills a duck in the first act of the film in a shocking sequence. She tells the film operator that she wishes her parents would die so she could finally get out of it. Was this darkness in Pearl all this time, often keeping her mind off her real thoughts? Perhaps her mother was protecting the world from the monster lurking deep within Pearl. In a shocking and intense quarrel, Pearl’s mother even tells her daughter that she has seen everything she has done in privacy and is afraid of her.
Mia Goth’s performance as Pearl is one of the best characterizations of horror this year, if not in decades. She shows rays of sunshine as she frolicates through the barn and in imaginary sequences on stage. Her smile is warm and inviting, but also hides something. pearl in it X is completely unhinged and is terrifying from the start.
But seeing her as this girl just trying to get out of an emotionally draining household makes her a tragic character. She ventures closer to brutality, admitting that she likes the sense of murder in a nearly seven-minute monologue. But what connects her older character to her younger self is that loss of hope. Pearl’s hopes died when she didn’t enter the audition and was told she wasn’t good enough, confirming her mother’s grin.
Ti West’s direction
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Ti West has evolved as a director in just two films that were miraculously released in the same year. Pearl, just like the masterly of West X, has long series of fear and tension. But also beautiful sequences with sophisticated camera movements and transitions. He lets his characters be in the moment and let the audience absorb their expressions. Pearl could have been made in the early days of cinema, just like X could have been made in the 1970s. The soundtrack of his latest film is orchestral and plays well on the action. However, the beautiful use of colorization makes all images on the screen pop, even those reds.
Like X, this film is beautifully shot, edited and photographed. Cinematographer Elliot Rockett worked on both films in West’s storyline, giving each their own aesthetic reflection of the time period in which it takes place.
Questions and speculations about Pearl
As this storyline expands, more questions arise. At the end of X, the audience asked what could have led Pearl to such a violent and evil way of life, and whether she was always in that frame of mind. After viewing Pearl, the public has the same question… but not from Pearl. Her husband, Howard, was an accomplice and part of the malice in West’s first film X.
However, Howard is abroad in this latest film and comes home to find the aftermath of Pearl’s disasters. He sees her smiling in a disturbingly elongated view. What could have made him stay with her? Did she tell him everything that happened and that she really only cheated on him once? Maybe he tried to protect the world from her from the start, just like her parents.
Ti West continues the story with a sequel to X entitled maXXXine, which is set to follow the protagonist of the first film after the massacre on Pearl’s property. According to the newly released trailer, it will be set in 1980s Hollywood. The film is currently in production and no release date has been confirmed.