Search results
People also ask
Is 2022 X a good movie?
What makes X a good movie?
Is X a good slasher?
Is X a good horror movie?
94% Tomatometer 226 Reviews 75% Audience Score 500+ Verified Ratings In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts...
- Read Critic Reviews
X is a daring slasher, filled with unexpected twists that...
- X Pictures
X Pictures and Photo Gallery -- Check out just released X...
- Read Critic Reviews
Mar 14, 2022 · Ti West's X is a loving and meticulous tribute to the 1979 horror classic, set in the same year and featuring a porn-film plot. The film captures the look, the mood, and the skill of the original, and delivers genuine scares and suspense.
Mar 17, 2022 · NYT Critic’s Pick. Directed by Ti West. Horror. R. 1h 45m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. “X”...
- The Texas Softcore Massacre
- The 13 Best Horror Movies of 2021
- Which 2022 horror film are you most looking forward to?
- Verdict
By Siddhant Adlakha
Updated: Mar 17, 2022 6:05 pm
Posted: Mar 17, 2022 2:00 pm
X will hit theaters on March 18, 2022.
A ’70s slasher throwback, X is writer-director Ti West’s first film in six years, and his first horror movie in nearly a decade. It feels, in many ways, like an antidote to several recent horror trends, like the self-professed sheen of “prestige horror” from distributors like A24 (who, as it happens, distributed X as well, and manage to have their cake and eat it too). In less intentional course correction, it’s also more cutting homage to Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chain Saw Massacre than the recent Netflix sequel, which drops the ball in many respects. Set in a secluded farmhouse near Houston in 1979, and following a group of low-budget porno filmmakers, X manages to be fun, thoughtful, and even innovative on occasion, even if its eventual thrills and kills end up peaking rather early.
What makes X especially enticing during its lengthy setup is its characters, who we meet as they pack themselves into a van (winkingly marked “Plowing Service”) en route to the secluded setting. Maxine (Mia Goth), an image-obsessed porn star harboring hints of a mysterious past, is the other woman in the recently crumbled marriage of her producer Wayne (Martin Henderson), who brings the smoothness (and occasional shirtless-ness) of early romcom Matthew McConaughey, but the subtle seediness of McConaissance roles like Dallas in Magic Mike. Maxine is Wayne’s “next big thing,” though she has to share the screen with a more experienced adult actress, the sweet but feisty Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow), who has indelible pre-existing chemistry with their co-star Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi a.k.a Kid Cudi), a man who hides his insecurities behind a gruff façade. Rounding out the main cast is RJ (Owen Campbell), a young filmmaker trying to get his start by bringing an avant-garde sensibility to the production — much of X’s commentary on “prestige horror” stems from his misguided perspective — and RJ’s shy, sheltered girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), who agrees to help him work the sound equipment without realizing he’s making porn, but who eventually warms up to the idea (much to his dismay).
The characters are fleshed out from the word go, making their every interaction delightful as they head towards inevitable doom; X opens after the bloodshed is dispensed with, but it doesn’t hint at who exactly has died, or how, before flashing back to the previous day. It has no pretense about being anything but a gnarly, cheap-thrills horror flick first and foremost, as unapologetic as the X-rated movie its characters are filming. This comparison comes up implicitly and often, both through dialogue — RJ wants to bring an artistic sensibility to the porno’s story, but the stars insist that people are just going to watch it for the sex — and through a number of fascinating cross-cuts between the actual plot and the film within the film, as tension builds in both stories and X attempts to draw a straight line between sex and violence in the American psyche. It doesn’t always succeed — its initial attempt at commenting on this connection is the overt and clunky appearance of a fear-mongering preacher on TV — but before long, this dynamic takes hold in the movie’s cleverly conceived antagonists.
The cast and crew are hosted by a suspicious, shotgun-toting elderly gentleman with wandering eyes, Howard (Stephen Ure), whose only instructions involve staying clear of the main house and sticking to the nearby guest lodging, so as not to disturb his easily confused wife, Pearl. The trailers already hint at a story in which this aged, demented old woman creeps out of the shadows and is eventually involved in some of the bloodshed, so there’s no real surprise when things go awry in her presence. However, what is surprising is the role she plays in the film’s overt themes. Maxine is the center of attention for Wayne (and for director West), and her dreams of stardom are expressed alongside lingering doubts, even though she insists on projecting a confident vanity as she struts about the property. Pearl is immediately drawn to Maxine, as a reflection of her own lost youth and sexuality; in a move that engenders a strange and complicated sympathy, West casts Goth in the role of Pearl as well, burying her underneath eerie makeup, but intrinsically connecting Pearl’s wistful jealousies to Maxine’s own fears of fleeting time and temporary youth.
The Black Phone
Nope
Halloween Ends
Morbius
Don't Worry Darling
Other -- let us know in the comments.
While its gnarly payoffs eventually peter out, X is filled with fun and intense setups that harken back to classic slasher fare. A story of a doomed porn crew shooting in the middle of nowhere, it has the makings of a traditional splatter-fest, but injects its story with an unexpected sympathy for its cleverly conceived villains.
- Siddhant Adlakha
35 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com. There are some tremendous misdirects, effective jump scares, and literal piles of gore. There just happens to be plenty of brains to go with all that blood. Ti West’s X is a strange and wonderful return to form for the indie-horror phenom, an ode to the life-altering magic of cheap and dirty horror ...
Mar 19, 2022 · Read: The most purely enjoyable horror movie made in years. X is spearheaded by a pair of performances by the same actor, Mia Goth, who plays Maxine, one of the stars of the porno, and (buried...
