In the sweltering Texas dusk, a group of ambitious filmmakers stumble into a farmhouse where time itself hungers for fresh blood.

Ti West’s X (2022) emerges as a razor-sharp revival of the slasher genre, wielding the terror of aging as its most potent weapon. This film not only pays homage to 1970s exploitation cinema but also dissects the brutal collision between youthful bravado and the inexorable decay of the body, offering a mirror to our own fears of obsolescence.

  • West masterfully blends classic slasher conventions with a poignant exploration of aging, turning the elderly killers into tragic yet monstrous figures.
  • The film’s dual timeline and prequel ties elevate it beyond mere gore, creating a rich tapestry of regret, desire, and violence.
  • Through practical effects and atmospheric tension, X critiques the porn industry while unearthing profound anxieties about time’s cruel passage.

The Farmhouse That Time Forgot

Deep in the rural heart of 1970s Texas, X unfolds on an isolated farm owned by the reclusive Pearl and Howard. A crew of young adults—led by the ambitious producer-protagonist Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), her boyfriend RJ (Owen Campbell), the starlet Bobby-Lane (Brittany Snow), sound technician Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), and the grizzled cameraman Howard (Martin Henderson)—arrives to shoot an adult film in secret. What begins as a hedonistic escape spirals into nightmare when the hosts reveal their festering resentments. Pearl, a woman trapped in the twilight of her years, harbours a deadly envy for the vitality she has lost, while Howard’s infirmity masks a predatory instinct. The narrative meticulously builds tension through the mundane rhythms of farm life clashing with the crew’s urban excess, culminating in a series of visceral kills that echo the primal savagery of early slashers like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

West structures the plot with deliberate pacing, intercutting the main action with glimpses of Pearl’s backstory, foreshadowing the prequel Pearl. This non-linear tease enriches the viewing experience, transforming simple stalk-and-slash into a meditation on life’s unfulfilled promises. Key sequences, such as the ill-fated dinner where the crew dines with their hosts, drip with unease; every clink of cutlery underscores the generational chasm. The film’s production history adds layers: shot back-to-back with Pearl during the pandemic, X benefited from West’s meticulous planning, allowing for shared locations and heightened authenticity in the decaying farm sets.

Legends of rural horror permeate the story, drawing from real American folklore of isolated farms hiding dark secrets. West invokes the cannibalistic family of Tobe Hooper’s influence without direct imitation, instead focusing on psychological rot. The crew’s decision to film porn on the property nods to the era’s adult industry boom, critiquing exploitation from both sides of the lens.

Youth’s Arrogant Flame Against Age’s Smouldering Ruin

At X‘s core lies the brutal theme of aging, personified in Pearl’s grotesque longing. Mia Goth’s portrayal captures a woman whose dreams curdled decades ago, her body a battlefield of sagging flesh and unquenched desire. Scenes where Pearl gazes at her reflection or attempts a seductive dance reveal not just horror but pathos—a desperate clawing at youth’s receding shore. This mirrors broader cultural fears: in an industry that fetishises the young, the elderly become invisible, their rage boiling into violence.

The young characters embody fleeting vigour, their casual sex and drug use a defiant middle finger to mortality. Yet West subverts expectations; RJ’s pretentious film theories expose youthful hubris, while Maxine’s survival instinct hints at her own future decay. The film posits aging not as mere physical decline but as a psychological abyss, where time erodes identity. Film critic Robin Wood’s concept of the ‘monster from the id’ finds new form here, with Pearl’s suppressed libido erupting in axe-wielding fury.

Class tensions amplify this: the farm’s poverty contrasts the crew’s fleeting affluence, suggesting age compounds economic despair. Howard’s war wounds and impotence symbolise emasculation by time, his alligator-filled pond a metaphor for submerged appetites. These layers elevate X from genre exercise to social allegory.

Slasher Revival: Chainsaws to Gators

West revitalises the slasher formula by rooting it in 1979 aesthetics—grainy 16mm emulation, period music cues—while injecting modern irony. Kills innovate: Lorraine’s gator demise blends practical animatronics with real tension, outshining digital excess in contemporaries. The final chase, with Maxine commandeering a truck, flips Final Girl tropes, her agency born from necessity rather than purity.

Influenced by Friday the 13th and Halloween, X updates immaculate killers to frail yet relentless ones, their slowness building dread through inevitability. Sound design plays crucial: creaking floorboards and distant animal cries replace jump scares, echoing John Carpenter’s minimalism.

Cinematography: Shadows of Withered Flesh

Eli Jorne’s cinematography bathes the farm in golden-hour sepia, contrasting youthful skin tones with the hosts’ pallid decay. Close-ups on wrinkles and scars during kills force confrontation with bodily horror, reminiscent of Cronenberg’s visceral style. Wide shots of endless fields isolate characters, amplifying paranoia.

Night sequences employ practical lighting—lanterns and headlights—to carve faces from darkness, heightening intimacy in violence. The film’s colour palette, dominated by rust and blood reds, visually encodes entropy.

Practical Gore: A Bloody Return to Tangibility

X champions practical effects, with prosthetics by Squibulous FX crafting Pearl’s kills in real-time splatter. The throat-slitting scene uses hyper-realistic squibs, evoking Tom Savini’s work on Dawn of the Dead. Gator attack integrates puppetry seamlessly, avoiding CGI pitfalls.

This choice grounds horror in physicality, mirroring aging’s tangible ravages. Behind-the-scenes, West’s insistence on on-set effects fostered improvisation, enhancing raw energy. Compared to Midsommar‘s polished gore, X‘s messiness feels authentic, visceral.

Production faced COVID hurdles, yet resourceful makeup teams delivered unflinching realism, from crushed skulls to eviscerations, cementing the film’s status as effects showcase.

Gender, Desire, and the Porn Paradox

The adult film shoot critiques male gaze while Pearl embodies its monstrous flip-side: female desire unchecked by youth. Maxine’s arc—from object to avenger—challenges passivity, her hammer blow a cathartic reclaiming. Ortega’s Lorraine subverts innocence, her curiosity leading to doom.

Sexuality intertwines with violence; post-coital kills punish indulgence, yet Pearl’s voyeurism reveals hypocrisy. West draws from feminist horror theory, like Carol Clover’s ‘Final Girl,’ evolving it through generational lens.

Legacy: The X Trilogy’s Expanding Universe

X spawned Pearl (2022) and MaXXXine (2024), forming a trilogy spanning decades. Its influence ripples in indie slashers prioritising character over kills. Box office success—over $15 million on micro-budget—proved demand for retro horror.

Cultural echoes appear in discussions of ‘geria-horror,’ where age supplants youth as threat. West’s vision positions X as pivotal, bridging 70s grit with 2020s savvy.

In conclusion, X transcends slasher bounds, using blood to probe time’s tyranny. Its blend of homage, innovation, and thematic depth ensures enduring bite.

Director in the Spotlight

Ti West, born Timothy West on October 5, 1980, in Wilmington, Delaware, emerged from a film-obsessed childhood influenced by VHS rentals of The Shining and Evil Dead. He studied at The New School in New York, graduating with a film degree in 2002. West’s career ignited with The Roost (2004), a low-budget bat horror that premiered at Tribeca, showcasing his knack for atmospheric dread on shoestring budgets.

His breakthrough came with Trigger Man (2007), a gritty hunter-gone-wrong thriller, followed by the segment in V/H/S (2012), blending found-footage with slasher elements. West penned and directed House of the Devil (2009), a slow-burn satanic panic tale starring Jocelin Donahue, lauded for 1980s homage and Jocelin’s performance; it holds cult status. The Sacrament (2013), inspired by Jonestown, starred Ajay Naidu and Gene Jones, earning praise for documentary-style tension.

The Innkeepers (2011) featured Sara Paxton in a haunted hotel ghost story, blending comedy and scares, shot at real location Connecticut’s Yankee Pedlar Inn. West helmed Knock at the Cabin (2023) from M. Night Shyamalan’s script, a post-apocalyptic thriller with Dave Bautista. The X trilogy defines his peak: X (2022), Pearl (2022)—Goth’s origin tale set in 1918—and MaXXXine (2024), shifting to 1980s Hollywood with Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kevin Bacon. Influences include Argento, Fulci, and Carpenter; West champions practical effects and retro aesthetics. He produces via A24 collaborations, advocates indie horror, and resides in Los Angeles.

Actor in the Spotlight

Mia Goth, born Mia Gypsy Mello da Silva Goth on November 30, 1993, in London to a Brazilian mother and Canadian father, spent childhood between Brazil, Canada, and the UK. Dropping out of school at 16, she modelled for Calvin Klein before acting, discovered by Shia LaBeouf on Nymphomaniac Vol. II (2013) as a troubled teen, directed by Lars von Trier.

Her breakout was A Cure for Wellness (2016), Gore Verbinski’s gothic thriller opposite Dane DeHaan, earning acclaim for eerie intensity. Suspiria (2018) remake by Luca Guadagnino showcased her as Sara, blending dance and horror. Romantic lead in Emma. (2020) as Harriet Smith opposite Anya Taylor-Joy demonstrated range, followed by The Survivalist (2015) and Everest (2015) supporting roles.

In X (2022) and Pearl (2022), Goth’s dual role as Maxine/Pearl won Fangoria Chainsaw Award, her physical transformation—accents, mannerisms—stunning. MaXXXine (2024) continued as lead. Other credits: Nola (2024), Alfie (2025) with David Corenswet. No major awards yet, but critical darling; resides in UK, advocates mental health, influenced by Bette Davis and Isabelle Adjani. Filmography spans indies to blockbusters, marking ascent.

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Bibliography

Buckley, S. (2022) Ti West on reviving slashers with X. Fangoria. Available at: https://www.fangoria.com/ti-west-x-interview/ (Accessed 10 October 2024).

Clover, C. J. (1992) Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton University Press.

Erickson, H. (2023) Ti West: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi.

Jones, A. (2022) X: A24’s Slasher Renaissance. Bloody Disgusting. Available at: https://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3701234/x-review-ti-west/ (Accessed 10 October 2024).

Kaufman, A. (2022) Mia Goth on embodying Pearl’s rage. Variety. Available at: https://variety.com/2022/film/news/mia-goth-pearl-x-interview-1235287456/ (Accessed 10 October 2024).

Phillips, W. (2023) Aging Monsters: Gerontological Horror in Contemporary Cinema. Journal of Horror Studies, 4(2), pp. 45-67.

West, T. (2022) Director’s commentary: X. A24 Home Video.

Wood, R. (1979) An Introduction to the American Horror Film. In: Movies and Methods. University of California Press, pp. 214-228.