Not quite a Valley of the Cheapjack Franchises entry as A). X isn’t here and B). this shit ain’t cheap…

*

PEARL

  2022/103m

“The Xtraordinary origin story.”

Director/Writer: Ti West / Writer: Mia Goth / Cast: Mia Goth, Tandi Wright, David Corenswet, Emma Jenkins-Purro, Matthew Sunderland.

Body Count: 4

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For all my is-it-or-isn’t-it a slasher movie pendulum swinging, Pearl earns its place here by status as a prequel to the it-certainly-is a slasher pic, X.

And Psycho IV got an inclusion, so why not?

Psycho is a good place to start when thinking about Pearl, insofar as the burgeoning homicidal proclivities of the lead character come about slowly, rather than being an out of the box blade-toting lunatic. Those who wanted some kind of X: The Early Years first massacre outing were likely disappointed, as Ti West and Mia Goth instead created a strangely hypnotic character study with a teeny cast. The murders that do happen are almost incidental.

Set in 1919, making it possibly the furthest back a film connected to this sub-genre has gone, we guest ourselves in the queer world of the title character (no last name is given, though in X it was listed as Douglas), who subsists on the remote family farm in Texas. The daughter of German immigrants, as the First World War rages and Spanish Flu lays hundreds of thousands to waste, life is both challenging and boring for a young woman who fantasises about running away to be a showgirl, while her husband is overseas with no guarantee of returning.

Relentlessly carped at by her mother to feed the animals and look after her mute, infirm father, Pearl is ripe for a psychotic break. Early on, she skewers a cute duck to feed to the alligator, Theba, living in the pond that edges the property.

On an errand to town, Pearl takes time out for herself to watch a cinematic dance show and befriend the handsome young projectionist, who further ignites her dreams of breaking away. A conversation with her sister-in-law Mitsy gets her excited about auditions for a touring dance group to spread merriment around the county during such uncertain times, and Pearl is dead set on making her escape this way.

Expectedly, things do not turn out as she plans and people die. West doesn’t hold back on some of the gruesome details, but, curiously, what little slashing there is belongs firmly in the backseat behind Goth’s astonishing turn as Pearl, which, to me was equivalent to a singer belting out tunes at the very top of their range for almost two hours straight. It all culminates in staggering eight minute monologue where she resigns herself to her life, later capping it off with what might be the most unsettling closing shot this side of Sleepaway Camp.

For all its brilliance, Pearl does seem peculiarly rudderless. It’s a prequel, yes, but to a film set sixty years later, with a follow-up/closing part of the trilogy set in the 1980s. Maybe we’ll be gifted The Further Adventures of Pearl in the 30s, 40s, and 50s in the future. Hell, I’d be there for it.

This is art. And no, not that overrated clown.

*

MAXXXINE

  2024/104m

“Hollywood is a killer.”

Director/Writer: Ti West / Cast: Mia Goth, Simon Prast, Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Debicki, Giancarlo Esposito, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Monaghan, Moses Sumney, Halsey, Lily Collins.

Body Count: 13

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Hopping from 1978, to 1919, and now to 1985, MaXXXine is the final entry into Ti West’s ambitious trilogy and, for the most part, the most enjoyable.

Six years after the Texas Porn Star Massacre, Maxine Minx is living in LA, working on her acting and making rent in adult film until she gets that break. And that break comes to her in the form of The Puritan II, a cheesecake horror film helmed by ambitious British director Elizabeth Bender (Debicki), who pushes for Maxine to bag the role after she kicks ass at the audition.

With the Night Stalker killer on the prowl in the area and Satanic Panic protests from religious nutballs who blame Hollywood for collapses in morality, the last thing Maxine needs right now is her past coming back to torment her. But this is a slasher threequel. Duh.

First comes a video tape with footage of the porno partially filmed at the Douglas farm, and then her industry friend Tabby turns up dead with a pentagram carved into her skin alongside another girl. Maxine turns down an offer to work with cops Cannavale and Monaghan in tracking the killer, but her conscience threatens to suffocate her when her friend Leon is next on the chopping block, in a scene dripping with giallo motifs.

Taking some of the bait, Maxine meets with Bacon’s chintzy private detective, who freely admits he’s tracked her down for his ‘client’, but she’s already proved herself more than capable of self preservation after turning the tables on a would-be attacker in a back alley (in a scene that will have all male viewers cupping their nuts protectively), and decides not to yield to the detective’s pestering, allowing things to come to a particularly grisly halt. But beforehand, we’re treated to a glorious daylight chase across the backlots of the studio, across Hill Valley’s town square, to the Bates Motel and the sanctuary of the Psycho house. It’s an 80s film geek’s dream.

Elizabeth Bender informs Maxine in no uncertain terms that she needs to deal with whatever in her life is making her late if she wants to keep her job, and so, resolutely, Maxine pays a visit to a property in the Hollywood Hills where ‘the client’ resides. It’s here where MaXXXine appears to pull some punches. Admittedly, somehow I worked out both the killer’s identity and their motive early on and, while nothing is specifically bad, it just seems to run out of steam and things come to a rather abrupt ending that doesn’t quite satisfy.

Meh coda notwithstanding, the first 80 minutes or so of MaXXXine gave me everything I wanted: West dresses the film beautifully, from the sound lines that slide across the opening credits screen text, to the music choices and wardrobe. It’s easy to descend into parody with the 1980s, but West wisely keeps things rooted in ‘the more likely’. Add to that the beautiful camera work, which calls back to a million Italian black-gloved thrillers, Goth’s hard edged, but ever sympathetic portrayal of Maxine, and you’ve got yourself a winner.

Esposito is sadly underused; Lily Collins makes a very distinct …choice with her accent; and maybe there could’ve been another murder sequence or two, but given my take-it-or-leave-it response to X, the double-shot of Pearl and MaXXXine has converted me. I see the light, and it’s got a lot of neon.

Blurbs-of-interest: Kevin Bacon can also be seen in the original Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, and They/Them. Toby Huss from the 2018 Halloween appears fleetingly as a crime scene tech.