Pearl

Trapped on an isolated Texas farm in 1918, while her husband is away fighting in World War 1, Pearl must tend to her ailing and wheelchair-bound father under the watchful eye of her domineering mother. Chafing at the restraints of her life, and lusting for the glitz and glamour she's only ever glimpsed up on the silver screen at the local theatre, Pearl's relentless temptations and myriad of repressions will not be contained much longer.

Pearl is the prequel to the Ti West film called X, an arty A24-produced horror flick homaging not just the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, but the slasher genre in general. X was about a group of young porno filmmakers in 1979, who drive out to an isolated farm for a film shoot, have loads of sex, and are then all killed, one by one, in inventive ways. Mia Goth played both the often very naked killer crone, Pearl, as well as Maxine, the bright young porno ingenue and the film’s Final Girl.

Now in the sequel/prequel film Pearl, Mia Goth is back again as the titular character. This time set in 1918 Texas, as WW1 winds down and an easily preventable plague is about to experience a frightening resurgence, Pearl—while still a woman with a very convenient gator in her back pond—is not yet a naked crone. She is young and not yet murderous, but the strain is beginning to show, as she chases her dreams of stardom on the stage and screen, in a story about the toxicity of fame, and the all-consuming nature of obsessions, all shot in a style that Judy Garland would’ve felt right at home in, that builds to an orgy of violence and blood as Pearl embraces her true self.

I’ve never been all that wowed by Ti West’s stuff, especially the sub-genre that is mumblecore art horror that he helped to create. I’m also not that big a fan of slasher horror either, especially the scrubland and halter top Texas Chainsaw Massacre type. It’s also a well-established fact as to how I feel about intentional camp…

Y’see, camp is something that is simply born that way, its existence undeniable, and anyone who tries to create it deliberately, to make that fabled “so bad it’s good” much beloved midnight movie are often just the lowest of the low comedians, the terminally unfunny, the cinematic equivalent of a xeroxed joke taped to the fridge in the break room of some Midwestern insurance office… Horrid. Detestable. Grating.

But I digress…

So, color me shocked when X, the first film in this series, proved to be surprisingly clever, insightful, fun and funny, an actually “good” slasher. X surprised me so much, I was looking forward to Pearl… And, wow, was I rewarded. I mean, the whole movie is truly fantastic, but that long, rambling monologue she gives to her friend towards the end? The smiling end credits that slowly turn into a rictus of pain and anguish? Good lord. Absolutely iconic. Absolutely amazing. Just… stunning. These are moments of cinema that will live forever.

I loved it. Loved it.

Mia Goth is incredible. She’s amazing, an actress to follow. Just the fact that, in real life, she has the voice of a Victorian-era child pickpocket is a small testament to how incredibly talented she is. Pearl is her showcase, and she seizes it.

Also, just fyi, you don’t have to watch X in order to enjoy Pearl, but I think Pearl is enhanced by doing so.

Big thumbs up.