A24’s latest horror film, X, is an homage to 1970s exploitation slasher films, but at the core, X is actually a sad story about aging. While X is undoubtedly entertaining and has enough blood and sex for slasher fans, there is much more to it than meets the eye. It is a devastating love story disguised as a horror film, delving into losing one’s sense of self and is a metaphor for aging and mortality.
X begins in 1979 when the adult film was a secretive art as opposed to something that is now as accessible at the touch of a button. X has an exceptional cast, following Wayne (Martin Henderson), his wife and aspiring porn star Maxine (Mia Goth), filmmaker RJ (Owen Campbell), his technician girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), and adult actors Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and Jackson (Scott Mescudi), who embark on a trip to a rural town in Texas. They rent a guest house from an elderly couple Howard (Stephen Ure) and Pearl (also played by Goth). The couple gets strangely upset, and eventually violent, however, when they find out what type of film the group is making. While the gore that transpires is reminiscent of 1970s slasher films, the meaning behind why the couple commits the kills is way more enthralling.
Ti West’s movie X takes place during a time when sex was always the top form of punishment in horror films; the stereotypical final girl was always timid, conservative, and a virgin. X dissects this trope by having a female-dominated and sexualized cast. The protagonist Maxine, the star of the adult videos, is the symbol of these prim, moralistic concepts being upended, being defiant towards religious figures and moral authorities. The film’s antagonist, Pearl, is an older woman who has lost her beauty and yearns for intimacy but is unable to. After finding out the group is filming sexual films, Pearl gets increasingly angry and, along with Howard, brutally murders everyone in the house, aside from Maxine, who kills Pearl in the end.
Both Pearl and Maxine are portrayed in X by Mia Goth; she is a symbol of youthfulness and her foreboding future. Everyone gets old and loses their beauty, but what isn’t discussed as much is the loss of their sexual freedom. After Howard and Pearl killed multiple people, Howard agrees to sleep with Pearl, going against his weak heart. Although X is filled with violence throughout, this part of the film is rather meloncholic. All Pearl wanted was to make love with her husband and feel young, even if it was just for a moment.
X ends with a zoom-in of the couple’s TV, playing a local religious lecture, when it is revealed that Maxine is the daughter of the conservative Christian pastor giving the sermon. The TV has been playing throughout the film, highlighting the reason behind the hatred Pearl has for Maxine. As Pearl is slowly dying, Maxine is living out her sexual youth. X is a masterpiece of a slasher film and a mournful story about fading away into anonymity.
