Indie filmmakers get 'X'-ed out in meticulously crafted ode to vintage horror films
“X” - ★ ★ ★ ½
Just when you think Ti West's gore-spurting, porno-slasher film “X” couldn't possibly be funny, the plot's driving force turns out to be — no kidding — a bad case of senior citizen erectile dysfunction.
You might chuckle now, but not during this taut tale of terror told with such tension and suspense, you might either be grossed out by its random acts of graphic violence or weirded out by the unnerving sympathy afforded the people who commit them.
“X” doesn't qualify as one of those cheap and often trashy contemporary streaming horror movies. It deserves its theatrical release.
West has meticulously crafted an authentic and atmospheric tribute to horror tales of the '60s, '70s and early '80s, but mostly to Tobe Hooper's 1974 cult classic “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
“X” replicates the Andrew Wyeth look, texture, feel and ruraphobic feelings of that film more accurately than its many sequels and reboots.
Although “X” can't entirely wean itself off tired horror cliches (the “hand out of nowhere grabbing someone's shoulder” and the “don't look in that peephole” lead the list), it ekes out a fresh, sharply edited take on a mostly stale genre.
The story, set in a gloriously rendered 1979, involves a small group of independent filmmakers shooting a porn movie titled “The Farmer's Daughters.” They leave Houston, Texas, for a quiet, rusty and rustic farmstead in the middle of nowhere, figuring the seclusion will give them freedom.
Maxine (a vulnerable, appealing Mia Goth), the de facto lead in this most unfortunate ensemble, constantly cokes herself up to perform in the film produced by her studly boyfriend Wayne (Martin Henderson) and “directed” by cameraman RJ (Owen Campbell), a film geek with delusions of creating “cinematic art from a dirty movie.”
(West, who also wrote the screenplay, knows his stuff. During the 1970s, adult filmmakers upgraded to 35 mm film stock and developed real plots and characters in an attempt to win approval for hard-core features as a legitimate art form. They failed, at least then.)
The profusely emoting Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) seems to be channeling '70s porn star Marilyn Chambers as she “acts” with her sometime boyfriend, Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi), a former U.S. Marine in Vietnam.
Lastly, RJ's quiet girlfriend and crew member Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) holds the boom mike — until she decides to prove she's not a “prude” by stepping in front of the camera.
They set up shop in a small cottage near the main farmhouse where a creepy, elderly couple, Howard and Pearl (Stephen Ure and Goth, in chilling old-age makeup and a Mrs. Bates' ashen-white wig), do not approve of what the filmmakers do in their cottage.
Not so much Pearl, however, who reveals herself to Maxine to be a fully functional, sensual being denied her sexuality by an unwilling husband. She covets Maxine's youth.
In the end, it's all about sex, just as it had been in Hitchcock's “Psycho,” “Halloween” and every “Friday the 13th” thriller.
Significantly, West deviates from the '80s mad-slasher formula by eliminating the Jamie Lee Curtis “nice girl” survivor. Wayne waxes about the women, “Not one of them is a nice girl.”
“X” comes packed with genre film references, in addition to the ones just mentioned: the hatchet and wood door from “The Shining,” crocodiles from Hooper's “Eaten Alive,” all complemented by period split-screens and three spectacular overhead “God shots” from cameraman Eliot Rockett.
Composers Tyler Bates and Chelsea Wolfe concoct an audio nightmare of haunted vocals and nerve-jangling noises, pumping “X” full of additional, ominous dread and surprise.
This week, West revealed the biggest surprise: He secretly shot a prequel film, “Pearl,” back-to-back while making “X” in New Zealand during the pandemic.
This effectively launches the first horror franchise from A24, the innovative company responsible for the provocative thrillers “The Witch,” “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.”
Note: Chicago's Music Box Theatre will be showing “X” in old-fashioned 35 mm.
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Starring: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Scott Mescudi, Brittany Snow
Directed by: Ti West
Other: An A24 release. In theaters. Rated R for drug use, language, graphic nudity, sexual situations, violence. 105 minutes