Released: March 2022
Director: Ti West
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Rated R
Distributor: A24/Lionsgate Studios
Genre: Horror
Cast:
Mia Goth: Maxine
Jenna Ortega: Lorraine
Brittany Snow: Bobby-Lynne
Kid Cudi: Jackson
Martin Henderson: Wayne
Owen Campbell: RJ
Stephen Ure: Howard
It’s one thing to get excited for a movie. That’s what marketing is for. The problem with hype is that when a movie gets hyped so much, there’s no possible way that the film could live up to expectations. Rarely, movies can better than what they’re hyped up to be, but more often than not, the hype does the film a disservice. This is why I prefer movies and shows to be UNDER-hyped. At least slightly. From MY perspective that helps people keep their expectations in check. Word of mouth can be and usually is more important than trailers or posters. Let’s face it, there’ve been a lot of movies that didn’t live up to the hype. Some of the recent Star Wars projects come to mind. Some comedies don’t live up to the hype, and the same happens with horror movies. One of the most recent horror movies that got a lot of hype from reviewers and critics was a little called X. People called this the return of one of horror’s most underrated directors after a decade: Ti West. Is it, though? I don’t know. I’m not at all familiar with Ti West’s work. So, the question seems to be: Is X the horror movie that everybody says it is? Not even close.
X follows a group of film-makers who set out to make a pornographic film that will make them famous. They find an old farm that is home to an elderly couple in the middle of nowhere. Unbeknownst to the elderly couple, but knownst to us, this farm is the ideal location for their film. Over the course of 24 hours, the elderly couple discover what’s going on and things get really bloody. The interesting here is very interesting. It’s Zack and Miri Make A Porno meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There’s just a little problem. Nothing happens for the first hour of the movie. Yeah, there’s a bunch of sex and some creepy shots of the old couple, but it’s a slog to get through. I’d be the first to enjoying a good slow burn of a movie. But this is supposed to be a slasher flick. The slashing doesn’t start until the 58-minute mark. Most slashers don’t wait very long to get going, but this takes forever. The movie starts getting good at the 1-hour mark, but the payoff almost isn’t worth it, for what you have to sit through to get there.
The huge part of the reason why this movie was a slog to get through is because the characters are mostly unlikable. If you’re going to try and make a different kind of slasher flick, you need to develop the characters so that the audience can connect with them. I felt no connection with these bozos. The only interesting characters were the old couple. That’s not a very interesting dichotomy. That said, the acting here is actually pretty good for what they’ve been given. The star of the show is Mia Goth as Maxine. Her character is the most likable of the bunch. Jenna Ortega has been making a name for herself in horror movies like Scream 2022, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, and Studio 666. She’s well on her way to becoming the scream queen of her generation. She plays Lorraine, the boom operator. Again, however, the character isn’t particularly interesting or likable.
There is stuff to like about this movie. There really is. First of all, the cinematography is absolutely incredible. Their choice of camera and film style gives the film the 70s vibe that they’re going for. When the blood flows, and it does flow, it’s brutal. There is some pretty decent gore here. There’s a kill involving a gator that was incredibly intense. In fact, that particular kill was a throwback to an earlier film from the 70s called Eaten Alive. There are a lot of influences on display here, with Texas Chainsaw Massacre being an obvious one. And to be fair to Ti West, at least he went for practical effects and prosthetics making the gore looking more realistic. The KNG Effects Group and Tom Savini would be proud. For a horror movie that some people claim to be “elevated” horror, there’s nothing elevated here. When you look at A24’s catalog of horror movies, most of them are LEAGUES above what Ti West has done here. Hereditary, The Witch, The Lighthouse, Midsommar. THOSE are elevated horror movies. This is nothing of the sort.
I’m not going to say that this is the worst horror movie I’ve seen. It definitely isn’t, nor do I hate it. It has some things going for it that I really do like, but the overall package is a complete mixed bag. Yeah, the first hour is all sexed up with T&A, but outside of that, the first hour is boring. After that is when it starts getting good, but by the time it does, the movie’s nearly over. I don’t know what Ti West was really going for, but if it was an attempt to do an “elevated” slasher movie, he failed. I’ve been a huge fan of A24’s horror movies for a while now, and X feels like a huge step backwards. There was also an element of humor to this movie that I didn’t really find funny, just sad. It’s not the worst, but it’s not great, either.