X
US, 2022, 106 minutes, Colour.
Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Scott Mescudi, Martin Henderson, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure.
Directed by Ti West.
X the anonymous, X the unknown, X marks the spot… For this rather grisly thriller, all meanings are possible.
This is the work of cult director, Ti West, best known for horror films on the big screen and, more recently, on television, perhaps the best known, The Innkeepers. Critics admire his work.
As regards the public, his films have a particular demographic, fans of horror films, fans of films with a touch of the gory, but fans of horror films which give more thought to the plot and themes than the average thriller.
The film opens with a quiet focus on a house out in the country, then the camera draws back and shows two police cars as another drives into the property. The sheriff joins his investigators in the house, discover blood and mayhem. Then the film goes back 24 hours, which means that we watch most of the film with that gory end an puzzle in mind. And, when we return back to the house and the sinister old owner, we are reminded of the ambience of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But, no chainsaws here - but guns, knives, bolts…
The central characters are a group of six young men and women, all ambitious, planning to make a sex movie – this is the 1970s and they see they can make a fortune with the advent of video tapes. We are introduced to them, three men, three women, travelling along the road, held up by a grim accident, a bull crashed into by a large truck. However, they arrive, confront the old owner who lets them into rent a house on his property.
What Ti West does is to intercut the sequences of the making of the sex film, explicit in their way, and the mounting horror. He is inviting his audience to test their reactions to sex on screen and horror on screen, at ease with one of the other, or both, or neither.
The characters are given a bit more than usual background and character, the drugtaking heroine, Maxine (Mia Goth) girlfriend of the director, Wayne (New Zealander Martin Henderson) who will also act in the film. She dreams of being a star, often saying this out loud. The stars of the film are a southern blonde, Brittany Snow, and her African-American, somewhat exhibitionist boyfriend, Jackson, (Scott Miscudi). Along with them is the photographer, he wants to make the sex film but to make it cinematically, artistically, often intervening, R.J.(Owen Campbell) and his rather naive girlfriend who holds the microphones, Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) who is bemused by observing the sex activity with dire consequences for her.
And, when they arrive, Maxine sees an old woman looking out of the upper window.
The film spends some time establishing the interactions between the characters, Maxine visiting the house and having a cool drink with the old woman, the husband upset. The old woman wanders around. The old man has a rifle. And sexual tension arises between the old couple.
Gradually the tension builds much further, the characters are killed off, gruesomely, with a final confrontation – and one survivor!
There is a fundamentalist Christian theme throughout, a tele-evangelist preaching and condemning contemporary morals, playing when the police arrive, the old couple watching it. And the audience watching it at the end – and an interesting twist with the preacher talking about his daughter who had walked out on him…
When looking at the credits list to find out who plays the old woman, we are partly surprised to find that she is played by Mia Goth.
