X is a new horror slasher film courtesy of A24 and writer/director/actor Ti West. This is far from West’s first horror venture, but it’s certainly his most notable release yet, despite a deceptively small budget, mostly unassuming presentation, and a whole lot of references to throwback 70s slashers.
The story centers around a film crew in the 1970s, who we quickly learn are making a pornography feature in Texas, a “Farmer’s Daughter” titled stag that requires just the right location. Their executive producer (Virgin River‘s Martin Henderson) arranges for them to stay at an auxiliary farmhouse near Houston, where they will also film the majority of the sex scenes. Along for the ride, pun not intended, we have Pitch Perfect‘s Brittany Snow as the lead actress, Need for Speed‘s Kid Cudi as the leading man, The Americans‘ Owen Campbell as the director who wants to believe he’s making a French New Wave film, Scream‘s Jenna Ortega as his girlfriend and boom mic operator, and finally Emma‘s Mia Goth as the coke-addicted leading talent and producer’s girlfriend.
From the grainy start, something seems incredibly wrong with this farmhouse out of pre-AirBnB hell. Just across the lawn is the main house, where an elderly couple resides, totally unaware that a porn film is being made in their backyard. And as the film progresses, well, you can probably see where this is going.
The first half hour or so of X makes quite an impression, as it’s lovingly shot to resemble an early 70s auteur film that just happens to also be an early 70s slasher film. And those atmospheric elements come together quite effectively when X is in its slow burn mode, placing its enigmatic characters inside a steaming kettle, just waiting for the shoe, or alligator, to drop. This is nothing like Netflix’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for instance, which is also a Texas-based horror film following a group of young-ish yuppies in over their heads and directly homaging 70s horror. X stands apart its early chunk has more in common with Wanda than it does something like The Last House on the Left or The Hills Have Eyes. Where the movie disappoints, however, is in its abrupt shift into being more of the latter, and not in a particularly memorable way.
It’s odd because we know that the film is going to transition from being this subversive, heightened drama into being a cathartic slasher at some point. It’s promised from the first scene. But the film does set you up to think that its slasher half will match the tone and artistic bravado of its first, but instead it simply transitions into standard horror territory. Plenty of effort and some gratifyingly gruesome moments, but still just a standard slasher. Which is fine because standard slashers are always good fun when done well, and X is technically done well. But it’s hard not to wonder about what we’re missing out on, because the first half is so avant-garde, it yearns for a second half that is also pushing boundaries and revealing thematic surprises.
Now that’s not to say that X pulls back its punches, axes, needles, and what have you. This is not a film that could’ve come out in the 70s as is, even though it’s shot to evoke films of the era. There are horrific set pieces in here, some truly terrifying implications and imagery that reek of 2022’s more permissive boundaries in terms of what you can get away with when it comes to theatrical wide releases. That said, the film is limited by its own lofty ideas. It’s presenting concepts and emotional through-lines that are inherently fascinating, but they don’t ultimately come together for a satisfying, inevitable final act. It’s more like a smattering of themes that are there to just be there.
For example, one of the main thrusts of the film is that the elderly woman is frustrated because she wants a more fulfilling sex life from her partner, but he is afraid to be more intimate because of his health. Now that’s a great entry point for a horror film to explore the anxieties of getting older and being envious of the younger generations and resenting them for supposedly flaunting the excesses of their physical expression. But when it comes time for the film to deliver on that theme through its horror, it mostly goes down expected paths. Not fully, because there is one particular scene that is absolutely skin-crawling to that effect, but it only involves one character, while the rest of the actors mostly get pushed to the side without much to do. Particularly Jenna Ortega, who was terrific in Scream earlier this year, exhibiting a star quality not just in horror films of late but also in indie dramas like The Fallout. But in X, Ortega is the simplistically silent innocent girl, at least upon first glance. Though the film does wisely lean heavily toward Mia Goth to be the real thrust of the narrative, as she plays a more fascinating anti-final girl who says more without dialogue than otherwise.
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Fans of horror, 70s films, and 70s horror films have more than good enough reason to check out X for exactly what’s being promised. It might just be good to go in expecting a more introspective first half that doesn’t exactly translate gracefully to the vastly more straightforward shock elements that come next. They even say in the movie that the story should be allowed to change midway through. At least in that respect, it’s marking the spot.
X is now playing in theaters through A24. Watch the official trailer here.
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