If the films “The Wizard of Oz,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Hereditary” had a love child, it would be “Pearl,” which was released on Sept. 16.
A24 entertainment company and film director Ti West present “Pearl,” the X-traordinary prequel to the film “X” that was released earlier this year.
The film was announced in the post-credit scene of “X” with the title “Pearl” swiping on screen followed by “coming soon.” It made me gasp in the theater like, “They already filmed a prequel? When? What? Halloween release?”
And I was right. “Pearl” was delivered to us just in time for the spooky season.
“Pearl” stars English actress Mia Goth, actor David Corenswet and New Zealand actress Tandi Wright. The film tells the origin story of Pearl, a young farm girl set in 1918 during World War I with aspirations of becoming a film star..
Her character was first introduced as an elderly woman in “X,” who goes on a murderous rampage against a group of young adults out of jealousy for simply being youthful.
Though she is nowhere near to being as horny as her elderly self from “X,” Pearl is shown to have always been crazed about the idea of that star quality in the movies, that “X-factor.”
“X” is a great story and fun to watch as an homage to slasher horror films of the ’70s but “Pearl” is an in-depth character study of its previous film’s villain.
The film is not suspenseful, it’s not terribly gory and there are no jump scares.
But it has a certain energy that’s intense and strange as if I just hallucinated on some drug and craved an erotic release from this dull world.
“Pearl” occupies the screen in a different way from most slasher films, it’s colorful and goofy but there are undertones of a clearly deranged Pearl, which made me leave the theater wanting a psychology degree so I could examine her consciousness.
Watching the character of Pearl is like flicking on a light switch in the middle of the dark in an old shack in which you’ve never been. Once you switch it on, the room is full of color and somehow you have even more questions than when it was pitch black.
Mia Goth is such a force as Pearl it’s almost as if she said while reading and creating the script, “You want crazy? I’ll give you something completely deranged.”
Goth co-wrote “Pearl” with director Ti West and she is the absolute stand out of this movie.
What really sells Goth’s performance is a lengthy one-take monologue at the end of the movie when someone asks her to let it all out.
Viewers can really see that she knows something is wrong but the monster inside is already in motion and hungry.
“Pearl” is a complete 5-out-of-5 stars. It has that eerie feeling of a horror movie while also making everything bright and fun.
The credits roll up on at the end of “Pearl” in front of Goth staring into the camera, breaking the fourth wall for at least a solid three minutes. She stares and smiles before tears well up in her eyes, still forcing that “X-factor” smile.
In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, an American production studio focused on horror genre-focused news, West revealed the truth about that extended take.
“It was just this random experimental idea that I was like, ‘Let’s try this, and see what happens.’ Then she did that, and after watching it for three minutes, I said, ‘Cut, that’s great. We’re going to put that in the movie, and let’s get back to work now.’ ” West said.
That end scene is arguably one of the best ways to end a horror-character study.
Akin to “X,” “Pearl” has an after-credit scene that announces a third movie will succeed those two movies, creating a campful trilogy.
The third film will follow the character Maxine, who is the star that came out of the screwed up horny-horror picture “X.” It’s titled “MaXXXine” and will follow another character who Goth will embody, this time set in the ’80s.
West is creating a fantastic horror trilogy that conquers the best of each years’ aesthetic.
Martin Scorsese, a film director known for his gritty, meticulous filmmaking style, sent A24 a little review in which he gushes with love for the energy in “Pearl.”
“I was enthralled, then disturbed, and then so unsettled that I had trouble going to sleep . . . Ti West movies have this kind of energy that is so rare these days, powered by undiluted love for cinema,” Scorsese wrote in the review.
“Pearl” has such an indefinable quality to it where it’s ecstatic, which made rating this film an easy 5-out-of-5 stars.
The film excels in everything from character development to aesthetics in themes to making me want to go back to San Jose State to study psychology.
Movies like this with a director who is in love with weird cinema need to be supported.
Go on a ride with this movie, escape the world you know for a while and feel a little uneasy, it will be fun.
“Pearl” is now playing only in theaters.
