Year:  2022

Director:  Ti West

Rated:  MA

Release:  March 16, 2023

Distributor: Madman

Running time: 103 minutes

Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Emma Perkins-Purdo, Matthew Sunderland

Intro:
… beautifully shot, but deeply ugly… Mia Goth is definitely a star.

Think modern day scream queens and the list will probably comprise of Maika Monroe, Jenna Ortega, Samara Weaving, Anya Taylor-Joy, Lupita Nyong’o, and Mia Goth swinging into first place.

There’s something uncanny about Goth’s near permanent adolescence that belies the fact that she’s most certainly a grown woman. In Ti West’s darkly comic 1979 set slasher, X, Goth played the dual role of (porn) star in the making Maxine Minx and under heavy prosthetics, the murderous octogenarian Pearl. West referenced the crossover boom in the adult film industry and horror in X, with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre being a particular reference point. The moral of the story seemed to be, don’t go out into the backwoods of Texas and stay with a creepy couple and expect nothing bad to happen.

West’s film was such a success that the director decided to make it a trilogy. Next up, there would be the prequel Pearl which is the origin story of the antagonist of X, and then the sequel to X, MaXXXine. Mia Goth is busy. For Pearl, she was particularly busy, not only appearing in almost every scene, but also co-writing the film.

Set in 1918, Pearl tells the story of a young woman trapped on a rural Texas farm. Her husband, the middle-class Howard is away at war, and she has been left to work the farm with her patrician and religious German born mother, Ruth (an excellent Tandi Wright) and her invalid father played by Matthew Sunderland.

There’s something very wrong with Pearl, she knows it and Ruth does too. Pearl is a psychopath in the making. Starting with small animals that she feeds to her gator, Theda (named after Theda Barr, the silent screen sex goddess) and ending with anyone who gets in the way of her escaping the farm to become a “star” – Pearl is a killer who doesn’t know how to contain her rage, or her libido (the sex plus horror aspects being continued on from X).

Pearl is isolated. Apart from a few visits from her sister-in-law, Mitsy (Emma Perkins-Purdo) and her mother-in-law that are rebuffed by Ruth as charity, Pearl’s only outlet is her fantasies of one day becoming a dancer, a future Tiller girl. Her name will be in lights. Her only audience are the barn animals. When she is allowed, Pearl rides into town to buy her father’s morphine and necessary groceries.

She takes this opportunity to also sneak into the local picture palace to watch films like Paris Follies (an imagined Ziegfeld follies style film), where she projects herself onto the screen. She catches the eye of a young and handsome bohemian projectionist (David Corenswet), who sees an easy target in the over-eager Pearl. He promises her gold, free entry to the picture house to see whatever films he has available, whenever she wants. He acts as a kind of mentor/seducer, showing her stag films. “Pictures like this are going to revolutionise the industry, and I for one am going to capitalise on it,” he tells Pearl. He also encourages her to be a star “…You only get one take at this life. If you don’t make the most of it while you’re young, you may never get the chance again.” A maxim that Pearl who wants to live the charmed life of the people on screen takes to heart. Little does he know just how much Pearl takes it to heart.

As much as X was informed by late ‘70s slashers and porn (and in retrospect the title of the porn film they’re making being ‘The Farmer’s Daughter’ takes on a meta-aspect after Pearl), the prequel is a technicolour nightmare that takes inspiration from 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. There is a particular scene with Pearl and a scarecrow that won’t soon be forgotten.

Cinematographer Eliot Rockett, who utilised a grindhouse aesthetic for X leans into a candy-coloured palette reminiscent of mid-century melodramas, which is echoed by the soundtrack by Tyler Bates and Tim Williams. Despite not being accurate to the 1918 setting, there is a distinct “Disneyfication” in Pearl, which even includes a wishing star passing Pearl’s window as she says her nightly prayers.

Despite all the mixed influences, Pearl works. The glorious colours and dream-like atmosphere mean the horror is rendered more effective. There are many moments where the audience can point at the screen and say, “that’s just like (whatever movie)” and that would fit into West’s thesis. The silver screen has given spectators aspirations and dreams of a fantasy life and what we consume can shape desire. What happens when those images circle in the mind of a deeply disturbed psyche like Pearl’s, is the basis of the film.

Pearl just wants to be loved. She’s aware that her mother does not want to abide with her dreams. “You have no idea what I’m capable of,” she tells Ruth. Her mother wearily replies, “Oh yes, I do. You can’t keep your true self hidden forever, Pearl. People will notice eventually, and they will be frightened, just as I am.”

In reality, Ruth is just as trapped as Pearl. As a German born woman living in America during WWI she is just as isolated as Pearl, if not more so. She also didn’t expect to be living as a nursemaid to her husband and hiding her daughter’s growing psychosis. Ruth’s story is tragic. She does love Pearl, but she is aware of the danger she presents.

Pearl’s “big break” comes in the form of a dance competition where she has a chance to tour for the troupes. Encouraged by Mitsy to attend, she auditions (stepping on an X mark) and she whirls into a fantasy. The reality is that the people auditioning her, don’t want her. They want someone younger, blonder, and who has “the X factor.”

Pearl’s sustained monologue spoken to Mitsy, but addressed to Howard, is a masterclass of the disturbed mind. Goth, who is astounding in every moment on screen, simply knocks it out of the park, as she describes her disturbing thoughts and violent actions. In some ways, the monologue is more frightening than the gory pitchfork and axe kills.

Pearl stretches believability, but it is supposed to. The deliberate use of unreality heightens the grotesquery of the piece. It’s beautifully shot, but deeply ugly. Perhaps it is about Hollywood itself and the star system, or perhaps it’s just a self-referential slasher. Either way, Pearl is a fever dream that gives Goth a platform for her weird and wonderful talents. It is a film you won’t soon forget – and Mia Goth is certainly “a star.”

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