As the late DMX once said, “X gon’ give it to ya.”
The “it” in question is gnarly kills, effective scares and a bloody good and surprisingly retrospective romp from A24 and director Ti West’s newest arthouse horror creation “X.”
Set in the Texas countryside in 1979, the Golden Age of porn is experiencing a decline as the blossoming videotape industry is about to take the adult entertainment industry by storm. Pornographic film producer Wayne Gilroy, played by Martin Henderson, sees an opportunity and enlists his fiancée and aspiring pornographic film actress, Maxine Minx, played by Mia Goth to shoot an adult movie in an isolated farmhouse owned by an elderly, sexually repressed couple.
Sounds familiar, right? From “Texas Chainsaw” to “Cabin in the Woods,” this slasher premise of young people getting murdered in a remote location has already put on so many miles with tireless remakes and retreads of the same story — but what I loved about “X” is how refreshing and unique it feels in both its storytelling approach and style. By borrowing from the trashy elements of lowbrow horror films and pornography alike, West is transparent in the artistic merit and standard that this film holds itself to. It’s a throwback, for sure, but it feels somewhat elevated by its own examination of the deep connection between themes of sex and murder from some truly unexpected angles, such as sexual repression in the generational gap.
In horror, it is undeniably hard to find a truly perfect meeting point between the sex-positive work of industries like pornography and sexually influenced violence that slasher films are so infamous for, but West manages to create a provocative dichotomy which “X” wears like a bloodstained badge of honor. I found it very interesting to roll around in my head because as I was watching, I couldn’t help but notice that the pornography sequences are staged as outbursts of artistic emotion while the violence is an inherent inversion of that thinking. This juxtaposition only intensifies these ideas because it demonstrates that sometimes sex and murder are not dissimilar, especially when thinking about the manifestations of evil that are formed out of repression.
Case in point, “X” is an A24 horror film through and through, in that it follows the same elevated horror style of “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.”
However, “X” is also a ton of fun and had me laughing just as much as I was covering my eyes. With an airtight script from West, the film breezes by with ease. It wastes no time setting up the batch of soon-to-be-murdered characters, pushing them on their untoward, merry way to make a porno. There are a bunch of worthwhile performances here with Mia Goth, Kid Cudi, and newly christened scream queen Jenna Ortega being the standouts.
The film also masterfully plays with tension and audience expectations throughout. From split-screen sequences to hard cuts of a fatality, the editing and style in “X” go absolutely bonkers from start to finish, especially once things get going.
While it may not be a game-changing film, it is, in its own right, a razor-sharp and unabashedly campy slasher film from Ti West that says plenty about the nature of sexuality and the inner monsters it breeds. I loved it thoroughly as a stunningly sadistic love letter to horror cinema and as a contemporary innovation of an overdone genre.
Also, make sure to stay until after the credits for a special treat.
“X” will give all of that to you and more.