Ti West decided to make a horror trilogy which pays homage to the likes of Texas Chain Saw Massacre: X, Pearl, and MaXXXine. In X, the premise is that exotic dancer Maxine (Mia Goth) and her boyfriend, Wayne (Martin Henderson), have rented a secluded farm to film what they hope to be an avant garde pornographic film. Joining them are the director, RJ (Owen Campbell) and his shy girlfriend who handles sound design (Jenna Ortega). Last, there are Bobby-Lynn and Jackson (Brittany Snow and Scott Mescudi) who serve as the main “talent.” Finishing up the cast are the elderly owners of the farm, Pearl and Howard (Mia Goth once again and Stephen Ure – voiced by Larry Fessenden).
Buy X Trilogy: Collector’s Edition Box SetThe film is well directed and edited, and Ti West certainly has talent framing a scene. Unfortunately, X, just like the two movies that follow it, gets off to a very slow start. It is not a slow burn, it is just slow. The acting is decent with names like Martin Henderson and Jenna Ortega, but that is just the two of them. Everybody does a decent job, but Henderson and Ortega are the obviously talented actors here. Mia Goth has starred in several movies (Nymphomaniac) but she always has the dead eyes of a porcelain doll – there just isn’t any feeling in there.
Pearl, which serves as a prequel to X, concerns itself with the elderly woman from X when she was in her early twenties and her desire to become the most famous dancer in the world. Her entire mindset is aimed at how to be a star. Mia Goth once again plays Pearl, this time as a young woman. Pearl is held in a tight grip by her mother (Tandi Wright) and invalid father (Matthew Sunderland). Most of Pearl’s day is spent working the farm and hand feeding her father. Sometimes she is able to sneak away to the movies where she meets the projectionist (David Corenswet). Once again, we have a big name on the screen and he is not enough to save it.
It just takes too long for anything horrific to get going. Pearl is a bit psychotic; she likes to feed small animals to her “pet” alligator, and she is harsh to her invalid father. Otherwise, settle in, because this is a slasher movie with very little slashing.
The last of the trilogy, MaXXXine (Mia Goth), is a direct sequel to X. Several years have passed since X, and Maxine works at a peep show where a strange man, wearing all leather, likes to look at her while acting very angry. Maxine gets her first “real” acting gig, a part in Puritan 2. For the last several years, she has been Maxine Minx, a popular porn actress.
This time we have Kevin Bacon as John Labat, a private investigator, and West, Bacon, and Goth are still unable to put together any kind of interesting story or any sort of magnetism between characters. The entire trilogy has moments here and there where you think something is going to get going, but nothing ever does.
Bonus Features:
X
- Filmmaker Commentary with D. P. Eliot Rockett and Production Designer Tom Hammock
- Pearl Makeup Timelapse
- “The X Factor”
- “The Farmer’s Daughter”
Pearl
- Filmmaker Commentary with D. P. Eliot Rockett and Production Designer Tom Hammock
- “Coming Out of Her Shell: The Creation of Pearl”
- “Time After Time”
Maxxxine
- Filmmaker Commentary with Production Designer Jason Kisvarday and Set Decorator Kelsi Ephraim
- “The Belly of the Beast”
- “XXX Marks the Spot”
- “Hollywood is a Killer”
- Q & A with Ti West
- Deep Dive with Composer Tyler Bates
- Trailer 1 & Trailer 2
A 60-page booklet filled with set photographs, cast Polaroids, costume paintings, short storyboards, special effects make-up photos, mock-up horror movie posters, horror VHS tapes, movie flyers, and more. The booklet also contains the short essay “An XXX-Traordinary History of Cinema” by Jon Dieringer, the founder and editor-in-chief of Screen Slate.
