1979, Texas. A company of six rents a small house from an elderly farmer couple to make an adult film. Although the landlord immediately warns them not to make any noise and to behave decently, the producer, of course, disregards his request. Soon it becomes clear that the old men are not as harmless as they seemed at first glance.
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A24 has over the past few years managed to establish itself as one of the best companies in the film industry, producing the most important and intelligent art-horror films. This film is another proof of that.
How would you characterize ‘X’? A madly conceptual, ruthless and bloody ode to old age and sexual desires, with hints of black humor and a very dark lingering atmosphere of despair. Undoubtedly, director Ti West’s best work of his career.
Eleven years have passed since the release of the cult ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, and in terms of the spirit of experimentation and a fresh look at the horror genre ‘X’ reminds very much of it. We’ve seen it in M. Night Shyamalan’s controversial fantasy film ‘Old’ last year, we’ll also see it in the near future in Gaspar Noe’s new hyper-realistic drama ‘Vortex’ which has already made some noise at Cannes, and now Ty West presents us the concept of old age with a very spicy sauce.
The film begins with a scene of cops arriving at a house where a massacre has taken place. Dead bodies in puddles of blood are scattered all over the property – in the house, the old barn, some on the doorstep, some on the street. No one knows exactly what happened until they find a camera that captures many of the events of that very night. The movie rewinds back 24 hours and the story unfolds before us of a group of young people who have the idea of making an adult film in a house rented from a very interesting elderly couple.
‘X’ is a sort of slo-berner, for almost the first hour not much happens, the viewer is introduced and introduced to the characters. By the way, the characters here are written out just fine and they are really interesting to watch, all very charismatic and colorful. The spirit of the 70’s, the entourage, the outfits, the hairstyles – everything is done with love for that time. The rapper Kid Cudi, who is Scott Mescudi, reveals his acting potential more and more with each film. From the performance of the new icon of the horror genre Mia Goth, who, by the way, played both roles, the porn actress and the bloodthirsty grandmother, it is impossible to tear yourself away. And Jenna Ortega, who you could see in the recent ‘Scream’ reboot, here also blooms to her full potential and can easily be proclaimed the scream queen.
As for the different genre references, there are innumerable ones. The whole movie is like a love letter and an homage to the flicks of the time. The very first association is of course with the original ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ with its shabby and creepy farms and barns, then the swimming in the lake in the style of the classic ‘Friday the 13th’, the chaotic and extreme ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, the bloody bacchanalia of the ‘Evil Dead’ remake finale etc. The fact that there are so many moments in ‘X’ where the texture of the film and grainy images add to the film’s flavour, at times like these you really feel like you’re watching a 70’s cinema amateur. The soundtrack ideally complements the scene and fans of A24 studio will be to their liking – during the whole action the viewer will hear the melodious singing mixed up with eerie breathing, like a lullaby from hell, increasing the suspense many times over.
What are we dealing with, exactly? There is a fading old couple, in which the decrepit and senile, barely moving grandmother is very obsessed with sex and the passing of youth. Obsessed with sexual desire to such an extent that she decides to vent all her internal anger on the young and so vicious, just arrived at their farm, porn makers. And the caring grandfather, in his own time, has nothing to do but to support his passress in her endeavors, to compensate for what he can no longer give her because of heart problems. True, in one scene he does try. At first it may seem like a rather ridiculous, repulsive and funny plot, but if you seriously think about it, it’s an extremely deep and depressing fresh look at a current topic that almost no one talks about.
Ty West took the concept of aging from an angle like no one else has done, added all sorts of taboo, humor and violence to it, whipped it all up in a nuclear mixer and poured it in the viewer’s face in the last 40 minutes of this masterpiece. While the first hour of the film, as I mentioned, may seem a bit boring and drawn out, the fury that takes place in the second half of the film easily makes up for any anticipation and will deliver even to the most demanding fans of the genre.
From the first very gruesome, maximally detailed and bloody murder scene, the viewer will immediately know what he is dealing with. From that moment on, ‘X’ starts the death machine and only stops when the end credits begin. The creativity of each murder and the absurdity of the situations reaches a maximum level. Shotguns, axes, pitchforks, knives and even alligators are used. At the same time, all the characters in the movie have brains, no one does stupid things, but where the evil comes from catches everyone unawares at the most inopportune moments. Real survival horror.
‘X’ will be one of A24’s top ten ambitious art horror films and will become a cult classic of our time, indisputably.
Speaking of which, at the film’s world premiere last month at SXSW, Ty West revealed the secret that he shot a prequel to the film called ‘Pearl’ with the main character Mia Goth in some locations from ‘X’ at the same time as the original. As you may have guessed by now, Pearl is the name of the grandmother from the original film, and its plot was written a few weeks before the filming of ‘X’ and will be the second part of a trilogy revealing the past of the sinister WWI-era farm. Considering how brutal and creative the first part turned out to be, we’ll just have to be patient until the sequel is released.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (73.4 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10+
Original aspect ratio: 1.90:1
Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
Subtitles
English SDH, German.
