For those who don’t know, I’m a pretty big fan of A24 horror movies. I’ve watched a ton of them for the last several years of my life, have ranked some of them from best to least best (because all of them are really awesome), and have specifically sought out opportunities watch them – which is what lead me to X last year.
The gory horror film came out in 2022, featuring a small but powerful X cast, which includes stars such as Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, and the hugely popular Jenna Ortega, who has grown even more in popularity in the last year. But, for some reason, it took me forever to check out the prequel to X – Pearl, the film telling the origin story of the antagonist of X. I had some time off and I decided to sit down and watch it – and oh boy, did I have thoughts. Let’s get into it.
The Saturation Is On Another Level
I didn’t know what I was really expecting when I started this movie. I knew it was going to take place a long time ago, considering X took place back in the 1970s and this was going to tell Pearl’s origin story. But if I recall from watching X, it just reminded me of a typical A24 horror movie – some awesome shots, really cool imagery -- nothing out of the ordinary.
If you liked Pearl, check out some other awesome horror movies.
But man I was not expecting the saturation for this film to be upped literally to the max. It was on another level of intensity and yet somehow, it fit the theme perfectly. When you think of the typical horror movie, whether it be a classic one like The Exorcist or a newer classics like The Black Phone, they’re usually not associated with bright colors. There are a few I could think of – namely another A24 horror masterpiece, Midsommar – but most don’t go there.
However, using the saturation in this film not only throws off the viewers since most horror movies don’t necessarily go in that direction, but fits the whole vibe. Pearl herself is an idealistic girl who dreams of dancing in the movies, which would make sense as to why this film looks as if it’s a technicolor fanatic's dream, and it grows even more eerie as the film progresses and gets bloodier.
The Soundtrack Is Phenomenal
There are plenty of horror soundtracks that are amazingly well-known, namely because they’re so creepy. I could think of a bunch off the top of my head, from The Exorcist theme to even John Carpenter’s classic Michael Myers theme that we’ve heard in every single Halloween movie.
The soundtrack for Pearl is not necessarily creepy, per se – but it certainly does fit every aspect of this film and more. From the opening notes, you feel as if you’re being thrown into this old movie from the 1920s with the type of music that it is featured, but it only grows more intense as time goes on. It’s done exceptionally well.
Mia Goth Deserved Awards For This Performance
Horror performances in fantastic scary movies have always flown under the radar. It’s rare that someone really gets the acknowledgement they deserve for it. I could name several off the top of my head – Toni Collette in Hereditary, Lupita Nyong’o in Us, even Christian Bale in American Psycho. Mia Goth is now added to that list.
Granted, many of the actors that I have seen before who have delivered amazing horror performances were already well-known before their role. Goth, however, received acclaim for her dual-role in X, and deserved even more for her role in Pearl. In fact, her acting as Pearl in this was even better than X.
It’s because of Goth’s performance that we really start to understand Pearl and her worldview. Yes, she is not okay mentally and we can tell straight from the beginning that there is more going on with her than we know. But it’s the subtleness in her movements, the way she smiles at the dancers in the theater, who we see the distaste for her family slowly grow – it’s all incredible acting.
Tandi Wright Was Fantastic As Well
I went into this expecting to enjoy Mia Goth’s performance – which I did – but I have to give credit to Tandi Wright, who portrayed Pearl’s mother, Ruth. While the actress is primarily known for roles in New Zealand, I have to say that I really loved her performance.
Many mother roles in horror movies fit into one of two categories – the hero or the antagonist, at least in many of the scary movies I have seen. However, it never felt as if Ruth was either of those.
She certainly wasn’t the hero, but I also didn’t feel she was evil. She was a poor woman who was simply accepting her fate in taking care of her husband who had grown sick. But a part of her also couldn’t accept the idea of her daughter running away from this life to start something new. It was an overall, really well-done story,
The Slow Descent To Utter Madness Is Perfection
Look, we all know Pearl was insane before going into this movie. She was the main antagonist of X, so it’s not like we were expecting this movie to end super well. But man, again, that change of Pearl starting to show who she truly is was done so perfectly.
There were little bits and pieces at first, where we could see the cracks beginning to form – her long linger on the alligator in their swamp, how she killed animals, the Scarecrow scene – but as more and more opportunities are threatened to be – or are – taken away from her we see even more.
How she stands up to her mother, how she sees the world in a different way, how she takes out her father and nearly feeds him to the alligator, all of it done so well. She’s not laughing manically crazy like you would expect – but that eerie creepy quiet crazy that makes you wonder what’s going on in her head until she stabs you.
And The Kills Are Even Better
Good god, I was not expecting the gore in this film.
I’d consider this movie almost a slow burn horror because we didn’t really get a lot of gore until the very end, but man, when it happened, it happened.
Look, I’m not the kind of person to get turned off by gory horror. I watched all eleven seasons of The Walking Dead, binge-watched Game of Thrones pretty consistently, and love all the disgusting zombies in The Last of Us, so blood and gore is sort of my thing. However, I think I was just thrown off by how much there was of it, so fast.
From Pearl stabbing her lover and feeding him to the alligator to how she took out her father to what she did to her mother to the stabbing and eventual beheading of her sister-in-law – God, it was so much in such a short span of time. And I could have gone my whole life without seeing that pig covered in larvae, yuck.
The Ending Was The First Horror Movie In Years To Give Me Chills
It’s quite hard for a horror movie to give me chills. I’m so desensitized to a lot of the violence that occurs that a cliffhanger at the end of a horror movie doesn’t really get me anymore. But the ending of Pearl was on another level.
Obviously I was expecting Pearl’s husband to come home and find his family dead and I loved seeing that reaction shot, but it was what came after that made me want to literally shrivel up and die. That slow, long shot of Pearl forcing herself to smile at her husband, clearly mentally unhinged as tears start to trail down her cheeks. The credits role, and all we see at the end are her pain-filled eyes before it closes to black.
Chills, man. Utter chills. I was staring at my screen still seeing her smile. I needed to get up and get food or a drink or something after because I needed to distract myself. So creepy.
I’m kind of annoyed that it took this long for me to give the movie a shot, but now that I have, I can fully see the hype. And honestly, I can’t wait to see MaXXXine and continue this storyline because it has me hooked.
