Ti West is one of the best horror filmmakers out there for a pretty simple reason. He likes horror. It helps that he’s also talented. In his films, he shows it by doing it. A lot of horror filmmakers today prove their love of the genre by getting a few steps ahead of it. They play on expectations or become self-aware. I love the Scream movies too, but they come from a very “Check out how many horror movies I’ve seen” place. Instead, Ti West makes the thing he likes. He likes the 80s supernatural horror movies, so he makes The House of the Devil, which fits right on the Blockbuster shelf with the rest of the films from that era. The Sacrament is a found footage horror movie that doesn’t try to be cleverer than previous films in the genre. The Innkeepers bleeds into being too knowing about horror, but counters that by making it almost mundane. It’s like those characters know they are in a horror movie but still have to work their day job. So, when I heard he had an A24 horror movie bringing things back to the Texas Chainsaw 70s, I couldn’t have been more on board.
X is exactly what it promises to be. It’s about a group of amateur adult filmmakers who rent a cabin on a remote farm property in rural Texas to film their “Debbie Does Dallas”. Of course, the farmer and his wife don’t much care for this, and eventually people start dying. It’s a pretty simple slasher in the way that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a very simple slasher. It leans into every trend and trope with the idea that if they approach it earnestly enough, the familiarity is a feature, not a bug. So this is unabashedly a boobs and blood kind of movie. It’s a little sophomoric, because so much horror really is overeager 12-year-olds trying to get a rise out of people however they can.
It’s a really fun cast. Mia Goth is the lead: a young woman determined to be a star who looks at this movie as her way to achieve that stardom. Goth is a great horror movie asset. She has a distinct look that almost seems unnatural at times. She can look as fresh faced or as world-weary as a scene needs. Martin Henderson is in the film as Goth’s much older producer fiancé. He’s pretty much channeling Kurt Russell, and it works. Jenna Ortega is sort of “the innocent” in the film but not with the implications you may expect. She’s already making quite a name for herself in horror despite still being a teenager. Brittany Snow and Kid Cudi really embrace their roles as other adult actors for the film. The member of the group who doesn’t make much of an impact is Owen Campbell as Ortega’s boyfriend and the director. Stephen Ure and Mia Goth (again) play the farmer and his wife under heaps of makeup and prosthetics. They are made to look unnaturally decrepit.
This movie is light on things to say. There’s definitely some sex positivity and a little religious scaremongering, but the movie stays pretty focused on entertaining. There are creative kills. The characters are big and fun. It has variety in the ways it’s creepy. Despite being A24, it not the kind of horror you’d associate with A24. It’s not overly arty like a Robert Eggers or Ari Aster film. It fully feels like a random tape you’d rent from a video store back in the day for a horror night. That’s exactly what West was going for, so it’s a resounding success, as far as I’m concerned.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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