Directed By:
Ti West
Written By:
Ti West
Starring:
Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow
Genre:
Horror
Rated: R for strong bloody violence and gore, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, and language
All media used courtesy of A24
Welcome to A24’s reimagining of Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Joking aside, this is a film involving a group of people going out in rural conservative Texas in order to make a XXX film. The owners of the farm they’ve chosen to film at are decaying rapidly in age, and automatically give off a murder vibe. Yet the group proceeds to film. One of the actresses Maxine (Mia Goth) is desperate to become a big name, as big as Linda Carter. But will they be able to go unnoticed, or will their presence ignite a night of blood, horror, and lust, in this new films from A24 that wants to be intelligent under the surface, but may end up feeling like shlock to most.
Here’s what I’ll say upfront. This is a sexy gore-filled film that has some visually scarring imagery. If you are squeamish and don’t like too much sexual content in your movie, this is not the one to see. Now, if you love A24, and love their style of storytelling and filmmaking then X is going to be right for you. The themes are exploring sexuality in your youth as well as when you’re older. What the differences are in the sense of function and in mindset. There’s some great uses in music from Brittany Snow performing Landslide overlayed with this beautiful side by side of our characters. From that moment the story stopped being just a gore film and grew depth that I was fascinated to explore, if not terrified throughout.
The other performances were all done well, Mia Goth being the star in the movie and another character but decked out completely in makeup and prosthetics. I was shocked after watching to find out she played two characters, and hearing that there’s a prequel already in the can, I am very excited to see where it goes. Jenny Ortega is quickly becoming a Scream Queen, in January being in Scream and now in this updated Texas Chainsaw variant. Kid Cudi has some acting chops, and hope I get to see more of him as well.
Overall, X is exactly what it’s marketed itself to be. With strong performances, great suspense building and some intensely gorrific kills. See it with an audience and I think this will be a fun watch in the theaters.
