GoMovieReview Rating: ★★★1/2 
Rated: MA15+
Directed by: Ti West
Written by: Ti West & Mia Goth
Produced by: Jacob Jaffke, p.g.a, Ti West, p.g.a, Kevin Turen, Harrison Kreiss
Executive Producers: Mia Goth, Peter Phok, Sam Levinson, Ashley Levinson, Scott Mescudi, Dennis Cummings, Karina Manashill
Starring: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, Emma Jenkins-Purro.
‘I do like a good audience.’
Pearl, the prequel to X (2022) is the origin story of the voyeur who stalks the crew of X, especially porn star, Maxine Minx.
See movie review of X here: X Review
There’s parallels between the two characters, emphasised by the characters, Maxine and Pearl both played by Mia Goth.
Took me a while to figure that here Mia was playing the old woman from X, now young on the same farm.
The opening is an idyllic scene, the barn doors opening to a farmyard with chooks and clothes flapping in the breeze while the sun shines on the green grass.
There’s an emphasis on the brightness of mid-century technicolor with an orchestral score by Tyler Bates; the brightness adding another dimension to the sinister as what is all goodness in the world is splattered with the blood of Pearl’s broken dreams.
There’s a room full of dolls and a girl looking the mirror, Pearl.
She stretches out her arms, like a dancer.
Her mother, Ruth (Tandi Wright) speaks to Pearl in German, chastising her and her silly fantasies.
‘I’m special,‘ Pearl says.
Set in 1918, Pearl’s husband is at war and she is trapped on the farm with her mother and dependent father (Matthew Sunderland).
She acts out.
It gets bloody.
This is a different style of horror to X. This is a character study, a slow reveal of Pearl’s dark soul.
Ti West returns as director, this time focussing not on the erotic Maxine, but the deranged Pearl, with Mia Goth again, the highlight.
Mia Goth says, “One of the core elements that I came to understand with Ti during preparation is that Maxine and Pearl are not the same women, but they are the same character. They are polar opposites in terms of their life experiences, and their choices and courage—or lack of it—have shaped them to be who they are. I always saw Pearl as the embodiment of Maxine Minx’s fears.”
West focusses up close to Pearl, as an imagined dancer and star, to her doe-eyed innocent want, to the crazed smile like the flip-side of the mask of comedy and tragedy.
When Pearl meets a cinema projectionist (David Corenswet), he seems to understand her: “…You only get one take at this life. If you don’t make the most of it while you’re young, you may never get the chance again.”
He seems to understand her. Until he doesn’t.
It’s like a mix of comedy and tragic, so it’s more than her wanting and the tragedy of her life, it’s a technicolor twist of her beauty hiding the darkness underneath.
And the horror delivers, the effects better here in Pearl than the fake monstrous elderly of X – the burnt skin and limbs being cut-off look oh so very real.
Along with the bright aspect of the farm, there’s some play in the presentation, the slow motion of nerves before performance, the stop-frame highlighting Pearl with pitchfolk in hand, a goose impaled about to be devoured by an alligator.
So there’s a circle back, a reflection, a revelation of the character before she becomes the elderly murderous monster: the farmhouse, the gator, Pearl.
We see the character Pearl wanting her dreams to be a dancer more than anything, just like Maxine wanting nothing more than to be famous.
You can understand my confusion about the two characters.
But the prequel is more psychological horror than slasher, so the audience is given a background understanding of the murderous Pearl with more realistic gory bits.
Not recommended to watch in the morning, just after breakfast.
AKA, the horror delivers.
