X

X
Starring Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow
Directed by Ti West

As someone who's a definite horror aficionado, it'll take a whole lot to really affect me when watching a new horror film. The (mostly) lame PG-13 horror films relies heavily on jump scares you see coming from a mile away, while the more genre-friendly R-rated films focus more on blood and guts than actual factual scares. Only a few have managed to really creep in under my skin, and I was hoping "X" was going to be one of them, because director Ti West managed to do that to me with his three previous outings - "The Inkeepers," "The Sacrament," and "The House of the Devil." Maybe I had my expectations up way too high, but while I was impressed with "X" overall, I felt kind of deflated by the end of it - a bit disappointed that I wasn't as unnerved as I thought I would be. Again, it could just be my jaded sense of horror films (despite even the terrible ones being enjoyable to me), but I felt there was a few missed opportunities here to make "X" something a bit more memorable.

In 1979 Texas, producer Wayne (Martin Henderson), his acting girlfriend Maxine (Mia Goth), fellow actress Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow), actor Jackson Hole (Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi), director RJ (Owen Campbell), and his girlfriend/sound tech Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) travel to a small isolated farm to take advantage of the growing home porn video market by producing their own homemade porno film for profit. Wayne convinces the farm's elderly owner Howard (Stephen Ure) to allow him and the others to stay there while they film in secret, but soon they discover the farm has a terrible secret - Howard's wife, Pearl, has some severe issues that come to light at night, and while they think they're shooting a porno film, they're actually the stars in a real-life horror film.

Ti West is an expert director and one that's incredibly underappreciated, utilizing the aspect of the slow burn to keep you glued to the screen with vested interest to see how it all turns out, and his four films have all had different tones: "The Inkeepers" is a modern-day ghost story. "The Sacrament" is a Jim Jones-style cult religious fanaticism film. "The House of the Devil" is a classic babysitter horror situation. "X" is a throwback to the classic slasher genre akin to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (which you can clearly see not just in the setting, but many of the camera angles and the overall plot). He doesn't bash you over the head with intense violence right from the start, but slow burns the tale to make you simmer in the same pot as his characters and before you know it, you're so deep in the story you can't get out. "X" does this well by introducing a unique cast of characters, but perhaps one of the underlying disappointments comes with those characters themselves.

On one end there's the filmmakers, who - at least the director anyway - wants to make a high quality porno. RJ, the director, focuses on lighting, dialect, and camera angles, while everyone else is just interested in the...well..you know. Wayne in particular just wants to make a quick buck by exploiting the sexuality on screen, while Maxine, Jackson, and Bobby-Lynne don't seem to mind. Lorraine - RJ's quiet, shy girlfriend - experiences the most change when she goes from mild-mannered "church mouse" to someone who wants to star in the film herself, to RJ's chagrin. While the film advertised a slasher film unlike most slasher films, I don't feel like it particularly delivers on this aspect. Most - if not all - these characters get dispatched in the usual fashion (well, "usual" in the sense that they die, but I will grant West that he does do it in very unique ways), and while the blood and gore is satisfying enough, it's nowhere near as bad as other films I've seen (mostly French films like "Martyrs" and "Inside," where blood is literally the wallpaper). All the actors perform admirably, especially Mia Goth's Maxine, who wants to be something bigger than she is and wants her name to be remembered.

On the other end of the spectrum is the elderly couple who's farm they're using for their perversions. This is the biggest waste of opportunity in the film itself, as there's so much story to be told between Howard and Pearl that isn't addressed, to the film's detriment (although that'll be remedied since West announced a prequel film named "Pearl" to be out later this year). Here, they're nothing more than kooky, frightening elderly people who dispatch the horny adults akin to Jason Voorhees slashing his way through Camp Crystal Lake, but with less motive than Jason did.

There's hints of brilliance in a story that was never fully developed about a person's choices in life and how they affect their future, but that story is moved to the side in favor of more blood and violence. Maxine, Jackson, Bobby-Lynne and Wayne argue that making porn is good because they're young, and they won't be able to have sex forever. On the flip side, Harold and Pearl are elderly and while Pearl seems to want to still have sex, Harold doesn't because he's worried he'll have a heart attack. This seems to be their driving force for killing the filmmakers, but it's never fully stated - and the fact that these over the hill antagonists manage to dispatch the young bloods so easily is quite amusing. West did manage to make a slasher film that's different in the fact that it's, in a weird sense, lighthearted in the storytelling. While Harold and Pearl aren't as developed as they should be, you still feel as bad for them as you do their victims, and it's humorous seeing them kill them off in a way that doesn't come off as unintentional comedy, but rather an undercurrent in West's script that allows for the freedom to enjoy the carnage.

The Score: A