A scary thing happened on the way to the Movie Forums - Horrorcrammers

X -

Despite a halfway original and eyebrow-raising setup, this is a good, but not quite great horror movie that is more love letter to ones that inspired it than an equal. I do not believe the hype, in other words, but I'll at least say the hype is real when it comes to Mia Goth. Her performance combined with the allure and mystery she gives Maxine is the movie's secret sauce. To paraphrase a quote from The Simpsons about a much less beloved character, whenever she wasn't on screen, I wondered where she was. Martin Henderson's McConnaughey-adjacent producer is also no slouch for being an ample source of comic relief, nor is Brittany Snow for how she subverts your expectations about the "blonde" in movies like this one. As for the main draw of its genre, each moment surprised me, as did the moment when they started happening. I also appreciate the director's clever predictors of each one. Speaking of, Ti West also proves he hasn't lost his knack for using the right song for the right occasion since The House of the Devil, and despite filming in New Zealand, he sure makes it pass for Texas.

I did have a good time with this movie and I am thankful that I caught it before Netflix yanks it at the end of June. Even so, I still have an unpleasant taste in my mouth; to be specific, one that's more like aspartame than sugar. For starters, it's all a bit too refined. Part of the appeal of this movie's inspirations is their grit, and when it tries to add some, it seems fake, which is disappointing since the equally homage-y The House of the Devil's attempts work. The affectations like the De Palma split screen also seem more like showing off like anything else and do not jibe with its modern techniques like a drone shot, as good as it is. In sum, it’s not easy to make a movie like this without doing something that Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, Brian De Palma or anyone else whose movies' posters likely adorned the young Ti West's bedroom walls would have done. It’s just too bad that the end result looks more like one of their movies than a Ti West movie. With that said, and while casting Goth may be the answer, the superfan must have done something right because I'm eager to check out its follow-ups.

Is anyone watching The Vourdalak yet?

I hadn't even heard of it before. Not streaming anywhere I can get to it yet.

You have my attention!
(first I'm hearing of it)

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Me and my friends seem to be the only ones who thought this was a really good movie. All four of us had it as a solid 4/5 (maybe even 4+) and was West's best film, easily, and proved that he had worked out his issues and had emerged as a great Horror director. I continue to be surprised that no one around here had nearly the positive experience all of us did and it makes me feel like I need to re-watch the movie to convince myself that it's worse than I thought it was.

Ok. It just keeps coming across my feed with positive buzz so I was checking to see if anyone had a report.

I really liked it, with just a few reservations.

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2386237-x.html

I think the general population liked it. I recall crumbs is very negative on it. I think Rock was as well? (Maybe MKS?)


I'm kind of tepid on it. I seem to recall all of us were generally more positive on Pearl.


I recall Agrapinna loved X.


Take that for what it's worth (hopefully I'm recalling opinions correctly).

Pretty sure MKS was a fan.


And Pearl was way way better. I might dare say it was almost pretty good.

It's really that faux grit that puts me off.


I don't like movies that do bad cosplaying of older better movies, when they are also distinctly lacking any real vision of their own.


Pearl also played around with other film styles, but it also felt like it was its own thing. It also had a much better handle on its characters.

Pearl is definitely the better film, so far, although only slightly so. I’ll see MaXXXIne at some point as well, but my issues are mostly with not being a big fan of Ti West.

I watched Pearl recently and I also liked it a lot more. I'll go ahead and share my thoughts on it, especially since they mention it and X being on streaming services this month and the month is almost over, heh.

Pearl -

While I enjoyed this movie's predecessor, X, it is ultimately too much of a love letter to all the better horror classics that inspired it for me to love it. Am I allowed to say I love this one even though I have not seen all its inspirations? Well, I will anyway. Besides, I have seen one of them, Repulsion, and it is less obvious about it being a Ti West favorite than any of the ones in X are. Okay, enough talk about other movies, save one: Kimi. As good as that one is about capturing pandemic life, this one is even better. From the loneliness to the guilt about, well...doing anything that makes you remember not just what life was like pre-2020, but also what feeling human is like, it succeeds at capturing all the frustrations therein. Tandi Wright is key to its success as Pearl's mother/stern voice of reason in your head you also tired of listening to, her performance being all the more impressive considering she is the movie's intimacy coordinator and not actually German. As it goes for X, though, our "hero" is the main attraction here. Goth's performance is as raw and honest as it gets as someone desperate for an escape and whose routes keep getting blocked. Besides her, my favorite thing about X was not only how surprising the "good stuff" continued to be and when it started happening, which applies here as well. Also, from the title cards to the Technicolor-like saturation, West again shows off his fondness for movie history, thankfully in ways that do not reek of pedantry as much as they do in X. It was also nice to see another...let's say water-dwelling friend.

Is it wrong to receive catharsis about the pandemic from watching the exploits of woman who is, to put it lightly, a little unwell? If it is, I don't want to be right; besides it says a lot that the movie did this for me even though the pandemic is over. If this is something you need, if you're simply in the mood for what may end up being a horror classic of the 2020's and it is still June 2024 while you are reading this, watch it soon (not before watching X, of course) because streaming services will no doubt remove it or make you pay extra before the month ends. Not to mention, the next entry in the series is right around the corner.

I had a perfectly ok time with X and Pearl. And I’ll watch Maxxxine.

I saw the trailer a few days ago, and it looked fine. I wish it's at least as good as the previous (to my knowledge) adaptation, Night of the Devils was.

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The Well looks promising. I wonder when it'll be available on some streaming service.