{"id":430,"date":"2024-07-04T02:24:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T02:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=430"},"modified":"2024-10-15T00:20:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T04:20:25","slug":"x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/04\/x\/","title":{"rendered":"X"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\"\"X<\/strong> (2022)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 106 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence and gore, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ti West\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ti West\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Tyler Bates and Chelsea Wolfe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Eliot Rockett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 18, 2022 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi (as Scott Mescudi), Martin Henderson, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, James Gaylyn, Simon Prast, Geoffrey Dolan.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Marvel changed cinema in a major way. Thanks to them, many of us feel obligated to sit through the entire end credits roll of practically every movie just in case there\u2019s a post-credits scene. I do it myself. I shudder to think how much time I\u2019ve wasted waiting around for something that doesn\u2019t happen. This is the case a lot of the time. Other times, it pays to stay. This is the case with X<\/strong>, a new horror film from writer-director Ti West (The House of the Devil). Now I\u2019m not one for putting the cart before the horse, but that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m about to do. The movie\u2019s biggest weakness is the lack of development afforded the antagonists. There\u2019s more story to tell here. A post-credits scene addresses this issue with a promise to follow up on it.*<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Elevated horror has its merits, but I miss the days when filmmakers had little else on their minds than blood, guts and high body counts. Young audiences today will never know a time when directors weren\u2019t afraid to get down and dirty. They weren\u2019t trying to make some grand statement about society\u2019s ills. Horror was much simpler then. It was just supposed to be a fun ride soaked in gore and punctuated by a few well-timed \u201cBOO!\u201d scenes, more sleaze than art. That\u2019s what West appears to have in mind with X<\/strong>, a gleefully nasty little throwback to the rural horrors of the 70s, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre in particular. In fact, it\u2019s eerily similar to the 1974 Tobe Hooper classic only instead of a family of cannibals, the youngsters are terrorized by a weird elderly couple.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0The year is 1979. Strip club owner\/wannabe adult film impresario Wayne (Henderson, The Ring) wants in on the booming home video market. He has it in mind to shoot a porno film starring his girlfriend Maxine Minx (Goth, A Cure for Wellness) at an old farmhouse in the middle of Nowhere, Texas. The crew also consists of buxom stripper Bobby Lynne (Snow, Pitch Perfect 1-3), male lead Jackson (rapper Kid Cudi), art-minded director RJ (Campbell, The Miseducation of Cameron Post) and his shy girlfriend Lorraine (Ortega, Scream 5) along for the ride as sound person.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Things start to go south from the moment they get there. The property owner, a cranky old guy named Howard (Ure, Ash vs. Evil Dead), doesn\u2019t extend the warmest of welcomes. He pulls a gun on Wayne when he knocks at his door. He\u2019s even less thrilled to discover his lessor isn\u2019t alone. The old coot takes Wayne\u2019s money, but makes it clear he doesn\u2019t like any of them. He\u2019d also appreciate it if they\u2019d stay away from his wife, a crazy old lady named Pearl. Pearl has other ideas. She\u2019s intrigued by their youth, beauty and sexual freedom. She\u2019s especially drawn to Maxine. The girl awakens something in her, something she can\u2019t convince her husband to satisfy because of his bad heart.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0The title X<\/strong> means pretty much what you think it does. The audience gets to play voyeur as the gang shoots scenes for \u201cThe Farmer\u2019s Daughters\u201d. If you\u2019ve ever seen a porno movie from the 70s, you\u2019ll appreciate how accurate X<\/strong> is in this area. West seems to have an understanding of the process of making such a movie and depicts it accordingly. He gives us the whole picture- i.e. bad acting, worse dialogue, non-simulated sex and the not-too-bright characters typically involved in such ventures. In other words, it\u2019s Porn 101.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Wayne just wants to be a big shot. Maxine, always stoned on coke and a dead ringer for Linda Lovelace, utters self-affirmations to herself as she walks around on autopilot. Jackson, dressed in a funky powder-blue leisure suit, takes pride in his \u201cperformance\u201d opposite Bobby Lynne. She responds by bragging about how great she is at feigning sexual pleasure. RJ, acting the part of serious-minded auteur, truly believes he\u2019s making art. Lorraine, who\u2019s been looking on in disapproval all day, surprises everybody when she asks if she can be in it. RJ is against it because it means changing the direction of the plot midway through and that\u2019s simply not done. \u201cWhat about Psycho?\u201d, asks Lorraine. RJ tells her it\u2019s different because it\u2019s horror and that\u2019s not the kind of movie they\u2019re making. What none of them realize is they\u2019re about to be part of a horror scenario.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0So yeah, the crazy old couple starts killing off their tenants. We get a few good bloody kills. They\u2019re topped off with a nifty twist or two. In short, X <\/strong>is a lot of demented fun. It\u2019s like a cross between The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Boogie Nights with a dash of Eaten Alive thrown in for good measure. For whatever reason, there\u2019s an alligator in the lake on the old couple\u2019s property. Yes, somebody becomes gator chow. In addition, West pays a little bit of homage to Quentin Tarantino with shots of the actresses\u2019 bare feet (Goth\u2019s tootsies get a couple of close-ups).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0As for the acting in X<\/strong>, it\u2019s solid. Everybody appears to be on the joke. Goth is especially good as the leading lady of the piece. Ortega is also good as the prude whose decision to taste forbidden fruit leads to the expected consequences for the genre. SPOILER ALERT!<\/strong> She forfeits her eligibility for final girl status. Oh, you may have noticed I didn\u2019t say who plays Pearl. That\u2019s deliberate. You\u2019ll have to see X<\/strong> to find out more.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0As much as I like X<\/strong>, I find myself going back and forth about it in my mind. It\u2019s a great tribute to the kinds of horror movies I grew up with. A good-sized portion of my misspent teen years was spent perusing the horror section at video stores. X<\/strong> is a lot like those movies. However, I can\u2019t help thinking it might be a little more of an exercise in style. It comes across as self-conscious at times. You can see how much West loves the genre. He includes elements familiar to the die-hards- e.g. a visit to a gas station, skinny-dipping, plenty of naked boobs and characters doing the exact things they shouldn\u2019t. There\u2019s also a TV preacher in the background talking of sin and hellfire at several points. This love, however, can also be a liability. That\u2019s not entirely the case here. X<\/strong> has enough in its favor to excuse any tendencies towards total self-gratification. It has plentiful gore that doesn\u2019t appear to be CGI. That\u2019s always a point in a scary movie\u2019s favor. I like X<\/strong> a lot. I look forward to West expanding on the story in the future.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

*= A prequel, currently in the post-production phase, was secretly shot back-to-back with X<\/strong>. No word on a projected release date.\"\"<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

X (2022)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 106 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence and gore, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ti West\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ti West\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Tyler Bates and Chelsea Wolfe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Eliot Rockett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 18, 2022 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi (as Scott Mescudi), Martin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/X-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}