Let’s Talk About X, Baby

If you know me AT ALL, you know how long I’ve been waiting for X. This week, the stars finally aligned, and Ti West’s latest creation finally graced my screen. I was scared I would have to tell y’all it’s not worth the wait…but hot damn, it was worth the wait. 

For those not familiar with X, it focuses on the cast and crew of an adult film who naturally find themselves shooting at the country home of an elderly couple (there are about 15 “we’re in a horror movie and don’t know it” red flags in this sentence, but I digress). This movie oozes ‘70s sensual slasher sleaze, and I can best describe it as a mix of Boogie Nights and Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a sprinkling of House of 1000 Corpses. It doesn’t just dabble with the 70s; it eats, sleeps, and breathes 1979 (take notes, Fear Street: 1978). 

In true ‘70s fashion, we don’t care about these characters. Sure, they each get a moment in the sun with their backstory, but this movie is down and dirty. We start with Mia Goth snorting cocaine, and everyone loading up a van labeled “Plowing Service”, so Ti West doesn’t waste a second letting us know what we’re in for. 

As a disclaimer, I’m not going to cover all of the Easter eggs in this movie because I think it’ll be a lot more fun if you discover them yourself. I do, however, want to take a look at one of the film’s biggest themes. There’s obviously a major theme of aging/ageism. We have Brittany Snow’s cover of “Landslide”, Pearl’s infatuation with youth, and Pearl and Howard’s sex scene directly after watching a sex scene from The Farmer’s Daughter, our movie within a movie. This scene shouldn’t make us uncomfortable, but it does because it’s shown immediately after the traditional, steamy sex scene we’re used to, Pearl and Howard aren’t “young and hot.” I could talk about all of the juxtapositions between The Farmer’s Daughter and X all day, but there’s another theme I really want to dive into. 

There’s an incredible trend I’ve been noticing from the likes of Scream (2022) and Malignant where we’re being reminded that horror is allowed to just be horror. Obviously, there are a lot of things to dissect with both of them, and I have with Malignant, but we’re also allowed to just watch a movie. In Scream (2022), Ghostface asks Jenna Ortega (who is becoming an amazing Scream Queen and also stars in X) about her favorite scary movies. When she replies with the likes of The Babadook, Ghostface asks about the Stab franchise and waxes poetically for the old days of the slasher. Malignant divided the horror community because we’d all come to expect the likes of The Conjuring from James Wan, only to receive a high-camp, pro-choice film. 

X is no different. As I mentioned earlier, there’s a very obvious theme that plays with the idea of fleeting youth. The one I really connected with though is on trend with what we’ve been seeing. Sometimes, it’s better to return to what we know. Sometimes, your point can be made through the splatterific ‘70s and using the backdrop of an adult film. Sometimes, it’s okay to make a simple, grotesque horror movie. 

All throughout X we have pieces of dialogue to remind us of exactly what we’re watching. Lines like “Because it is possible to make a good dirty movie” and “To the power of independent cinema!” make it blatantly obvious we’re watching a good ol’ fashioned smutty horror movie made by a horror director whose roots are based in independent horror (watch The Roost if you haven’t, and you’ll see what I mean). Is there a lot we can talk about in X? Yes, but we also have the choice to take it at face-value. 

We’re allowed to watch movies while scarfing pizza, and we’re allowed to write about them and come up with insane theories and analysis. The biggest takeaway is horror movies can be a simple gorefest. Both greasy slashers and high-brow horror can exist in harmony. Believe me, I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of horror movies by this point in my life, and I’ll tell you I enjoy the likes of the Final Destination series as much as I enjoy Hereditary and The Lighthouse. 

We can bask in the glory of zero character development. We can worship in the church of over-the-top kills. We can stan movies with no deeper meaning, just like we stan those chock full of symbolism. 

Take my tattoos, for example. On one arm, I have “do good”. This represents Mr. Feeny’s final speech in Boy Meets World. It’s meaningful and powerful. On the other arm, I have Count McNugget from the 1980s Halloween campaigns because it makes me smile and reminds me of rewatching recorded Halloween specials. Just because one is seemingly more meaningful than the other doesn’t mean one is lesser than. You know, balance and all that jazz. 

X was recently announced as the first part of A24’s first horror trilogy, and Ti West apparently already secretly shot the next entry, Pearl, so we should be getting the prequel soon. I would highly recommend running, not walking to your video on demand and renting this puppy as soon as possible. It’s sexy, sadistic, and ‘70s to the max. I don’t think any line I end with will be as good as the ending line of X itself, so I’ll leave you with this:  How do you best describe X? 

“Well, by the looks of everything, I’d say one goddamn, fucked up horror picture.”