X (2022) desires to scare you
What more needs to be said about sex and horror movies? Vacuous teens getting hacked apart in the woods and virginal final girls surviving until the end have gotten stale and dull. Enter Ti West with X, a story about professional sex havers getting hacked apart in the woods that also explores what desire and freedom can do when taken from you.
Tell me if you heard this one: some city folks go to a remote area where the locals murder them. Standard stuff. X is full of homages to these stories, most prominently Hitchcock's Psycho and Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Psycho elements come from renting a place in the middle of nowhere, having the innkeeper be a bit weird, then after a sexual scene or two lots of stabbing and a secret revealed in the basement (plus cars in a swamp for bonus). TCM gets shots and the whole familial Texas outlier hunters taken and lovingly recreated. Overall, nothing new happens in this movie yet the questions it asks are very interesting.
That's not to say the questions are new either. How does sex relate to horror? What is freedom in America? How does freedom and desire tie into the American Dream of having it all? Each character has their own answers, making this a step above the normal horror empty-headed teen murder fest.
Fuck it, I'm gonna go through all of these folks. Spoilers ahead, you should go watch this anyway:
Pearl: Our elderly killer (and the subject of a prequel coming soon!). She was beautiful once but is now trapped in a small farm in a frail body warped by age. She wants to be desired and touched, and something inside is deeply broken so she takes out her rage on unsuspecting folks. The flipside of Maxine, Pearl is repulsive by the film's standards forcing her will on others as the desire in her cannot be sated.
Maxine: Analog to Pearl in a lot of ways (and played by the same actress). We start thinking she's innocent and being used by the quick talking Wayne, but she is a professional at being the object of desire and using others. We learn at the end she is a preacher's daughter as the evangelist on television uses her to warn his flock about falling to Satan. She wants to be special and ends the film triumphant and almost unchanged as the force of her desire to live propels her forward. The movie treats her as desire incarnate, a temptation to be used as much as abused that leads everyone else to their doom.
Howard: Pearl's husband. Also broken down and trapped from feeding the monster that is Pearl. At some points he feels like he disagrees with the killing, but as he cannot satisfy Pearl sexually he helps her get fresh victims. He is twisted mentally and physically by the desire to help his wife.
Wayne: Manager of the porn shoot. Sees that porn is going video and wants to make real movies for people to watch at home. Forward thinking and desires money, but also to make a name for himself and live comfortably. The way he tells it, seeing Maxine gave him the desire for this plan although it is clear other women have been in her place before.
Bobby-Lynne: The most well-rounded character of the group, she anchors the movie. She knows who she is and what she can do, desiring more than dancing and shooting porn movies but is okay with being the object of desire to get the comfortable life she wants. Played brilliantly by Brittany Snow, she's kind and gentle when she needs to be, such as when she greets Pearl on the dock and instead of being freaked out remembers her grandma having trouble at night. At times, she is almost a house mother with a well placed "Bless Your Heart" punctuating a hilarious scene about sexual performance. Her rendition of “Landslide” sells the Bohemian freedom the group says they want with the impending doom about to befall them.
Jackson: Kid Cudi kills it here as the "only ex-marine is a dead Marine" walking penis. There's not a lot to this character other than his muscles, guitar playing, and talk of combat prowess. Returning soldiers from Vietnam or an African-American man having sex with white women in West Texas should have been talked about, but overall he was entertaining as an object not just of desire but manifesting that desire.
RJ: The Boogie Nights wanna be, RJ desires to film art and decides on porn to make something. His arc is dependent on Lorraine, seeing himself above everyone artistically and wanting to leave as soon as he feels emasculated by his girlfriend joining the film. His pretentious desire for how the art will make him look rather than the justification for making the art in the first place is his downfall. That and a knife to the throat.
Lorraine: Right off she's supposed to be the one that makes it, right? Quiet, meek, and teased by the more experienced professionals, she comes out from behind the camera to shock everyone by wanting to be involved in the sex. She is seduced not only by seeing Maxine's freedom in sex but by the overall group attitude. Her desire leads her to become a part of the group but that also dooms her.