Pearl (2022 film)

Pearl (subtitled An X-traordinary Origin Story) is a 2022 American psychological horror film directed, produced and edited by Ti West, co-written by West and Mia Goth, who reprises her role as the title character, and featuring David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, and Emma Jenkins-Purro in supporting roles. A prequel to X (2022) and the second installment in the X film series, it serves as an origin story for the title villain, whose fervent aspiration to become a movie star led to her committing violent acts on her family's Texas homestead in 1918.

West began co-writing a prequel script stemming from his collaboration with Goth while filming X. Motivated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema, filming started in New Zealand immediately after the first film, using X sets and the Avatar: The Way of Water crew and taking pandemic safety precautions. Pearl drew inspiration from the works of Douglas Sirk, Technicolor films like The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Mary Poppins (1964), and Disney films. It had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2022, and was released in theaters in the United States on September 16, 2022, by A24. The film grossed over $10 million and received positive reviews from critics, with Goth's performance receiving considerable praise.

A direct sequel to X, titled MaXXXine, was released on July 5, 2024, with Goth reprising her second role from the first film.

Plot
In 1918, Pearl is a young woman living with her German immigrant parents on their farm in Texas, while her husband, Howard, serves in World War I. Her father is infirm and paralyzed, and her strict mother, Ruth, insists that she help care for both him and the farm as they isolate themselves to protect against the Spanish flu pandemic. Pearl aspires to be a chorus girl or a film star, which Ruth disapproves of, and chafes under the isolation. Pearl also shows signs of psychopathy. She abuses her father in secret and kills animals, which she feeds to an alligator she nicknamed Theda.

One day while visiting town, Pearl meets a projectionist who takes a liking to her. After returning to the farm, Pearl continues to show signs of mental disturbance as she dances with a scarecrow in a cornfield and masturbates with it. During supper, Ruth berates Pearl for her behavior and withholds her food.

Pearl hears from Mitsy, her wealthy sister-in-law, of an audition to find new dancers for a troupe around the state, and envisions it as her ticket out of spending her life living on the farm and having to care for her father. She later visits the projectionist, who shows her the illicit stag film A Free Ride and encourages her to pursue her dreams. Pearl comments that she cannot abandon her family and she says, "If only they would just die."

That night, Ruth and Pearl get into an argument over dinner as she reveals that she knows about Pearl visiting the movies. Pearl confesses she wants to audition and asks for Ruth's permission, to which she declares Pearl as her biggest failure. An altercation erupts during which Pearl shoves her mother against the hearth, causing her dress to catch fire. As she burns, Pearl pours boiling water onto her to douse the flames and then drags her into the basement while leaving her father alone in the room. She then flees to the theater, where she has sex with the projectionist.

The following morning, the projectionist drives Pearl home to prepare for the audition. However, he is disturbed by her sudden agitated behavior, as well as the sight of a rotting pig that her mother-in-law left for Ruth the day before. As he tries to leave, Pearl erupts into a fit of rage at the perceived abandonment and stabs him to death with a pitchfork. She pushes his car into a pond, where Theda eats his remains. Pearl dresses herself in one of Ruth's Belle Époque gowns and dresses up her father before smothering him to death using a pillow cover.

Pearl arrives at the church to attend the audition. She thinks her dance performance will impress the talent scouts, but is rejected for not being young, blonde, or "all-American". Mitsy accompanies her home in an attempt to console her, which results in Pearl launching into a lengthy confession regarding many things, from resentment toward her husband and having an affair to killing animals, her parents and the projectionist. Pearl then coerces a stunned Mitsy into confessing that she won the audition, although she did not. As Mitsy tries to leave, Pearl chases her down the driveway and kills her with an axe.

Pearl dismembers Mitsy's body and feeds the remains to Theda, then goes into the basement and lies next to Ruth's corpse. She decides to atone for her crimes by creating a home for Howard.

Some time later, Howard returns and is greeted with the long-decomposed bodies of Pearl's parents seated at the dining table around the rotting feast. As Howard stares in horror, Pearl greets him with a protracted, pained smile, saying, "I'm so happy you're home."

Cast

 * Mia Goth as Pearl
 * David Corenswet as the projectionist
 * Tandi Wright as Ruth, Pearl's mother
 * Matthew Sunderland as Pearl's father
 * Emma Jenkins-Purro as Mitsy, Howard's sister
 * Amelia Reid-Meredith as Margaret, Howard and Mitsy's mother
 * Alistair Sewell as Howard, Pearl's husband

Development
Ti West began writing a script for the prequel film during production on X. He stated that the prequel project had developed from a story he had collaborated on with Mia Goth, and that he had seen it either as becoming a potential film, or simply serving as a backstory for Goth's role as Pearl in the first movie. After the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, seeing its impact on the cinema industry, West stated that he had been inspired to continue working and had decided to begin production of the prequel immediately after wrapping on the previous installment. West stated that he had pitched his idea of a new franchise to A24 and had been surprised when they green-lit his projects. The filmmaker stated that he intends each film to have its own distinct style and genre of horror. Describing his approach to X, he said he was heavily influenced by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise and by the works of Mario Bava, which explore how the rise of independent filmmaking affected society. Regarding Pearl, he described it as Douglas Sirk melodrama meeting the Technicolor style of Mary Poppins and The Wizard of Oz, made as a "demented Disney movie", and said it will explore how Hollywood filmmaking has influenced people. West stated that he intends to continue this trend of exploring diverse styles and genres in future installments. The movie is a joint-venture production between A24 and Little Lamb Productions.

With the release of the first publicity poster, it was announced that West would once again serve as film editor alongside his other production roles, that Eliot Rockett would return as cinematographer, and that Tyler Bates and Tim Williams would serve as co-composers of the film's score.

Casting
Mia Goth reprises her role as a younger version of Pearl, the elderly woman from the first film. In July 2022, it was revealed that David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, and Emma Jenkins-Purro would feature as the supporting cast.

Filming
Principal photography was revealed to have begun in secret immediately following the completed photography on X. Filming started in New Zealand, took place back-to-back with the first movie and used the same sets that were built for X. West worked with the production crew of Avatar: The Way of Water, who were taking a break from production on that film at the time. West stated that, despite the production taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic, the production crew had already completed their required period of self-isolation, and were therefore able to work safely and efficiently together during the pandemic. He said: "I came out of quarantine and I was like, 'We're already building all of this stuff, it's COVID and we're on the one place on Earth where it's safe to make a movie.'"

Post-production
In March 2022, having completed filming, West announced that he was currently working on editing the movie, that he would go to Nashville, Tennessee, following the March 2022 SXSW Film Festival, to record the orchestral score for the soundtrack with Tyler Bates and Timothy Williams, and that the film was expected to be finished in May.

Marketing
A teaser trailer was screened at the SXSW Film Festival, following screening of the first film. The footage accompanied the theatrical release of X. In July 2022, the first trailer was released with the marketing tagline of "an X-traordinary Origin Story", referring to the previous installment.

Release
Pearl had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2022, and was released in theaters in the United States on September 16, 2022.

The film was released on VOD on October 25, 2022, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 15, 2022.

Box office
In the United States and Canada, Pearl was released alongside The Woman King and See How They Run, and was projected to gross around $4 million from 2,900 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $1.3 million on its first day and went on to debut to $3.1 million, finishing third at the box office. It made $1.92 million in its second weekend, finishing fifth at the box office.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 211 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's consensus states: "Pearl finds Ti West squeezing fresh gore out of the world he created with X – and once again benefiting from a brilliant Mia Goth performance." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave the film a 75% overall positive score, with 54% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Reviewing the film following its Venice Film Festival premiere, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised West's direction and Goth's "grandiose performance", assigning it a perfect rating of five stars and remarking: "Perhaps I shouldn't have enjoyed Pearl as much as I did: but it's clever, limber, gruesome and brutally well acted. A gem." In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney described it as a "cleverly packaged pandemic production with narrative echoes of that global anxiety", praising the screenplay, cinematography, score, and Goth's performance—which he compares to that of American actress Shelley Duvall in The Shining (1980). In a year-end retrospective for Daily Grindhouse, Preston Fassel named the film as the best horror movie of 2022 as well as "the best film of the year, period, and a bona fide cinematic classic that deserves Criterion status ASAP." In a negative review, Ewan Gleadow of Cult Following wrote that while West "doubles down on what made X such a chilling feature and consolidates what he is good at", the film ultimately "feels like a weak parody of the MGM days of The Wizard of Oz." Similarly, Derek Smith of Slant Magazine thought that, while The Wizard of Oz references were "purposeful", they lacked "follow through", creating an impression that the film is more focused on showcasing its "cleverness" rather than enhancing its narrative or character depth.

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese was reportedly impressed by the film, calling it "mesmerizing" and stating that it was "powered by a pure, undiluted love for cinema". The New York Times named the character of Pearl one of the 93 most stylish "people" of 2022, highlighting her "blood red dress, lacy blue bow, smudged makeup, boots … and ax".

Third film
West announced in March 2022 that he was working on the script for a third movie in the film series, to be set chronologically after the events of X. That project will explore another subgenre of horror and will continue depicting how cinema in general, and the development of home video releases in particular, have influenced society. West stated that, while a viewer can watch each movie independently without having seen the previous film, they are made to "complement each other". In describing his creative processes during the development of these films, West stated, "I'm trying to build a world out of all this, like people do these days." The filmmaker further noted, "You can't make a slasher movie without a bunch of sequels."

In September 2022, at the first Midnight Madness showing of Pearl for the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, a third film was officially announced with a short teaser played after the credits. The clip was later released online for those not present at the event. West once again served as writer/director and one of the producers, while Mia Goth reprised her role from the first movie. Titled MaXXXine, the film takes place in 1985 and serves as a sequel to X, centered around Maxine, the only survivor of the "Massacre of X" as she continues to pursue fame in Hollywood. Though principal photography had not yet begun, the teaser trailer was shot, with the film fast-tracked to being green-lit by A24, following the successes of the previous two installments. Jacob Jaffke, Kevin Turen, and Harrison Kreiss producerd, while Goth additionally served as an executive producer. It was released on July 5, 2024.