(206'468 votes)In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in a rural Texas farm, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the crew find themselves fighting for their lives.
A crime consisting numerous murders has already been committed; or call it a ‘massacre’, if you must. The lens zooms out of the open door of a cottage slowly onto the many moving police vehicles all of which eventually halt in front of a house. We are treated with the bloody affair soon: both the interior and the front of the house all bloody. The television inside the house is still on running a motivational speech by some guru, presumably since the time of the murders. A police officer comes to the chief and says, “You gotta see this”, and they head towards the basement. “My God!”, says the chief upon seeing something and we are pulled back to 24 hours in the timeline without any delay. Here starts X (2022).
Ti West, a filmmaker who started his career in 2001 by making horror short films, has since worked really hard on his own craft. The Roost (2005), Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009), In a Valley of Violence (2016) showcase the effort that he puts in each of his projects. Though he got some recognition for his previous works, he finally seems to be on the clouds of fame after his latest horror/slasher, X.
A Brief History of Slashers Trying to be ‘Cinema’:
Not just Marvel or DC, or any superhero film studio, so to speak, does try hard to make a movie that attracts positive responses from both the mass audience and critics, but films of almost all genres do that; so do slashers. Slashers have been trying to do so since long. Some very successful attempts have been made as the likes of Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Candyman (1992), Child’s Play (franchise), A Nightmare on Elm Street (also franchise). Many of the slashers don’t even see the dawn of fame and praises. Only a few of those, though box office bombs, have gone on to become cult classics. The only one such cult franchise that I can remember is Human Centipede.
Let’s Wrap It Up About X:
Four pornographic actors, the director and one cameraman reach rural Texas with the very high ambition of creating an “art” out of their porn feature. An old couple, their host, is ignorant of their plans and soon find out about their business and eventually the bloody business takes off where Pearl, the old, psychopathic wife, sets out on a killing spree, and the husband protecting her blood trail until the slasher-formulaic lone survivor escapes the scene.
“Almost all slashers follow a similar storyline. But what makes X so unique and different?”, you of course ask; “Everything”, I answer.
First of all, the editing. It’s a top-notch job. The way the shots have been mixed; the story is told to the viewers; everything is just so perfect.
Next up, the cinematography. The wide shots, the zoom-ins and outs making you so uncomfortable while you watch it, the choice of colour and light to fit into the right mode of that period are just breathtaking. One particular aerial shot within the first fifteen/twenty minutes of the film where Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) is chased by an alligator while swimming in the pond will definitely make you breathless.
The eerie music throughout the runtime of the film that changes from time to time according to the mood never ceases to make you feel a weird uneasiness since the very beginning. There is one beautiful classic song featured in the film, ‘Oui, Oui, Marie’ (1918).
A director pushes everyone in the crew to do their best and leads the team towards the same dream. Editing, cinematography, music, story, everything in a film depends on how the director manages to pull off a harmonic assembly out of them all. While doing so, Ti West seemed to have left a few lose ends in directing the film along the way. But given the whole of the job and his performance in them, that negative is a point that’s certainly negligible, as it seemed to me. It is a real wonder how West, himself, single-handedly has written the story, directed, co-produced and edited the film.
The A24-factor does unbelievable wonders for X. Associating a project with an indie production company comes with equal amounts of both liberty and rate of failure. But the makers of the film have rightly taken the leap of faith given the company’s glorious past consisting many memorable and artistic films like Midsommar (2019), Hereditary (2018), The Lighthouse (2019), Uncut Gems (2019), Lady Bird (2017), Moonlight (2016) and The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021). When talking about A24, a friend’s remark spontaneously comes to my mind, “People love all of A24’s films without even paying a heed to the company”. Truly, the very-underdiscussed company’s association gives West the much-needed liberty to shape his dream and make a masterpiece (?).
Reception, and My Take:
As usual, IMDb (6.8) and the Google’s audience ratings fail to recognize another art while Rotten Tomatoes stands up for X at a spectacular rating of 96%. Letterboxd ratings stand at a high 3.6/5. Released on 18 March this year, the film has done a marginally moderate box office collection of $12.9 million worldwide.No matter what happens with the genre in future, West has certainly proved himself big time with this marvelous project of his. Days after the release of X, the maker announced the prequel to the bloody saga which was already in the late post-production stage by that time. If a man writing the story, directing, co-producing and editing a film so aesthetically all by himself doesn’t make you awe, then I really wonder what would! I’m all in for the ride that West has to offer. I might put my money at stake for it (only if I had any). It’s definitely going to be a long future awaiting the filmmaker to do wonders. As for the question posed in the title, we will just have to wait and see, I suppose. Sorry for the disappointment.
