X 💋

Gonna Give It To Ya...

Mar 30

Welcome to Pop ‘n’ Pizza, a newsletter highlighting what’s new in pop culture and pulp fiction. This week, I’m talking about one goddamn fucked up horror picture — Ti West’s X. 🍕🥤

X

Genre: Horror
Release Date: March 18, 2022
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Rated: R
Studio: A24

Behind the Scenes

Directed by Ti West
Written by Ti West
Cinematography by Eliot Rockett
Music by Tyler Bates, Chelsea Wolfe

In Front of the Camera

Mia Goth (SUSPIRIA, A CURE FOR WELLNESS)
Jenna Ortega (2022’s SCREAM)
Brittany Snow (PITCH PERFECT, HAIRSPRAY)
Martin Henderson (GREY’S ANATOMY, THE RING)
Scott Mescudi (BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC)

What’s It About?

“A group of actors sets out to make an adult film in rural Texas under the noses of their reclusive hosts, but when the elderly couple catches their young guests in the act, the cast finds themselves in a desperate fight for their lives.” — A24

Why You Should Check It Out

Written, directed, produced, and edited by Ti West (HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, THE SACRAMENT), X is a slick-with-sweat slasher flick that wears its inspirations on its blood-splattered sleeves. Set in 1979, the film is a homage-podge of references to classic horror pictures, including Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO (1960) and Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974), as well as the Texan filmmaker’s lesser-known 1976 movie, EATEN ALIVE, and Kevin Connor’s MOTEL HELL (1980).

A van full of aspiring auteurs and movie stars make their way to an isolated farmhouse to shoot their own DEBBIE DOES DALLAS, but their deranged and decrepit hosts, Howard and Pearl, have other plans. X is a celebration of two genres that, to the mainstream, should never be celebrated: horror and porn — delivering Blood & Guts™ and Tits & Ass™ in equal measure. To paraphrase Baby from Rob Zombie’s HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, this is a movie about people who like to fuck and do fucked up shit.

In MOTEL HELL (1980) — itself a satire of PSYCHO and THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE — the motel owners dismember their guests and grind them up into sausage. In the aforementioned EATEN ALIVE, the psychotic hotel proprietor feeds tenants to a big-ass crocodile. In X, the old fuckers rent out a bunkhouse, not in the hopes of satiating their hunger for human flesh, but their lust for its touch.

X is a return to form for West, who hasn’t made a feature since 2016’s IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE. It’s funny, titillating, downright weird, and extremely unsettling — basically everything I want in a horror movie. With an excellent cast led by a fierce performance from Mia Goth, impressive makeup effects, and a killer soundtrack of ‘70s needle drops, X is a must-see horror flick for film fans looking for something “unsuitable for children with strong bloody violence and gore, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, and language.”

X is currently in theaters and arrives May 24 on Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital) and DVD from Lionsgate.

Slices (Out of 5)

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Trailer

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X 💋