Rating: R | Runtime: 105 minutes
Release Date: March 18th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: A24
Director(s): Ti West
Writer(s): Ti West

I will not accept a life I do not deserve.

Looking to cash in on the impending VHS boom, Wayne (Martin Henderson) decides to take his usual band of XXX misfits to the country for some “on-location” filming of a new porno written and directed by a budding auteur trying to make a name for himself in cinema (Owen Campbell’s RJ).

Knowing Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and Jackson (Kid Cudi) are game for whatever, his real desire is to finally put his new girlfriend Maxine (Mia Goth) on film to show the world her “x-factor.” So, off they go to evangelical hillbilly country circa 1979, passing a few extra bucks to old man Howard (Stephen Ure) so he doesn’t ask any questions once the cameras begin rolling on his farm.

Ti West’s X seeks to deliver the type of horror thrills we used to get forty or so years ago with deliberate pacing, gruesome slasher kills, and a really gnarly pair of backwoods residents who reveal themselves to be as sex-crazed as their newest tenants.

It’s a fun homage with excellent gore elements and a cutthroat ambition in terms of making certain no one is above getting impaled with zero warning, but I’m not sure what else is there to transcend the obvious nature of the beast. If anything, the weirdness that does exist (see the casting of Howard’s senile and horny wife) lands with more of a “huh?” than a “wow!” considering the reasons for it are left completely unexplained.

Even the last-second attempt at an “a-ha” moment falls flat since it’s both easy to guess and inconsequential to the whole. If I hadn’t waited this long (the film hit theaters in March) I may have rated this lower because I wouldn’t have known a prequel (Pearl) and sequel (Maxxxine) were still to come.

At least that knowledge gives me hope all the mythology teases West includes here will still deliver a worthwhile payoff (and more period-specific filming styles as he moves through the decades). As such, I can give X the benefit of the doubt, accepting it as an entrypoint into a much larger world regardless of how incomplete it ultimately feels on its own.

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(L – R) Mia Goth, Owen Campbell, and Martin Henderson in X. Courtesy of A24.