Review: ‘X' Plays Clever Homage To The Early Days Of Slasher And Adult Films

By Megan Bianco, Times of San Diego

April 17, 2022

I’ve made it no secret I am not a fan of this new trend of meta, tongue-in-cheek narrative where a film references itself or its genre. It works for maybe a movie or two, but can get stale very fast.

And if you’ve read my reviews for awhile, you’ll also know that predictable, B-movie horror schlock is not my bag either. I have so little interest in these tropes that I’ll go out of my way to avoid them.

That said, I’m about to admit I genuinely enjoyed Ti West’s X — a joint, retro slasher and porno pastiche — and found it pretty good. I think it helps West, who shows he is smart enough to know not to just rely on gimmicks and tropes to entertain the audience.

In 1979 Houston, six amateur pornographers consisting of sleazy entrepreneur Wayne (Martin Henderson), strippers Maxine (Mia Goth) and Bobbie-Lynne (Brittany Snow), Vietnam War vet turned adult film actor Jackson (Scott Mescudi, AKA Kid Cudi), aspiring film director RJ (Owen Campbell), and Owen’s naïve girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) head out to a secluded farm to shoot a nudie film without anyone bothering them.

Everything starts out well until they meet the owners of the farm, including elderly, but intimidating Howard (Stephen Ure), and Lorraine gets second thoughts on her role as gaffer and key grip for RJ’s camera work.

X is a clever homage to both the early days of the slasher genre and the roots of the adult film industry. Of the two horror flicks out this year starring Ortega (the other is Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Scream 5), X is by far the more unique and interesting. It feels and looks like a low budget B-movie from the grindhouse era as well as a cheap 1970s porno.

It’s as if West came up with the film after revisiting PT Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) one weekend. There are indeed callbacks to Hitchcock as well as Brian de Palma’s direction for Carrie (1976), on top of the usual content to be found in horror.

There’s graphic sex, graphic violence, jump scares, atmospheric tension, plot twists, creepy looking villains — but all successfully subverted to throw the viewer’s expectations off. We even get a transparent homage to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975), but with a lake alligator.

Goth’s Maxine and Henderson’s Wayne in X are obviously supposed to channel Linda Lovelace and Chuck Traynor, and there’s a nice, acoustic number with Snow and Mescudi performing Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” right before things hit the fan.

If you can suspend your disbelief to fit the horror-movie logic and also appreciate comic relief in the middle of terror, X could be the indie, sleeper hit for this spring.

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