X (2022)

I have a strange relationship with film-maker Ti West, and I suspect I am not the only horror fan to feel this way. He has been working on his craft for just over two decades now and the good stuff is often very good, but there’s a feeling throughout some of his work that he just wants to mess with people. And let’s not even mention his dubious honour of delivering arguably the worst horror anthology segment I have ever seen (in The ABCs Of Death). This meant that I started watching X with some trepidation, despite it having a potentially great premise. There was no need to worry though, thank goodness, as X is easily the best thing that Ti West has ever done.

The plot is fairly simple. A group of people rent a small farmhouse property in the middle of nowhere. It is the late 1970s and the leader of the group, Wayne (Martin Henderson), wants to make a fortune in the world of porn, which he knows is possible with this location, the people around him, and the equipment that will allow them to make an immediate impact on the new and lucrative home video market. Wayne has two starlets with him, Maxine (Mia Goth) and Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow), as well as a well-endowed leading man, Jackson (Kid Cudi). Then you have the sound technician, Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), and RJ the cameraman (Owen Campbell). All bodes well for the group, except for the fact that the man they are renting from, Howard (Stephen Ure), takes an instant dislike to them, and there may be problems caused by his wife, Pearl, who doesn’t always have her mental faculties working as well as they should.

If you haven’t seen any of the X marketing yet then you may want to look away now. Just trust me, it is worth your time. For everyone else, you already know what the set-up is here (a porn film crew get themselves caught up in a bit of peril that could easily turn into a full massacre) and I can reassure you that West delivers on it.

Taking his time with the first half of the movie, what you get is a nice slow burn that, in a pleasantly surprising turn of events, really rewards patient viewers with a third act full of grisly deaths and enjoyable “punchlines”. West seems to be having a lot of fun, with recreating a period style and sneakily layering his script with some interesting commentary on beauty as a coveted commodity, and that fun is infectious. X will make you wince, but it will also make you grin as you enjoy one gory set-piece after another. And realising how the movie has been cast will make you think about the main point that West is making, helping to appreciate further a film that has some unexpected depth beyond the nudity and bloodshed.

The cast all do great work, with Snow and Goth being the ones who have to be the least inhibited. Both of those ladies are excellent, and very believable, but Goth also has some more to do in helping West get across his main point, and she deserves some extra kudos for that. Cudi is also very good in his role, playing his character with a mixture of confidence and wariness, considering the time period and the setting, and he is matched by Ortega and Campbell, who feel a bit like supporting players, despite the former being a bit more involved in things in the second half of the movie. Henderson is an easygoing charmer, or at least tries to be, and his energy helps a lot, and Ure portrays the typical sullen “farmer” type who can barely stand the presence of younger folks anywhere near him, let alone on his land. Having just the right mix of anger and sadness, Ure acts in a way, like everyone else here, that allows him to feel like more than just an archetype.

While not feeling overdone in a pointed way, the clothing and design of the film feel nicely of the period, there’s hair and make-up on the characters that is just spot on, and the editing, music, and other aspects of the film all contribute to a nice recreation of something that was filmed in the seventies before being spruced up and presented to modern audiences.

Obviously not for the prudish, X could well be the best horror movie of this year. It’s certainly a strong contender, thanks in no small part to the intelligence hidden away under the exploitation garb. The more I think on it, the more I loved it. Easily the best movie yet from West, and I hope many other horror movie fans check it out. You may end up as pleasantly surprised as I was.

9/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018)

A sequel that nobody was really crying out for, released a decade after the original movie, I have to say that my hopes weren't high for The Strangers: Prey At Night. But I'd heard some people say they loved it, which was a plus, and I knew it was directed by Johannes Roberts (another plus, check out his filmography . . . he's like the modern Renny Harlin of genre fare).

And I ended up enjoying it, in a very different way from my enjoyment of the first film.

Although it starts with the usual nonsense about it being based on true events (almost every movie could be sold that way, considering how little you need to actually link things to reality), The Strangers: Prey At Night quickly sets itself up as something out to entertain, rather than completely unnerve and scare you. Not that it doesn't have unnerving moments. They're just interspersed between scenes that focus on murderous set-pieces, often accompanied by a fine selection of '80s tunes.

A family is heading off on a long journey, and they're due to arrive very late at a trailer park. There's the usual dollop of family tension, this time caused by a strain on the finances as the parents plan to send their daughter to a private boarding school, but that is quickly pushed aside when they start to realise that there's something amiss at their lodgings for the night, especially when a young girl comes to the door twice to ask for someone who isn't there.

Co-written by Bryan Bertino, who directed and wrote the first film, and Ben Ketai, this is a film that feels very much like someone cutting loose and having fun after having to show some restraint the first time around. There are some more kills, a more interesting environment for the characters to inhabit, and more moments that feel enjoyably cinematic.

Roberts directs with a keen eye, with both the script and the visuals allowing for some nice nods to a multitude of other movies (from slasher classics to the thought-provoking work of Haneke), and he maintains a perfect pace as he drags viewers through an 85-minute thrill ride that gets going quickly enough and doesn't really slow down until it's all over.

Cast-wise, the main family unit is made up of Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson, Bailee Madison, and Lewis Pullman. Hendricks and Henderson are both solid as the parents, but it's Madison and Pullman who get to shine more as the kids/young adults. As much as I have enjoyed seeing Madison in the many TV movies she has appeared in over the past few years, I hope to see her in more films that don't feel planned around ad breaks. She's very good here, as is Pullman (who also gave a great turn last year in Bad Times At The El Royale), and both play well off one another as siblings who believably wind one another up until they are threatened, at which point they pull together to show their true united front.

All the more refreshing because it isn't being meta, or feeling the need to add a load of laughs in between the bloodshed, The Strangers: Prey At Night is a very pleasant surprise indeed. I'd even say that it edges just ahead of the first film, and I recommend it to all slasher movie fans.

8/10

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