Sometimes when you read an interview with a filmmaker, or a creative of any stripe, you get a chance to peer a little deeper into their process and find out the specific intention of the work you’ve just borne witness to. In Ti West’s case, a filmmaker who has yet to equal the critical fervor of his indie horror splash The House of the Devil, his latest work – X – is designed to be a grander project than the usual slice and dice. According to a recent, and pretty illuminating, interview, West is angling to both create his own take on the “shared universe”, while also underscoring a kind of grand representation of broad eras of cinema and the impact it’s had on the individuals in that same world.
It’s the kind of interview that when you read it, it makes you so excited for the ambition of a younger filmmaker, and leads one to marvel at just how novel the idea is. Who wouldn’t want to see an adventurous horror franchise constructed on such promise?
But, having seen X, I can’t help but wish the above was reflected in what actually appears on screen. Sure, there’s definitely a film fan stand-in who makes a few references to the French New Wave and the later New Hollywood movement of the 70’s, and there’s some nicely composed and lit moments that feel ripped right out of Mario Bava’s head. Beyond that? What you’re basically looking at is a hybrid Texas Chainsaw Massacre/The Visit riff, and while that could be okay too, there’s a sense of what West was wanting to make interfering with what he was actually making, creating a mostly ineffective grindhouse exercise.
The premise of X is novel enough, a group of libertines (anchored by Mia Goth’s star in the making Maxine) head out to the middle of nowhere Texas where they’re looking to quietly make a porn film at a rented guesthouse on the property of a…less than enthusiastic old man and his wife. After a turbulent beginning, the group of performers (Goth, Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi) and their crew (Owen Campbell, Jenna Ortega), and their ne’er do well producer (Martin Henderson) start to settle into filming; that is until an interaction between the property owner’s wife and Maxine sets off a very terrible night for all involved.
X is a movie with a lot on its mind, clearly, even if you put aside the broader allusions to film movements, it also spends a not inconsiderable amount of time attempting to pay lip service towards the dichotomy between progressive attitudes within sexuality and conservative religious dogma. This is a lot of thematic real estate for one horror picture, and that’s not taking into account its need to still produce some thrills for the audience, which admittedly it does pretty well with a number of creative and fun kills.
Still, with a need to do so many things at once, it leaves X as a confused and all too often ineffective experience, occupying an unsatisfying space between fun trash and the kind of (sigh) “elevated horror” that A24 has made their bread and butter. It should be said, that by comparison with the tired nature of the latter, X does at least succeed by at least producing a different sort of energy, and West sure can cut a handsome looking picture along with DP Elliot Rockett, but he just can’t get out of his own way. Between amped up performances that can’t convincingly carry his occasionally weightier dialogue, a basic lack of a third act, and greater mystery breadcrumbs that are not paid off in any real way, X squanders any real promise it had.
Maybe the upcoming prequel will be better, I just wish West could have put more of an eye and focus on making THIS movie work better as its own contained unit.