When it comes to director Ti West, I’ve always found him to be quite the mixed bag. I’ve loved some of his work, notably The House of the Devil and X, while finding his Cabin Fever sequel quite poor and feeling indifferent to The Sacrament. When it comes to his X trilogy of films, the aforementioned X, its prequel Pearl and the eventual sequel MaXXine, I’ve always had mixed feelings. When I caught wind that Second Sight Films were releasing the latter two in their typically extravagant limited edition style, I figured I’d revisit the trilogy as a whole and see if my feelings have changed at all.
I won’t be reviewing the first entry, as there’s no upcoming release planned from Second Sight Films, but overall, my thoughts on the film remained the same – it’s a great little slasher, packed with countless references to the films that West loves, such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Eaten Alive and the work of Brian De Palma. Full of lively performances, including a delightful dual role from Mia Goth as Maxine and Pearl, the latter of which forms the basis of the second instalment in the trilogy, the prequel aptly titled Pearl. Let’s get into my thoughts on that.
Pearl
Director: Ti West
Screenplay: Ti West and Mia Goth
Starring: Mia Goth, David Corenswet and Tandi Wright
Country: United States
Running Time: 102 min
Year: 2022
Right near the end of the production of X, right in the midst of the COVID pandemic that halted virtually all creative endeavours worldwide, director Ti West and X’s lead actor Mia Goth had an idea – what if they repurposed the sets for X and made a prequel, centred on X’s antagonist, Pearl? In X, Pearl is an elderly woman who hints at the dreams she had at a young age, wanting to be a star, having everybody know her name. Work began as X was wrapping up and alongside the same production team and with the go-ahead from distributor A24, West and Goth began work on something that couldn’t be more tonally and visually different than the sleazy, grimy 70s slasher X.
Taking place in the late 1910s, we follow disturbed farm girl Pearl (Mia Goth), who dreams of a life more exciting than the one she’s currently living. She cares for her disabled father, alongside her strict mother Ruth (Tandi Wright) and acts out fantasies in her bedroom of her becoming a star. The thing is, Pearl isn’t perfect – instead of caring for her father, she toys with the idea of feeding him to the local alligator, she harms innocent animals and engages in unusual activities with the local scarecrows. It’s not until Pearl meets a projectionist, played by Superman himself, David Corenswet, that she uncovers a darker, filthier side to the world and her mask begins to crack even more.
I’ve always had a strange relationship with Pearl. After being head over heels for X, I couldn’t wait to see more of Ti West’s wacky ideas centred around these characters and instead, he delivered a quiet, sombre and dour character study about a mentally unstable woman, not too dissimilar to 2019’s Joker. Over the years, I’ve warmed up to the film but still have my fair share of issues with it, primarily down to the pacing of the whole picture. While Goth is undeniably great for every second that she’s on screen, there’s a repetitive nature to the events that occur that feel a little underwhelming. Still, there’s so much to appreciate, from the Technicolour influences that shine in every frame, the wonderful production design, the classic orchestral score that you find yourself swept up in whenever it appears, it’s a remarkably made film.
Towards the end of the film, Goth takes centre stage with impressive monologues, filmed in long, unbroken takes that are bound to captivate anybody who’s invested in the film. The supporting cast are all solid too, with Pearl’s mother being played by X’s intimacy co-ordinator, who has a great interview on the Second Sight disc that’s worth a watch, as well as our latest Superman, David Corenswet, who seems to revel in playing a seedy projectionist. For the horror fans, there’s plenty of kills that’ll satisfy you, but it’s really Goth’s leading performance that makes Pearl worth watching.
Although it may not live up to the extravagant highs that X delivers, Pearl is one of the decade’s more memorable character study horror pieces. Even if I’m not one of the film’s biggest fans, it’s hard to deny how impressive it is that West and company released this only months apart from X, given how different it is in almost every way.
Film: 
MaXXXine
Director: Ti West
Screenplay: Ti West
Starring: Mia Goth, Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Debecki, Moses Sumney and Halsey
Country: United States
Running Time: 104 min
Year: 2024
Almost immediately after Pearl released in US theatres, West announced plans for a third entry into the X trilogy, this time continuing the story of X’s lead character, Maxine Minx as she tries to make a name for herself in Hollywood, years after the events of X. Unlike the first two, this took a few years to materialise and when it did, it left audiences far more divided than either of the first two entries.
Taking place in 1985, in the midst of the video nasties boom in the UK, the satanic panic craze in the US and at a point where slasher films, giallo pictures and serial killers ran amok, MaXXXine follows the titular character as she auditions for the sequel to a fictional horror smash hit. Along the way, she’s hounded by a mysterious figure who knows about her past, the events that happened in X and she’s determined to find out who this individual is. She’s accompanied by video store employee Leon (hey, that’s a cool name!), fellow adult actor Tabby (Halsey), a pair of detectives who are seeing if Maxine is connected to a series of killings (Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale), her sleazy agent Teddy (Giancarlo Esposito), the director of the horror film Maxine is working on (Elizabeth Debecki) and a private investigator (Kevin Bacon) who won’t stop hounding her. If that seems like a lot, it’s because it is.
The biggest problem that plagues MaXXXine is how overstuffed the entire picture is. With X and Pearl, West took a specific era, whether it was the 1910s or the 1970s, paired that era with a few key influences and explored those characters, delivering in well-written, engaging films. However, MaXXXine fails to deliver on the compelling characters, instead throwing everything at the wall and hoping that something will eventually stick. To its credit, Bacon is delightfully campy and outrageous in every scene he’s in, stealing them all with his scuzzy PI. Sumney’s fun in the few scenes he has and the detectives have their own quirks too, but none of these characters ever amount to more than amusing set-dressing.
Goth’s doing a decent job here, but feels like she’s sidelined throughout her own movie, offering shades of trauma from the events of X but never really diving into that aspect of her psyche. Instead, she’s the badass porn actor who wants to be a star, which would be exciting if we hadn’t seen that character arc play out twice already in the past two instalments.
Like the prior films, it’s gorgeously shot, featuring tons of split-screen montages that feel ripped straight out of a De Palma picture, there’s plenty of neon-lights, black gloved killers with knives that deliver copious amounts of blood, and a layer of film grain that almost tricks you into thinking it was shot on film. It’s hard to really fault the film on a technical level, and it’s the one consistently solid thing throughout this entire trilogy.
I wish I had more positive things to say about MaXXXine because I want to love it, as a fan of the era it takes place in, the subject matter (video nasties and giallo are my thing, goddamn it!) and the unbelievably stacked cast, but it’s the weakest entry into the X trilogy by a wide margin. If West split these ideas into two movies and MaXXXine didn’t feel like it was speed-running through all of the elements of the mid-80s that he clearly adores and finds fascinating, I think he could have made two far stronger pictures, instead of the single disappointing one that we ended up with.
Film:
Both films are being released on Limited Edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray via Second Sight Films, with standard 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases available for purchase too. I checked out both films on 4K UHD and found them absolutely stunning on the 4K UHD format. Each film has a consistently high bit-rate, as you’d expect from a Second Sight disc and the Dolby Vision HDR grades that both films are presented with make the vibrant colours shine throughout each film. Two audio tracks are included for each film, a DTS 5.1 MA track and Dolby Atmos mixes. I viewed both films with the Atmos mixes and thought they sounded excellent too, making great use of my system. If you’re looking for the best way to view Pearl and MaXXXine on home media, this is it.
As usual with Second Sight releases, they’ve gone above and beyond to supply both films with an incredible array of bonus features. Ranging from brand new audio commentaries, video essays on each film and interviews with key members of the cast and crew, both titles are packed with great, insightful supplemental content.
Pearl’s Special Features
- Presented in HDR with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos
- New audio commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- Bold Choices: a new interview with Director Ti West
- The Mother: a new interview with Actor Tandi Wright
- Absorb the Aesthetic: a new interview with Director of Photography Eliot Rockett
- Going Technicolor: a new interview with Production Designer Tom Hammock
- Hollywood Goes West: a video essay by Joe Wallace
- Coming Out of Her Shell
- Time After Time
- 120-page book with new essays by Jenn Adams, Joel Harley, Mo Moshaty, Tori Potenza, Vannah Taylor and Nadine Whitney
- 6 collectors’ art cards
MaXXXine’s Special Features
- Presented in HDR with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos
- New audio commentary commentary by Bill Ackerman & Amanda Reyes
- Back to the Blank Page: a new interview with Director Ti West
- Money on the Screen: a new interview with Producer Jacob Jaffke
- B-Movie Aesthetic: a new interview with Director of Photography Eliot Rockett
- Curating Space: a new audio interview with Production Designer Jason Kisvarday
- The Whole World’s Gonna Know My Name: Kat Hughes on MaXXXine
- The Belly of the Beast
- XXX Marks the Spot
- Hollywood is a Killer
- Q&A with Ti West
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by OC Agency Group
- 120-page book with new essays by Reyna Cervantes, Sarah Miles, Sam Moore, James Rose, Rebecca Sayce and Michelle Swope
- 6 collectors’ art cards
For these reviews, I wasn’t sent any of the physical limited edition content, such as the slipcases, art cards or books so I’m unable to comment on those but they look as excellent as their usual limited editions.
Starting off with the extras for Pearl, the brand new audio commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas is, as expected, excellent. There’s never a dull moment, whether Heller-Nicholas is gushing about Pearl being the masterpiece of the trilogy in her eyes, to how COVID’s presence looms over the entire film, the melodrama of the film and its influences, hagsploitation and the criticism that certain films are ‘style over substance’ and how the style in Pearl is the substance. All in all, it’s a great listen from both an analytical and fan’s perspective of the film. The best extra on the disc.
The Ti West interview, running for around 19 minutes, is a good watch, discussing how the idea for the film initially came together due to 2020’s global pandemic. He runs through a handful of ideas that he initially had, such as shooting the film in black and white as a cost saving method, but A24 shut it down as they had too many films in their upcoming slate presented in black and white, which I found humorous. West talks about the casting process for actors like Corenswet, bringing Goth back, the benefits and challenges of shooting a film during the pandemic and his original idea of naming the film XX, before scrapping it. The second interview, with actor Tandi Wright, runs for 28 minutes and dives into her prior experiences working with Ti West on X as the intimacy co-ordinator before playing Pearl’s mother in Pearl. I found it fascinating hearing her describe her time as both an actor and an intimacy co-ordinator, and the importance of the latter in particular. Wright has nothing but positive things to say about her time working with Goth and West, as well as how ‘auteur-brained’ West is. Another element I appreciated about her interview was dedicating time to working with the prosthetic and stunt workers, highlighting her experiences being set on fire for the film and some of the prosthetics used for the film. Director of Photography Eliot Rockett’s 13 minute interview features the DoP recounting his history working with Ti on films such as X and The House of the Devil and how unique his time shooting Pearl was in comparison. It’s the most technical interview of the bunch and Rockett refers to all three films as one big project while highlighting how rewarding the experience was as a whole. Finally, there’s the interview with Production Designer Tom Hammock, running for 19 minutes. Like the other interviews, it begins with Hammock discussing his past experiences working with West on X and how much Pearl differed from a production design standpoint. Buying props on eBay, watching titles like Vertigo in preparation, creating and designing props after working on the set of X all day, it’s a great treasure trove of information about Hammock’s time working on both films.
Hollywood Goes West is a 10 minute video essay by Joe Wallace, discussing the themes of the X trilogy. Wallace discusses how each film portrays fame, yearning for the spotlight and romanticised escapism through cinema being a key component for each film’s protagonist. It’s a great little piece that’s worth your time. Coming Out of Her Shell and Time after Time are two archival featurettes, included on the majority of releases for Pearl and run for 11 and 4 minutes respectively. They’re your typical EPKs, featuring interviews with the cast and crew as they dive into what the film’s about with footage interspersed throughout. It’s great to see them ported over, even if they’re nowhere near as interesting as the new supplemental features.
When it comes to MaXXXine, there’s an even larger array of bonus features to sink your teeth into, beginning with the new audio commentary by Bill Ackerman and Amanda Reyes. The pair have collaborated on commentary tracks before, some that I’ve even covered myself such as for Second Sight’s phenomenal UHD release of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and they deliver another solid track. Throughout the commentary, Ackerman and Reyes discuss the themes of the film, offering anecdotes about the homages present, for classic genre films and the prior instalments in the X trilogy. It’s jam-packed full of trivia about the songs utilised in MaXXXine, West’s filmmaking decisions and so much more. It’s another great commentary track from the pair and compliments the Pearl track from Heller-Nicholas well.
Four new interviews with the crew of MaXXXine are included, newly recorded for this release. Back to the Blank Page is a 16 minute interview with director Ti West who talks about wanting to create a large, bombastic fun finale entry in his trilogy. There’s talk on the influences, how the “reveal” in the film didn’t matter as much to him as the ride that is MaXXXine. It’s an entertaining piece that explains West’s motivations behind making this final installment in the trilogy and results in my favourite interview on the disc. Money on the Screen, an interview with producer Jacob Jaffke runs for 29 minutes and features Jaffke describing his working relationship with A24 and Ti West, working on past A24 films alongside Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, how the trilogy came to fruition as a whole and more. It’s a good piece. B-Movie Aesthetic is a 21 minute interview with director of photography Eliot Rockett, who delivers another solid piece, similar to his Pearl interview. He talks about the influences, from De Palma, Italian giallo films and how they filmed it around the time of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Worth a watch. Curating Space runs for 24 minutes and features production designer Jason Kisvarday describing his process of working on MaXXXine in a new audio interview. It’s a technical one, diving into the logistics and stressful nature of being a production designer on a big Hollywood picture such as this.
The Whole World’s Gonna Know My Name is a brand new video essay by Kat Hughes, running for 15 minutes and diving into the themes of fame, the desires of the protagonist and more. I enjoy most of Hughes’ essays, and this is no exception. Give this a watch!
There’s a handful of archival extras included too, and they’re far more substantial than the ones included on Pearl’s release.
The Belly of the Beast runs for 9 minutes and features the cast gushing over Ti’s vision, what interested them in joining the film and more. XXX Marks the Spot is an 11 minute piece centred around filming on Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood is a Killer discusses the visual style of the film, as well as the prosthetic and visual effects work on the film. It runs for 8 minutes. Lastly, there’s a 25 minute Q&A with Ti West after an early screening of Pearl. In the Q&A, the host asks West a variety of questions, ranging from how the trilogy began, the influences of censorship in the 80s towards music and films in MaXXXine, as well as serial killers. West is accompanied by his dog too, which is delightful.
All in all, Second Sight Films releases of Pearl and MaXXXine are spectacular. Phenomenal transfers, excellent bonus features and giving UK audiences the chance to own two cult classics in the best way possible, Second Sight have delivered yet again. Fans of Ti West, horror pictures and the ever-growing library of Second Sight need these releases in their collection immediately.
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