Hi there folks,
Whenever people ask me “why horror?”, a part of my long-winded rant is that I love breaking down the messages in horror movies and getting a really good idea of societal fears/anxieties and norms at the time.
Horror cinema really seems to be having a moment right now, and I’m excited to discuss some of these movies- as well as older classics and/or significant horrors.
Today, I want to talk about my first movie back in a theatre since covid started: X. *** Please note that there will be spoilers below- so if you haven’t watched X yet, stop reading- go watch it- then come back ***
What’s it about? No worries child, I’ll give you a synopsis:
A small group, the cast and crew of a porno, head out to an isolated rural farm to make their next film: Farmer’s daughters. We follow Maxine, an exotic dancer and porno actress, as she strives for the “life she deserves”. Namely, fame, money, and enough cocaine to drop a horse. Wayne, the owner of the club and the director, as well as Maxine’s lover. Also in the van are Bobby-Lynne (actress), Jackson (actor), RJ (camera man), and Lorraine (RJ’s girlfriend).
Unfortunately, the filming process does not go as planned when they attract the attention of the elderly couple living on the farm.
Let me just start by saying, I was pretty excited by the concept. There’s something irresistibly charming about the 70s era of horror and centering it around a small group of indie porn makers is a smart risk.
The first bit introduces us to Maxine, as well as her love for cocaine and dreams of a better life of fame and fortune. My first instinct was that she was unlikeable, but once I dug deeper, I think that instinct is just engrained misogyny. Why shouldn’t she deserve the life she wants? Why do we feel like women are delusional or full of themselves for identifying their own worth and what they deserve? Good for you Max.
The small crew assembles into a cube van to make the trek out to this farm. The homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is obvious at several points, but none more so than this scene. Just as TCM begins with a group of young folk chasing their American dream in a van, so does X. Unfortunately, unlike TCM, it’s sloppy. In fact, they outright say they’re chasing their American dream. Subtlety is not this film’s strong point.
The struggle between religion and the nuclear family values vs freedom, women’s autonomy and carnal sin is present throughout the movie. This is most often demonstrated by a televangelist that plays on the televisions out in the country. Given the setting, that’s not surprising.
Once they arrive at the farm and awkwardly meet the elderly owner, Howard, it’s time to get to work. Without drawing the attention of the farm’s occupants, the crew begins filming. Frankly, I’m surprised how much I enjoyed Brittany Snow’s performance, it’s cheeky but sexy.
The filming doesn’t go off without a hitch. Maxine wanders around the farm, eventually meeting Pearl, the farmer’s elderly wife. It is incredibly awkward, but the meeting does offer us our first glimpse of the movie’s big salient message about how we treat women as disposable once they’re no longer young and pretty.
After they’ve wrapped on filming, the crew settles down to strum a guitar and throw in Brittany Snow singing Landslide like this is another terrible Pitch Perfect sequel. Super unnecessary and the whole scene doesn’t fit with the vibe of the rest of the movie. Strange.
Then comes the big one. The corruption of the “good girl”. Virtuous little Lorraine, in all her wide-eyed innocence, with her cross hanging from her neck, decides she wants to go from 0 to 60 and film a sex scene for the film.
RJ, being the quintessential open-minded nice guy we’ve all met too many times, loses his almighty shit. Because of course, it’s artistic and liberating until “his” woman wants to participate. She needs to be a virtuous, pure, good girl to deserve him. The Virgin Mary and the whore apparently cannot be one and the same. Ugh. I feel ya Lorraine, you just can’t win sometimes. Anyway, she films the scene, everyone goes to bed, and all his well it would seem.
Except RJ is having an absolute incel nice guy melt down in the shower and decides to steal the van and strand everyone at this farm because he, being a logical male, has complete control over all his rational feelings right now.
At this point, we really ramp up. Driven completely insane by the process of aging and losing her beauty, Pearl, quickly joined by Howard, start showing their guests a less than stellar time.
This is where my favourite part of X comes along. They twist the stereotype right around and Wayne and Jackson wander around in the dark in their skivvies as so many teenage babysitters before them. It’s a lovely little exercise in reversing the gender expectations in horror. Cheeky and well carried out, it added some much-needed spark and gore into an otherwise bizarre series of events.
It’s clear that elderly Pearl is drawn to Maxine’s youth and beauty throughout the film, which is especially uncomfortable once you know that Mia Goth played the hell out of both roles.
I find it so interesting how Pearl has built herself entirely out of being this thing of beauty and of value to the male gaze. Her self-worth is entirely built up on men wanting her and she sinks deeper into despair and madness as she ages and loses that beauty. Maxine is similar in that she covets the male gaze, but she’s doing so as a means to an end. She values herself, and makes use of this system of consuming women and beauty to achieve her own goals.
Lorraine is also drawn to Maxine it seems. She has this fascination with Max’s confidence and freedom, which she seems to try to experience by filming a scene. Of course, once the proverbial shit has hit the fan, Lorraine goes full “not one of those girls” and blames the unfortunate series of events on Maxine and her sins. Ah, what’s this? Hypocrisy? Blaming the victim because she doesn’t confirm to your values? Maxine barely flinches. She’s used to it clearly.
In its conclusion, X tosses off the outdated “rules” to being a Final Girl. Covered in gore and taking a bump, Max drives off into the distance. She is comfortable with her own self-worth and value and knows what she deserves. She fucks, she swears, she does drugs, and she survives. She’s inherently worthy of survival simply by existing and not in exchange for the behaviours society tells her she must emulate. She “earned” her survival purely with guts and grit, and it’s satisfying af.
What did you think of X? Let me know.
Until then, Sweet Screams everyone!