With Maxxxine out and about in theatres, everyone in my circles is naturally running out and watching it, reviewing it, and doing a definitive ranking of all the movies in the X trilogy. And from what I’ve seen (I haven’t gone out and seen Maxxxine yet, I didn’t love X so I’m not invested in the character of Maxine personally) everyone is ranging from liking it with some criticism to loving it. And that’s good — Mia Goth is a beyond talented performer and she deserves her flowers. What I did not expect, however, was the masses turning on Pearl, the second film in the series and a prequel of Pearl’s origins in X. Now no one is saying Pearl is a bad movie, but they’re ranking it last in the trilogy. I have seen a lot of people say it doesn’t have a lot of rewatch value and I was floored.
What was once a critical darling now seemed to be the black sheep of the trilogy. Pearl is one of my favourite movies of all time, a true ‘good-for-her’ movie and brilliant character study of a woman who aspires for more yet through her ruthlessness sabotages any chance she has of escaping the mundane. Pearl is a career defining performance for Goth, and is an incredibly unique character that I really can’t compare to many existing female antagonists…or protagonists. I mean, we are rooting for Pearl, right? In some demented way, I’m sure audiences can empathize with her struggles: she’s a farm girl, living in the middle of nowhere and she aspires to be a star. I see people sell their souls on social media every day for the chance of going viral and making it big in an attempt to escape normalcy. Pearl is horrifying because, in some way, she is relatable to a lot of people. She is in need, she wants — she’s set up like a demented Disney princess, with an animal side kick and all.
And with that mindset, I couldn’t figure out why people didn’t like Pearl anymore.
Until I could.
Pearl has little to do with the franchise aside from giving a backstory to the villain from the first movie, and somewhat setting up the parallels between herself and Maxine. It likely has little rewatch value for people because we really don’t need it — it’s a standalone piece of art that’s more of a character study than an essential piece of plot.
Yet that being said, that’s why it does have so much rewatch value for me. It’s a horror movie with the colouring of the Wizard of Oz, it’s the story of a farm girl wanting to be a star that takes horrifically dark turns. Pearl has so many clear inspirations that aren’t tied to horror at all, but Ti West ties them all together to create something garish and beautiful. Pearl isn’t scary because she’s some supernatural mastermind killer, she’s a woman who is desperate and losing her mind. That’s a relatable feeling for a lot of women. What Pearl doesn’t add to X or Maxxxine doesn’t take away from the fact that, for me, this film did something that not a lot of horror movies actually do: Pearl gets me to care.
Do I give a shit about dumbasses filming a porno on a farm? No. Do I give a shit about the asshole kids in Unfriended? No. Do I give a shit about the asshole kids in Bodies, Bodies, Bodies? Yes, one of them. The rest? No.
Do I care about Pearl? Absolutely. Pearl is a character that stands out to me, being both the protagonist and antagonist in her own life. We are quick to call Pearl a good for her film, finding justification in the fictional violence, but we also are watching her life just unravel in front of her due to her own chaotic sense of what she is owed. Pearl comes from a place of lacking, of feeling she is owed, where Maxine knows stardom is the life she deserves, and so Pearl will always lose while Maxine will always win. That is heartbreaking but also a ‘good for her’ moment for Maxine. Pearl is someone that could be a normal person who just made horrible choices in a moment of desperation — how many classic horror villains can we say that about? In a world of Jasons, Freddies, and Ghostfaces, Pearl simply stands out as one of the best because she is so different from the others. Pearl is a character that maters, as does her film.
I won’t take away from anyone who sees little rewatch value or doesn’t like Pearl — you are justified in feeling that way. I even rewatched Pearl myself after reading analysis, thinking I was looking back with rose tinted glasses, but I personally loved it even more. This isn’t a film for everyone, but like Lisa Frankenstein, Pearl has a very distinct audience who love it wholeheartedly and I think that is a beautiful thing. A complicated female character, who is the hero and villain in her own story, is a character that doesn’t exist with the frequency with which it should. Pearl sets the stage for more characters like her, and I think the horror genre could use the shake up.
I’ll see Maxxxine eventually, and even though I didn’t like X, I can see why people would prefer those two over Pearl. I just wanted to throw in some good words for the girly who very much is, and always will be, a star in the horror canon.