X (2022) (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

X is not going to do anywhere near as well at the box office, however (Hereditary is A24's biggest grossing film worldwide).

The sad thing about that is that horror fans are the first people to loudly bitch and moan about there not being any original ideas but they still come running when there's a new Halloween and Scream yet when a really good new movie like Malignant, Last Night In Soho or X comes out, they stay home. Though I will say that X can't be that expensive so I think it will do fine in the end.

 

[TravisR]

Could you please give an example? An A-list movie. I'm not seeing these movies you are seeing! Maybe I have to change my viewing habits!

What A-list movie in the 80s had tons of T&A? I'm talking about smaller movies then and now.

 

[SamT]

Talking about nudes. Well again, Predator 2, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Specialist, Angel Heart ...

 

[Malcolm R]

Sounds like X is already on its way to becoming a studio trilogy (linked story likely contains a spoiler):

https://deadline.com/2022/03/specialty-box-office-the-outfit-x-alice-umma-1234982712/

To shorthand it, a prequel is already in post-production, shot at the same location at the same time and also written/directed by Ti West. A sequel is also likely.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Yeesh, what a terrible movie. Pretentious as all get-out, slow, boring and essentially pointless.

Thinks it's a lot smarter and more clever than it is.

Uses the "porn movie shoot" scenario as a gimmick that makes next to no difference in the end result.

Basically a riff on "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" that wants to be Socially Deep but just manages to become sleep inducing.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Yeesh, what a terrible movie. Pretentious as all get-out, slow, boring and essentially pointless.

Thinks it's a lot smarter and more clever than it is.

Uses the "porn movie shoot" scenario as a gimmick that makes next to no difference in the end result.

Basically a riff on "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" that wants to be Socially Deep but just manages to become sleep inducing.

I have not seen it yet so can't comment on how I feel about the picture yet. I believe his concept with them making a porn movie was just sort of a tribute to independent filmmaking. The Texas Chainsaw part sort of drips off the trailer and looks like a big influence but that does not surprise me. It has become a touchstone picture.

I've never seen anything by Ti West I'd call pretentious, not a word I associate with his work. I think he can be goofy and very much smitten with films of the 1970s or 1980s but basically in the same sort of geeky way Tarantino is.

 

[Malcolm R]

I saw The Innkeepers and absolutely hated it. That's enough to warn me away from his other films. I read the synopsis of X at Wikipedia and didn't think it seemed like much of a story. Over-the-hill "cougar" doesn't take rejection well.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I saw The Innkeepers and absolutely hated it. That's enough to warn me away from his other films. I read the synopsis of X at Wikipedia and didn't think it seemed like much of a story. Over-the-hill "cougar" doesn't take rejection well.

Yes, The Innkeepers was not great. I didn't hate it but is was a mediocre film. I think his best film remains House of the Devil and that is, like X, a tribute film to another decade. However, I think he really did nail what he was going for in House.

I give him credit though he is working with small budgets trying to get things done in imaginative ways. I find his films worthwhile to sit through. I liked that he tried a Western and I thought The Sacrament was decent if probably not that wonderfully written as a play on the Jonestown Massacre. It is kind of not a good thing when the actual event records read as far more terrifying than your imaginary film. Kind of leaves you feeling there was no reason to make that film.

It seems he always has the potential to do something good but sometimes the projects don't live up to the potential. I still look forward to seeing X, which kind of looks like his largest project yet with it being a trilogy.

 

[TravisR]

I have not seen it yet so can't comment on how I feel about the picture yet. I believe his concept with them making a porn movie was just sort of a tribute to independent filmmaking. The Texas Chainsaw part sort of drips off the trailer and looks like a big influence but that does not surprise me. It has become a touchstone picture.

I've never seen anything by Ti West I'd call pretentious, not a word I associate with his work.

When/if you see X, I can all but guarantee that you still won't associate that word with West's movies. It's a slightly classier and a better made movie than is normal for something with T&A and lots of violence but I don't think anyone sat there thinking "This is 'art'".

I saw The Innkeepers and absolutely hated it.

I liked (not loved) The Innkeepers but it's slow enough that I definitely can see how it's not something that everyone would like. The House Of The Devil is fantastic though and one that would I recommend to any horror fan.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

When/if you see X, I can all but guarantee that you still won't associate that word with West's movies. It's a slightly classier and a better made movie than is normal for something with T&A and lots of violence but I don't think anyone sat there thinking "This is 'art'".

I will definitely see it; just post pandemic I first have to figure out where I can/will see it. Yeah, West does not strike me as pretentious so, I basically don't expect that. I think he has a very good visual sense and if he can combine that with good writing/story he will produce something cool. Nothing he has done that I have seen has excited me as much as House of the Devil but when he makes a picture I always think "Well, this is the guy that made House of the Devil." so I will give him a shot.

House of the Devil also had an excellent cast that really added to the whole thing. I think that may be the best cast he has had on one of his pictures. I mean excluding X which I have not seen and can't comment on.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

When/if you see X, I can all but guarantee that you still won't associate that word with West's movies. It's a slightly classier and a better made movie than is normal for something with T&A and lots of violence but I don't think anyone sat there thinking "This is 'art'".

"X" felt very much like an "arthouse" horror movie to me.

It seemed far more concerned with aesthetics and extended shots of not much of anything than actual storytelling/character development.

Earlier West got compared to Tarantino because of throwback festishism, but at least QT writes interesting dialogue and characters.

These were just a load of nothing, and the "story" seems vague and pointless.

It's a horror movie with no horror and nothing to make it worth watching.

I saw 2 of West's prior movies: "House of the Devil" and "Innkeeper".

Hated "House", liked "Innkeeper".

This one breaks the tie!

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

It seemed far more concerned with aesthetics and extended shots of not much of anything than actual storytelling/character development.

I can't comment on this specific film but that does seem a fair description of what West gets up to. His stories do tend to meander in support of allowing the visuals and atmosphere to do the heavy lifting. I think you could list that as a criticism or as a feature of his films. Is he more style over substance? Probably, yes, but think that is part of what he sets out to do.

Earlier West got compared to Tarantino because of throwback festishism, but at least QT writes interesting dialogue and characters.

Well, yes, they share the fetish for previous decades of film but they are entirely different as writers. Yeah, I mean Tarantino is very focused on his dialogue whereas West, I think, just uses it as another color. So, he is never writing these bright vibrant characters with florid dialogue flowing from their lips. That's not West. They have a different approach but a similar fetish is about the right way to put it. So, I agree with this comment as well really.

Maybe a way to look at it is Tarantino's characters reveal themselves to you, he wants you to know things about them, whereas in West's films his characters don't or don't have to reveal themselves to achieve what he is trying to do.

I saw 2 of West's prior movies: "House of the Devil" and "Innkeeper".

Hated "House", liked "Innkeeper".

That's a really interesting take as I would guess a lot of people, or the people that enjoy West's work would have the opposite opinion.

 

[TravisR]

Everyone is talking about The House Of The Devil and The Innkeepers but no love for Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever?

Actually, that makes sense.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Everyone is talking about The House Of The Devil and The Innkeepers but no love for Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever?

Actually, that makes sense.

Well, I've never seen a Cabin Fever movie so it would not occur to me to include that.

 

[Malcolm R]

West disowns Cabin Fever 2 as it was extensively reshot and re-edited by the film's producers before release. West wanted his name removed from the film, but that request was refused because he was not a member of the DGA.

 

[TravisR]

Well, I've never seen a Cabin Fever movie so it would not occur to me to include that.

The first one is actually pretty fun in a sick way but the second is the typically bad direct to video sequel and if there's more entries after that, I haven't seen them.

West disowns Cabin Fever 2 as it was extensively reshot and re-edited by the film's producers before release. West wanted his name removed from the film, but that request was refused because he was not a member of the DGA.

I remember hearing that but I just went for the joke anyway.

 

[JoeStemme]

Ti West's movie really should have been called “E” for elevated. It sets itself up as a smart take on the slasher films of the 70s and early 80s. As a bonus, the film within a film has the filmmakers making an 'elevated' porn flick (as a bonus, actor Owen Campbell who plays the “Director” even looks a bit like Director Tobe Hooper).

Quite consciously taking it's set up from Tobe Hooper's 1974 TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, X has a group of randy pornographers renting a farmhouse from an elderly couple in the middle of nowhere in Texas (actually New Zealand). Writer-Director West's main idea here is to set up a contrast between the XXX filmmakers and the bible thumping civilians of the area. It's not an uninteresting idea, which, of course, plays off the the puritanical cliche in the slasher films of yore where the most sexually active characters are the most likely to get killed off. In addition to MASSACRE, West includes nods to FRIDAY THE 13TH, Hooper's EATEN ALIVE and a very specific one to HALLOWEEN. X is set about 5 years after MASSACRE so that it can include a brief exchange about how home video will change the porno industry (adult films were already available on VHS for about 3 years).

The movie is very well directed, with savvy use of cross-cutting between the porn film in the making and the terrors that await the group. Mia Goth (in a dual role; actually a triple if you stay after the credits) and Brittany Snow are the two pornstars to be and each dive in with relish. Kid Cudi is the cocky stud, while Martin Henderson is solid as the confidant Producer. Jenna Ortega is the “crew” all by her lonesome (she manages to keep her clothes on - must have a better agent). Stephen Ure is the ornery old man who rents out his guest house.

As good as the filmmaking is, X ends up feeling too studied. The pacing is lugubrious even if it picks up towards the very end. Once the massacre begins (if not by power tools) it still ends up being fairly typical of the films it's commenting on, regardless of how well executed and 'elevated' it thinks it is. It's also too drawn out to satisfy some gore-hounds and once the blood starts flowing, probably too gross for the internet scribes dreaming of doing extended online essays dissecting it for it's elevated intellect. There are a couple of twists, but they aren't sufficient enough to compensate for the predictability.

In the end, it's not as clever as West thinks it is, and despite some good Directing chops and acting, it's simply too self-conscious to be much of a fun thrill ride.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

What does 'elevated' mean?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

What does 'elevated' mean?

I took it as "not your average" or a step up from the common stuff in that genre.

 

[JoeStemme]

What does 'elevated' mean?

Here is a good discussion of the terminology which has been in play now for several years:

The Evils of ‘Elevated Horror’ — IndieWire Critics Survey

Is "elevated horror" a real thing, or just a snobby way of looking down at mainstream horror? Our panel of film critics offers their thoughts.

www.indiewire.com