If you can imagine Quentin Tarantino directing a mash-up of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Debbie Does Dallas…
When it was released in cinemas in March this year, this scary movie left an immediate impression.
At the halfway round-up of the year, we ranked it as one of the best movies of 2022 so far.
And even now, we reckon it is still the best scary movie of the year to date. Sure, there are some on the horizon – Barbarian, in particular – that could knock it from that perch.
But for right now, the title goes to X.
Written and directed Ti West (The House of the Devil), the movie is set in 1979 and tells the story of a small group of filmmakers and actors (Mia Goth, Kid Cudi, Brittany Snow, Martin Henderson, Jenna Ortega) that have rented out a house in remote rural Texas.
They plan on making a porno and making bank, but little do they know that the people they’ve rented the house from are actually old-school religious fanatics, and when they discover what is happening on their property, things take a turn for the incredibly violent.
It feels a little bit like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre-meets-Debbie Does Dallas, if it was directed by Quentin Tarantino, and with a score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, it proved to be an immediate critical hit:
Collider – “It is a dynamic, deadly work of filmmaking that achieves all its lofty ambitions and then some to become an absolute masterwork.”
Film Threat – “The cast is strong, the comedy and the horror work perfectly in tandem, the meta-commentary is the best since Scream, and the ending line is sheer perfection.”
ScreenDaily – “There are some tremendous misdirects, effective jump scares, and literal piles of gore. There just happens to be plenty of brains to go with all that blood.”
As it turns out, West secretly filmed Pearl, a prequel to X, which has already proved to be just as good from its festival screenings in the last few weeks. And on top of that, a sequel – titled MaXXXine – is also in the works. Once you check out X, you’ll understand why you’ll need to see the both of those immediately, too.
X is available to watch on Prime Video right now.
Clip via A24
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