X - A sexy horror story, review: violence and eroticism

X - A sexy horror story, review

It is not certain that the film genre must necessarily represent a story for its own sake, anchored to the stylistic features of the case. If in the right hands this can easily become, with all its clichés, even a real container in which to insert multiple considerations regarding the treated material. With X - A sexy horror story, director Ti West starts from all of this, building a few brief reflections around something extremely familiar as a whole that immediately contextualizes its conceptual purposes, exposing a primarily conceptual and entertaining intent.

The methods of execution at the base of these films remain firmly anchored to the genre they belong to, it is useless to deny it, but it remains fascinating to note both the formal and thematic methodologies through which the director links everything, in a discourse that is it originates from a closed and isolated context and then expands greatly from the limits granted by the film itself. The modernity of some choices elevates the treated material to a minimum, paving the way for a distinctive touch behind the camera. Produced by A-24, X - A sexy horror story premiered at South by South Fest on March 13, 2022, and then released in American cinemas on March 18 of the same year, reaching the on demand market on April 14 of the same year. 2022. The Italian distribution is scheduled for July 14, 2022, through Midnight Factory.



X - A sexy horror story

X - A sexy horror story: a horror that talks about eroticism

What it represents in their eyes, in fact, defines each of them in depth, drawing their own scene after scene details. Here the dissatisfaction at the base of their lives finds new lifeblood in the creation of something that will presumably save them from their present and their past. Those who see a momentum in their career as an actress, who an independent artistic project, who an economic springboard for their name within the cinema sector, are still indicative of how Ti West makes use of everyone's hopes and dreams. them to make an instantly clear and intimate picture of it.

Producer Wayne rented a shed on a remote farm in Houston, Texas to shoot this film. The goal, in addition to saving money, is to isolate yourself in order to devote yourself completely to the aforementioned film without any hitches. The farm, however, is owned by an elderly couple (Howard, played by Stephen Ure and Pearl, also played by Mia Goth) quite strange and very old in age. These belong to a totally different generation from that of the boys, and their own perception of what is about to happen in the shed is immediately detached from the moral models with which they were raised. The fact that X - A sexy horror story is continually punctuated by the sermons of a preacher who judges everything with the most hidden wickedness from the small television of the two elders, is rather indicative of what is about to happen.

The eroticism suggested above therefore returns not only in the scenes of the porn film itself (The Farmer's Daughters), but above all in the so-called "monster" of the film. From the second half, the light shades suddenly change, revealing the real nature of a slasher movie at the basis of the narrative. Everything develops from the repressed sexual desire of the two elders, especially of Pearl, who starting to observe these young people and their energies, decides to get closer and closer to them. The cruelest violence therefore explodes from the intimate desire of a woman who can no longer have what she would like, thanks to the time that inevitably spent on her, never recoverable. The husband is obviously not outdone in this by supporting her to the end. The result is an almost Wildian reflection on the inevitability of time and the loss of a beauty that goes away without wanting it. An intimate regret that explodes in the most raw, bloody and dark violence. Reminding you that during the filming of the film a prequel of his titled Pearl was also shot. | ); }

X - A sexy horror story

A classic slasher movie as a whole that knows how to quote from the past

X- A sexy horror story is extremely classic from a structural point of view, this could turn out to be both a flaw and a positive element. Ti West, in fact, takes all the more classic elements of slasher movies and translates them into a predictable structure from start to finish. A group of characters isolates themselves in an extra-urban context, far from everything and is literally hunted and massacred by an indefinite monster, by a monster that is initially untranslatable, only to reveal itself gradually. Nothing new on the horizon from this point of view, even if the classicism underlying the main action could easily be read as a real return to the origins of the genre itself. To enhance such a vision we have the various quotations that the director himself makes throughout the entire narrative, not only direct and verbal, but also indirect and formal quotations to films such as: Shining, Psycho (buy it on Amazon), Alligator, Non open that door, Deep Red, Boogie Nights, Mischievous Games (some of these are available on Amazon Prime Video). The final fresco of violence and blood will surely satisfy the lovers of the genre, contextualizing everything with some moral reasons that manage to be done even at the same time in some ways.

Formal attention

To outline the entire action of X- A sexy horror story we find an almost millimeter formal attention in certain shots. West's compositional style is evident in the way he frames his characters, his geometrics, also enhanced by the photograph itself, work from start to finish, elevating the material treated in a certain way. The reflection on genre moves here on the bodies of the actors themselves, on those of the elderly, on the bloody and brutal details, on the bare environments, on the apparently infinite isolation of the place and on the looks of all of them full of regrets and an intimate pain that still awaits an answer. The choice to shoot a film within the film, thus splitting the formal narrative into the two points of view of the porn director and of West himself, reconfirms the hand behind the camera in a gaze that tends to undress what it captures, moving along the filaments classics of a genre that probably still has something to tell.