‘X’ Review #2
Stars: Mia Goth, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Jenna Ortega, Owen Campbell, Kid Cudi, Stephen Ure | Written and Directed by Ti West
People have been trying to remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for a long time. Not just the many (mostly awful) sequels, but filmmakers have been trying to catch that lightning in a bottle. Most of these films are extremely gory, which The Texas Chainsaw Massacre never was. It has come to be known as this horrifically violent film, but it wasn’t. There was only a tiny bit of blood (a lot of implied blood, mind you). What the film absolutely nailed was horrific tension, that only perhaps The Thing ever managed to rival. The thing is, buckets of fake blood, are easy to bring on set, cranking up relentless tension, is all down to the skill of the filmmaker. So, buckets of fake blood are the order of the day for most horror films, before the POV style of horror filmmaking gave a gimmick to a new generation of mediocre horror filmmakers to add to their arsenal.
X, which could be read as an X for the adult industry, or X for a kiss, attempts to have the tension of Tobe Hooper’s classic, but it is also throwing in buckets of blood.
Let’s start by taking the film at face value. It is 1979. A bunch of kids, head out to a rural location in Texas to make a porno. We see drug taking, we see strip clubs, we run the gamut of late 70s sleezy excess. We also get a series of slightly alarming monologues from Mia Goth’s character, the stripper come porn star , about her wanting to be a global megastar.
Fast forward to our happy band, arriving at a ranch, in the middle of rural Texas. The sleazy producer has lied to the Airbnb person (before Airbnb was a thing). The person who is renting them the cabin wasn’t expecting so many people and they certainly weren’t expecting a porn film crew. The sleazy producer sweetens the deal, with a bit more money. The ghoulish old man seems to accept the changed terms.
Our film gets underway, and we realise that the director has a real eye for the camera, and they are extremely pleased with the footage they are getting. They are all going to be stars. The only fly in the ointment, for now, is that the director’s extremely attractive, naive mic operator girlfriend now wants to be in the film. The producer is delighted. The director is not. Unfortunately, the ghoulish, impossibly old wife of the ghoulish and impossibly old owner has cottoned on to what is happening, and this causes the bloodletting to begin in earnest.
Taken as a monster movie, X has sexy youngsters chopped up by murderous hillbillies – a tried and tested trope of American cinema and it works fine here, to a point… What is perhaps a bit strange, is the monsters themselves. I am not entirely sure how the two old people would be physically able to run about, fighting with people in their 20s, in this capacity. Watching it unfold gave me a slightly uneasy feeling. Fingers get sliced up, crocodiles attack and necks get stabbed. We get the full season pass of horror slasher classics. X is competently made (dare I say, quite well made?). The slow burn gives us time to get to know our (mostly generic) cast. But when we come back to our monster it’s a “horny old lady” and I can’t help but feel a bit uneasy at the politics behind it. Is porn exploitative or empowering? Can it be both?
X is available to stream now on Amazon Prime.
