10 Awesome Recent Horror Movies You'll Never Watch Again
5. Pearl (2022)
Pearl, the second film in Ti West's X Trilogy, is in fact a prequel to the first film. Written by West and star Mia Goth (who plays the eponymous killer) during two weeks in COVID-19 quarantine, and shot on a low budget using the same sets and locations as X, the film shows Pearl (the antagonist from X) as a young woman who has dreams of stardom that she hopes will take her away from her dull country life and strict mother.
Facing successive rejections and succumbing to her strange and sinister habits - killing animals, abusing her paralysed father - Pearl loses touch with reality and takes axes, pitchforks and pots of boiling water to her friends and family. It is indeed awesome to see her carving people up and succumbing to madness, but by the end of the film you are caught up to the character from the first film and all mystique is gone.
Thus, while Pearl is an amusing diversion, it feels thoroughly inessential to the so-called trilogy, offering nothing important to what the films are really about - Mia Goth's other character, Maxine Minx. You are forced to ask if you needed to see Pearl's origins, and whether you will be watching this one again. And the answer is surely no.