10 Prequel Movies That Improved The Original
2. Pearl
Ti West's X could've quite easily been a solid one-off homage to 1970s exploitation sleaze, but West did the cheeky thing and secretly filmed a prequel back-to-back with it, Pearl. Mia Goth returns to portray a young version of X's elderly serial killer Pearl - who she played under prosthetic makeup in X - whose dreams of becoming a movie star ensure her descent into ultra-violent insanity.
The fan consensus seems to be that Pearl is a stronger film than X, for while its predecessor was a gloriously brutal gonzo throwback, Pearl stands on its own two feet as an origin story for a deranged killer. With its gorgeous technicolour-style cinematography and especially Mia Goth's towering, Oscar-worthy central performance, Pearl is a rarest of prequels that truly feels like an ambitious step up from its already acclaimed predecessor.
For a prequel that was basically only made because West was stuck in New Zealand with the film crew from Avatar: The Way of Water, it's shocking how essential Pearl feels.