30 Perfect Horror Scenes Of The 2020s

Awards bodies are famously reluctant to award actors for their work in the horror genre. Looking at scenes like this one, it is so, so difficult to understand why. 

As Pearl, a burgeoning serial killer in the American South, Mia Goth delivered a genuinely awards-worthy performance, one which was vastly superior to both of the female acting Oscar wins of that year - Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Nowhere was Goth better than in this staggering eight-minute monologue, captured mostly in one unbroken close-up. 

This sequence might as well have had "For your consideration" written on it. In it, Pearl pours her heart out to her sister-in-law, revealing her crimes, her crippling insecurities and her loneliness and it is downright gut-punching. Despite the many terrible things Pearl has already done and the other terrible things she will do (as shown in this movie's predecessor X, of which Pearl is a prequel), you really feel for her. 

Goth's achingly vulnerable, tragic performance deserves all the praise in the world, although her and Ti West's sublime screenplay mustn't be forgotten. There are so many lines in this monologue that will be painfully relatable for many, even if they're being spoken by a deranged killer.