Should I See 'X'? We Help You Decide With 10 Questions
We are currently in the midst of the new golden age of horror, the one genre audiences will reliably come out to the theatres to see new IP. ‘X’ is a new release out in the midst of a surprisingly slow time in theaters, with The Batman dominating, and a ‘by the numbers’ Dog movie surprising the box office.
Horror movies are now fashionable year round: is ‘X’, a slasher movie featuring the cast and production team of a low-end adult film worth the trip to the theaters?
We answer 10 most common questions by fans still on the fence, but first, our biases about slasher/horror films (because all critics and fans have biases):
We have not seen any Ti West movies, never mind, horror movies, before ‘X’.
We in general like slasher movies, but we’re not in it for the excessive kill count or goriness.
Halloween is our favorite slasher movie (by a mile)
We like slow burn horror movies as long as the burn is right.
1) What kind of slasher/horror movie is this, a jump scare movie pop Horror, or a slower burn atmospheric movie?
Definitely a slower burn atmospheric horror movie. There are some jump scares, but they felt forced in. This is not the type of movie where you’ll be gripping your date’s arm (this is not to say its good or bad, more on that later). This did not feel like a slasher movie when the credits rolled, for reasons that are a bit spoilery, but we may be in the minority on that.
2) When you say this is a slow burn horror, does that mean I’m going to be bored the first hour like so many of these types of movies?
We weren’t particularly bored, because we thought the script did a good job of investing you in the mechanics of how a low budget adult film would operate in the 70s. Also, there’s a decent amount of dread the first hour, and I personally enjoyed the period detail and the dialogue. That said, if you’re only interested in plot movement towards the horror/slasher aspects of the plot, there are going to be chunks of run time where you’re going to be checking your watch.
3) This is about a making of an adult film. Is there gratuitous nudity in this?
There’s a decent amount of nudity, more female than male, but definitely both, and there’s definitely sex, but they don’t actually show a lot. I wouldn’t expect to be particularly titillated during this movie, and there’s one particular scene, which I can’t spoil here, that had I known about it before the screening, I might have backed out of it entirely (I will spoil it at the very end of this review).
4) How gory is this slasher?
There’s some gore, probably middle of the road as far as slashers go, but if you’re going for the scares and not the gore, you can get through this movie. If all you care about is the gore, you will have just enough to get by, but there are better alternatives out there for that.
5) Is this one of those horror movies with a specific message that is running throughout the movie?
This movie has things to say about adult films as well the reasons people go into adult films. They give enough to enjoy it from that angle if that’s the kind of thing you look for (like in Jordan Peele movies), but it doesn’t hit you over the head with it to the point that it distracts from the actual horror movie it is, if that sort of thing turns you off.
6) Will I have nightmares from this movie?
I’d be surprised. The old couple is creepy, but they weren’t distinct enough that we’ll see people dressing as them come Halloween time.
7) Is this movie worth it to see in the theaters vs watching it at home?
There aren’t a lot of scares in this movie where you get a thrill being scared along with a hundred other people. There’s not great use of the theater’s speaker system, nor any impressive shots worthy of the big screen, so from that POV, you’re not missing much waiting for digital.
8) Is this a funny horror movie?
I honestly can’t remember a single joke, though there probably was.
9) Is this a fun slasher movie, or a more grounded, serious slasher?
Definitely not a fun slasher; its overly methodical in its pacing, although there are many plot elements that were just hard for me to believe to take this too seriously. But, needless to say, this is no Scream. This definitely has something serious to say, although its not as serious as say the Jordan Peele movies so far.
10) Is this a good movie?
I don’t think so, for a couple reasons. As noted in my biases, I’m very hit or miss on slow burn atmospheric horror movies. This movie does accentuate 1979 in its atmospheric dread, and the house itself is very creepy. Still, there’s a decent stretch of the movie, which for me and my wife, it doesn’t just slow burn, it doesn’t burn at all. The jump scares are mediocre at best, and while the dread is good, the actual scariness, for me, didn’t totally work. I never felt frightened that the serial killer could have been just around the corner, or felt that whatever tension was built up was enough to justify the killings that ensued.
The jarring thing for me though, is that, you could tell without knowing anything about the movie that the old lady Pearl was being played by a much younger woman with prosthetics. That was distracting and a bit of a turnoff, because, its frankly pretty ageist and sexist that a young woman has to play an old lady, while a much older man can play the old guy. There might have been a message in there, as it relates to some dialogue in the movie about how the adult film industry uses and abuses women’s bodies, but, the fact is they could have done a better job disguising that it’s a young woman playing an older woman. Old women have a hard enough time getting cast in Hollywood movies, they don’t need a role tailor made for them to be cast for a younger woman who can get work anywhere.
While this did scratch my atmospheric horror itch a bit, it didn’t really scratch my slasher itch. Overall, its a movie with an interesting premise, and some things to like as a horror fan, but ultimately, X didn’t mark the spot for me
Rating: 2.5/4 stars
*SPOILER*
If you don’t like watching gross geriatric sex, this is NOT the movie for you!!!