How is Ti West’s ‘Pearl’ a Prequel to ‘X’? ‘Pearl,’ Explained
You got that X factor!
X (2022) entered the horror scene and gave us something unique in terms of story. Especially for a horror slasher. It captured sex work, and sexuality, in a way that didn’t feel like a stereotype. The sex workers in this slasher are people who know who they are. And there’s a direct contrast between Pearl (Mia Goth, playing an older woman who is out for blood) and the main group. Even Wayne (Martin Henderson), Maxine (Mia Goth)’s older lover, has still got a youthfulness to him. Meanwhile, Pearl is frail, and old, and is hoping to be desirable. And if you watched the film and wondered how many times she’s embraced violence in her life prior to X—that’s likely a question that the prequel, Pearl, will answer.
How is Pearl a prequel to X?
Pearl is the main villain in X (2022) and her motivations are that of someone who is bitter. She’s bitter that Maxine is everything she used to be. And that her friends, according to Pearl, are flaunting themselves in front of her. Just like the final girl she proves to be, Maxine escapes the farmhouse alone and backs over Pearl’s head for good measure.
But while Pearl met her demise in X (2022), we’re just learning about her story. Pearl (2022) serves as the origin story for Pearl’s character and is set in 1918. Similar to Maxine, Pearl had an overbearing parent who tried to control her. That, along with the time period she grew up in, definitely contributed to her violence. The prequel will not only show us why Pearl never got the life she wanted. But also it gives us an exploration into a new slasher villain.
To quote Pearl from the official trailer:
“But truth is, I’m not really a good person.”
(featured image: A24)
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