By the fall of 2022, A24 had established itself as a studio with a refined group of collaborators. Despite this reputation, they had yet to develop any lucrative franchise by any filmmaker. Outside of the autobiographical The Souvenir (2019) films from Joanna Hogg, Ti West would be the first to explore the idea of expanding on a property in ways more fitting of the studio brand to come. Pearl (2022) was a prequel to their breakout hit X (2022) from earlier that year. The question was whether audiences would go for a second round into the accentuated madness of West and actress Mia Goth. Would the magic of this unexpected love letter to film deliver on the gamble? As the closing credits would suggest, the good times were far from over.
The story begins at roughly the same time as X. During the time that West was preparing to visit New Zealand for production, he found himself in quarantine protocol for two weeks. To pass the time, he would FaceTime Goth and develop a backstory for her X character Pearl. What started as a simple outline quickly evolved into a full script. West was insistent that Goth helped her write the story by watching movies that reflected his vision, notably Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). One of his goals with Pearl was to make a demented Disney movie that commented on the psychological impact that films were having on audiences. Other details, such as setting it during The Spanish Flu in 1918, were likely informed by the pandemic along with West’s concern that setting the film any earlier would force them to incorporate silent film techniques, which was an unfeasible goal for A24.
That is why he envisioned possibly making Pearl into a German Expressionist film in the style of F.W. Murnau. This was for practical reasons. They had the sets from X that they could repurpose with very little effort and save money. Given concerns that the studio wouldn’t even fund the project, he did his best to make the pitch as cheap as possible. To his surprise, A24 went along with the idea and encouraged him to eventually shoot in color given that it was only a little extra in costs. Add in props assistance from Peter Jackson’s private World War I collection and the technical team behind Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) currently on hiatus, and the film quickly took shape. To hear West describe the process, he claimed that X wrapped on Friday and the next Monday they were prepping for Pearl over the course of a month.
The Midwest iconography owed a lot of credit to The Wizard of Oz, including central costume decisions when Pearl was riding a bicycle to symbolize both Dorothy and Gulch. Along with references to art of the time (such as naming supporting roles after Theda Bara and Charles Chaplin), it helped to create a world of wonderment around cinema. West claims that he shot a lot of dance sequences that were eventually removed for pacing reasons. Even so, the one dance that was included was an extended version of a scene from X: one of many nods to the film set over 50 years after Pearl. West refused to make the film end with a direct bridge to the other, believing it was better to just take place in its own universe.
Goth’s work has largely been praised for a handful of scenes. The two that gave Pearl a higher regard came towards the end. One scene involved a seven-minute monologue, five of those minutes shot in one long take on the actress’ face. The director was concerned about getting the scene right because it was part of a longer take that involved potential setbacks. After a few versions, they worked things out. The other major scene would play over the closing credits as Pearl smiled at the camera in a way reminiscent of bubbly feel-good melodramas meant to subvert the dark circumstances. When West didn’t yell, “Cut!”, Goth kept the position for nearly two minutes. The results show her struggling to hold the position while various muscles in her face strain, creating one of the most poetic scenes in the film where her inner pain is finally expressed.
Much like with X, West used many of the same people to produce the film. During the marketing for his first film, he made sure to hide any news of Pearl, believing keen observers would figure it out on their own. Along with the presence of Goth, X’s credits would have information regarding different roles. Even so, the information would come out eventually, especially as the release date for Pearl came closer. There were too many overlapping coincidences for people to ignore. Even if the styles and tones might’ve been different, West did what he could to make his second feature of 2022 a must-see event of the fall.
The biggest draw immediately was Goth. While these were far from her first horror titles, Pearl gave her a role that people were more invested in. They talked about how she was both crazy and sympathetic. Many scenes became memes online, leading to bootleg recordings. To fight the pushback, A24 chose to release said scenes on TikTok. The most famous example was an audition scene where Pearl has a breakdown and yells, “I’m a star!” For a film that only grossed $10 million on 2,900+ screens, it was another home run hit for Ti West and evidence that people wanted horror films that took their premises outside the conventional slasher modes. While Pearl isn’t without grisly murder, its standout feature was its use of character examination to better understand the tragedy of a woman stuck in small-town U.S.A. and unable to follow her dreams.
Even so, Pearl became a critical darling. According to critics' aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned a substantial 93% approval rating. Ryan Gilbey of New Statesman led the pack when declaring, “Pearl wants so badly to be a star. Part of the film’s pleasure lies in realising that Goth already is.” Sharing the sentiment was Tom Atkinson of Flickering Myth when noting, “Pearl is a bold, beautifully crafted character study that dares to blend old Hollywood glamour with the horror of a mind collapsing in on itself.” Robert Abele of The Los Angeles Times was one of the few who disagreed when suggesting, “West, one of the genre’s true artisans of sticky dread, certainly has fun seeding a handsomely mounted and shot (by Eliot Rockett) period melodrama with the trappings of imminent violence, from the crimson red wallpaper to a maggot-swarmed suckling pig. But Pearl rarely justifies itself as a franchised standalone built on the early psychosis of its bloodthirsty, unstable ingenue.” All in all, the film found its audience and even experienced a decent presence during awards season, including nominations from groups like the Toronto International Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and, of course, the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards where Goth won Best Leading Actress.
Unlike most A24 directors, it’s easy to know what would happen after Pearl ran its course. All that one had to do was not leave the movie theater after the credits rolled. Following the final names, West teased a third film in his X Trilogy called MaxXxine (2023), which would come out the following July. Unlike before, there was built-in anticipation to see where everything would go. Unlike Pearl, this would be a sequel to X, and one that explored the 80s smut scene through the lens of Giallo horror. For people who liked the first two, there was plenty to make next summer an exciting time to be alive.
For now, A24 was chugging right along with their second double-dipping of 2022. Unlike with West, the next film would simply be the distribution rights for a preexisting title from a director coming off of one of their most celebrated summer releases. Actress-turned-director Halina Reijn proved how well she understood the intoxicating hold that social media has on everybody. Would her earlier film be able to capture the same level of provocation?
Coming Up Next: Instinct (2019)
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