If 2022 was an excellent year for horror all round, the arrival of X and announcement of Pearl particularly stood out. The long-awaited return of director Ti West saw him collaborate with Mia Goth on two connected films (the latter of which is finally due to hit UK screens shortly), quietly shot back-to-back, with the second only revealed to exist at X’s own premiere screening – later followed by the reveal that a third film, MaXXXine, would also be going into production. A stealth horror trilogy was born, exploring fascinating themes of sexuality, spectacle, movie-making, ageing, and religious fervour. Where X was a Texas Chain Saw Massacre-inspired ‘70s slasher, the 1920s-set Pearl sees West and Goth channel The Wizard Of Oz and early Technicolor films in a psycho character piece – and from there, the series is going to head into the 1980s.
After playing – SPOILER WARNING FOR X – both young porn star Maxine Minx and octogenarian killer Pearl in X, and inhabiting the younger Pearl in the second film, Goth will reprise her role as the lone survivor of the ‘Farmer’s Daughter’ film shoot in MaXXXine, which moves the action to Los Angeles. “It’s my favourite script of the three,” Goth tells Empire in a major new interview alongside West. “Everything’s bigger. The world is bigger, the stakes are bigger. It’s going to provide the greatest cinematic experience of the three of them.” And according to the writer-director, MaXXXine is well underway. “The script is done,” West confirms. “I wrote this one individually. If X is a movie where they’re trying to make independent porn, and if Pearl is about her wanting to be part of ‘the movie business’, as difficult as that may be, then MaXXXine is certainly a different perspective on it. The world of straight-to-video plays a role.”
Given that Pearl looks and feels completely distinct from X, expect a similar shift for the final instalment of the trilogy. “The last thing I’ll say about it is that as different as Pearl is from X, MaXXXine will be different from both of them,” teases West. And… action!
Read Empire’s full interview with Ti West and Mia Goth – talking the creation of X and Pearl, the evolution of a new horror trilogy, and Goth’s many multifaceted performances – in the Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania issue, on sale Thursday 19 January and available to pre-order online here. Pearl comes to UK cinemas from 17 March.