Ti West’s Pearl was released in theaters last week, and the horror prequel already has a big fan in Martin Scorsese. In fact, the famed director found the film so “deeply disturbing” that he had trouble getting to sleep after watching it.
Martin Scorsese sent his review of Pearl to A24, which was published by /Film. “Ti West’s movies have a kind of energy that is so rare these days, powered by a pure, undiluted love for cinema,” Scorsese wrote. “You feel it in every frame. A prequel to ‘X’ made in a diametrically opposite cinematic register (think 50s Scope color melodramas), ‘Pearl’ makes for a wild, mesmerizing, deeply — and I mean deeply — disturbing 102 minutes. West and his muse and creative partner Mia Goth really know how to toy with their audience … before they plunge the knife into our chests and start twisting. I was enthralled, then disturbed, then so unsettled that I had trouble getting to sleep. But I couldn’t stop watching.” High praise. I can’t wait to check out Pearl for myself.
Pearl was secretly shot back-to-back with X, which followed a group trying to make a porno on an elderly couple’s rural Texas property before finding themselves threatened by an unlikely killer. The prequel follows a young Pearl (Mia Goth) as she’s trapped on her family’s isolated farm tending to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl’s ambitions, temptations, and repressions all collide in the stunning technicolor-inspired origin story of X’s iconic villain. Another film in the unlikely franchise is also in development. Taking place after the events of X, MaXXXine will follow the sole survivor as she continues her journey towards fame, setting out to make it as an actress in 1980s Los Angeles.
You can check out a review of Ti West’s Pearl from our own JimmyO right here.