Pearl (2022)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com November 10, 2022

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is a prequel to the excellent “X” that came out earlier this year, showing us how Pearl came to be the kind of person she was as an old woman in that film. Here it’s 1918, and a young woman is coming of age. She has hopes and dreams and a vivid imagination. But she’s not quite right, and her circumstances start twisting her up worse. It’s a slow starter but builds nicely with a horrifying climax.

From the publisher:

A24 & Lionsgate welcome you back to Ti West’s horrifying world of X with the blood soaked & unforgettable origin story, PEARL. Mia Goth delivers one of the best performances of the year as the iconic villain, Pearl. Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, own PEARL now on Blu-ray & Digital. Rated R.

Synopsis

We start off in an idyllic farm location, and you can tell by the style of the credits that we’re in a “classic era.” We watch young Pearl dancing in front of her mirror– until her grouchy mother comes in and complains about her wearing her dresses. Mother sends her outside to feed the farm animals. Pearl tells Charlie the cow that one day she’ll leave this place and be famous. She talks to her cows like they’re her audience, and then she kills the goose with a pitchfork. She feeds the dead goose to her alligator out in the pond. Credits roll.

It’s 1918. Mother Ruth tells Pearl to quit dancing, as it’s selfish. Pearl’s father is in a wheelchair and mostly unconscious. He can’t talk or really move at all. She has to feed her father. Pearl has a letter from the trenches in France from her husband Howard. Spanish Influenza is rampant, and her mother warns her to wear a mask.

Pearl goes to town to buy some liquid morphine for her father. She goes to the movies to watch the news and drinks a big swig of the medicine. On the way out, she meets the projectionist. He gives her a frame from the film she just saw. She loses the frame in the wind and can’t find it again. As she searches, she finds a creepy scarecrow in the cornfield. She cuts it down and dances with it. She kisses it with a lot of tongue for added creepiness. After the kissing, there’s–more.

She gets home, and Mother says she has to change Father– he’s made a mess. We see that Mother is not much fun at all, and she does all she can to bring Pearl down.

Mitzi comes for a visit. She’s Howard’s sister, and she doesn’t approve of him going off to war. Mitzi mentions that there’s an audition for dancers this Friday at the church. They plan to go together.

That night, she dresses up and sneaks out to head to the theater and talk to the projectionist. He shows her a film he picked out just for her. He picked it up in France and says no one has seen it. It’s a full-on porno film from 1915. He that’s that it’s legal to do, but not legal to film. Not yet. He accurately predicts the future of porn. He fills her head with ideas of leaving her parents and that she might not get a second chance. “If only they would just die,” she says. Oops, said that out loud.

She takes Father out to the alligator pond and calls the big creature over. She parks the wheelchair right next to the end of the dock. She gives him a “This is no way to live” speech, but just then, her mother approaches and says they need to go back to the house. On the way home, she finds a nest full of alligator eggs.

Pearl and her mother argue about the dance audition. “You can’t keep your true self secret forever,” says her mother. We see that her mother is just a little bitter about her life. Before long, Mother catches fire and ends up locked in the basement.

Pearl goes to see the projectionist, and she no longer cares about being married to Howard. She wakes up in the middle of the night and runs off to practice for the audition. He drives her home to meet her father. The projectionist, who never really gets named, hears thumping coming from the basement door. He soon finds that things aren’t as clean-cut as they appeared at first. “I’d better be getting back,” he soon says. She knows there’s something wrong, but he denies it. She freaks out and kills him with a pitchfork.

It’s time for the audition, so she dresses up and smothers her father. She dumps the projectionist’s body in the swamp with the alligator, car and all. At the audition, she runs into Mitsy, and they talk about things.

It’s finally Pearl’s turn. The judges are scary. The stage is scary. It’s all very dark and serious-looking. The music starts, and Pearl does her dance. She imagines herself in a big show-tune number with a lot of background action, and she does really well. “Thank you, but it’s gonna be a ‘no’,” says the judge. She’s just not what they were looking for. “I’m a star!” she screams as they drag her off the stage.

Afterward, Mitsy tries to console the screaming, overwrought Pearl. She takes her home and wonders where Pearl’s mother is. Pearl wonders if there’s something wrong with her; “There’s something missing in me that the rest of the world has.” Mitsy says she should practice what she wants to say to Howard by telling her.

She gives a long monologue about her entire life and state of mind. That goes badly. Really badly. Too much information!

“I should probably get going now,” says Mitsy. Mitsy admits that she got the part in the dance. Pearl then chases Mitsy with an ax. That is going to be one fat alligator.

Pearl goes down to the basement to check on her mother. She sets up a very creepy dinner for her dead parents.

Time passes. A military truck drops off Howard at the farm. The war is over, and he’s home! He comes inside to find rotting corpses and moldy food. At least Pearl is there, smiling at his return. She just keeps on smiling. And smiling. And smiling.

Commentary

It’s very colorful. Supposedly Ti West had Wizard of Oz as one of the influences for this, and it’s pretty obviously the case. There are a couple of pandemic and mask references, which are fun. They were dealing with that in 1918.

It’s all good, but it does take a really long time to get going. Mia Goth, as Pearl, stands out with her acting far more than she did in the first film. She’s a nice little sociopathic farm girl with no regrets.

It was really good!