Pearl – Film Review

Trapped on her family’s isolated farm, Pearl must tend 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 finds her ambitions, temptations, and repressions all colliding.

Earlier this year, filmmaker Ti West released a love letter to 70s slashers in the form of X, which ended up being one of the biggest disappointments of the year for me. While it’s an enjoyable film overall, it was one that took way too long for any substance to be clear and was filled with too much fluff.

But as much as those elements disappointed me, I was absolutely ecstatic to see Pearl upon seeing the end credits scene for X, which promised to eventually tell the eerie and haunting origin story of that first film’s terrifying yet mysterious villain. Who exactly is Pearl and what did her life look like?

This is exactly what West’s newest film Pearl sets out to do, and in doing so, it becomes one of the best movies of the entire year. It’s a complete masterpiece and is a shocking exercise of when a prequel is actually better than the original. Heaps and bounds better, in this case.

Right from the opening scene of Pearl alone, I knew that I was going to fall in love with the film. It’s set in 1918, and the film is presented exactly like a film from that era. The opening credits are extremely retro, as is the musical score by Tyler Bates and Tim Williams.

Heck, even the end credits are reminiscent of an extremely old movie. This movie is stylish to the tenth degree; the cinematography by Eliot Rockett is easily some of the year’s best, and the editing by West is sublime. But the film doesn’t just glide through on its technical aspects.

The story here is legitimately enthralling and white-knuckling. One thing audiences definitely need to know about this film going in is that it’s a lot less bloodier and slasher-oriented than X. Significantly less so. As a matter of fact, there are only a few kills in this movie, and even the kills that are on display aren’t too bloody or gory.

For some, this will be hugely disappointing. For me, though, I was glad to see that this film really took its time to show us who Pearl is and what her dreams and ambitions are. Even more so, what is going on inside her mind. It’s clear that she has some troubling thoughts brewing and West’s script beautifully explores this in terrifying and exciting ways.

There honestly isn’t a single scene in this entire film that feels as if it could have been cut out to save on some time. Even in scenes where Pearl is simply taking a bath or going for a bike ride near her farm house, you feel as if this adds to the overall story. It also helps that nearly every scene feels like it has dread lingering around the corner.

Perhaps the best aspect to this entire movie, however, is Mia Goth‘s lead performance as the titular villain. This may be the best horror film performance since Florence Pugh in Midsommar. Yes, really. The fact that Goth isn’t a household name yet is an absolute travesty.

Her work in this film is nothing short of masterful, and Goth more than proves herself to be one of the best actresses of our generation with this single performance. There is one particular scene right toward the end of the film that’s just a humongous monologue with Goth’s character that feels like it goes on for a good eight minutes. It’s astounding, just like the film surrounding it.

Pearl is a blood-soaked, white-knuckling horror drama with incredible character work, a razor-sharp script from Ti West, and a genuinely masterful lead performance from Mia Goth.