It's 1979 and a group of eager young filmmakers from Houston - fuelled by drugs, horniness, and dreams of making big bucks - head out to shoot a porno (The Farmer's Daughter) in rural Texas, to try and cash in on the emerging home video market.
They've rented a guest house in the grounds of an isolated farm owned by an old couple, Pearl (Mia Goth) and Howard (Stephen Ure), who both appear to be several hundred years old.
Unfortunately, as you might expect from a horror film, especially one released on the A24 label, all is not as it seems.
Pearl is grieving the loss of her youth, and Howard believes he is no longer able to satisfy her, but the old woman finds herself attracted to one of the actresses, Maxine Minx (also Mia Goth), and when she catches a glimpse of the adult movie being shot her frail grip on sanity slips.
As soon as you see the A24 logo pop up you know you're in for a wild ride, and writer/director Ti West's X certainly delivers.
In much the same way as A24's Midsommar, Ari Aster's rural shocker from 2019, was a modern reworking of The Wicker Man, so X is a reworking of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (although certainly not a remake), with a heavy side-order of Psycho for good measure.
But that's also part of the artifice of the movie, as it's constantly dabbling in clever juxtapositions, foreshadowing and downright misdirection, as Ti West clearly knows what his audience is expecting and likes to mess with those expectations.
In fact, after a brief intro of the police rolling up to the brutal murder scene at the farmhouse, the story flashes back a day to fill us in on how events got there.
Almost a full hour passes - of the 105 minute movie - before the real violence begins, but from then on it's pretty relentless right up to when the credits start rolling.
Pearl may look as weak and feeble as Grandpa from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but she strikes from the shadows with the element of surprise, like a psychotic ninja.
Conversely, Howard doesn't hold to no stereotypical slasher movie rules and is quite happy blasting away with his shotgun.
The first part of X is primarily concerned with Maxine, Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi) making The Farmer's Daughter with producer Wayne Gilroy (Martin Henderon), and cameraman RJ Nichols (Owen Campbell) and his girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), who is acting as sound engineer.
Given this set-up, unsurprisingly there's a plenty of bare female chests on display - and a brief male appendage in shadow - but before you start to think that this is a real porno, the nudity switches very quickly from The Deuce to The Shining.
The adult movie-shoot-within-the movie is interwoven with discussions on the nature of film versus reality, while much play is made of future star Maxine's "x-factor" that makes her desirable to everyone, and this segues into the murderous couple's motivations, which are explored through the narrative of the latter part of X.
A prequel, Pearl, was shot back-to-back with X, co-written by Mia Goth and Ti West, set in 1918. This film will see Goth reprieve her role as the titular Pearl and fill in some of the character's killer backstory.
The first part of X is primarily concerned with Maxine, Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi) making The Farmer's Daughter with producer Wayne Gilroy (Martin Henderon), and cameraman RJ Nichols (Owen Campbell) and his girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), who is acting as sound engineer.
Given this set-up, unsurprisingly there's a plenty of bare female chests on display - and a brief male appendage in shadow - but before you start to think that this is a real porno, the nudity switches very quickly from The Deuce to The Shining.
The adult movie-shoot-within-the movie is interwoven with discussions on the nature of film versus reality, while much play is made of future star Maxine's "x-factor" that makes her desirable to everyone, and this segues into the murderous couple's motivations, which are explored through the narrative of the latter part of X.
A prequel, Pearl, was shot back-to-back with X, co-written by Mia Goth and Ti West, set in 1918. This film will see Goth reprieve her role as the titular Pearl and fill in some of the character's killer backstory.
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