Across his career thus far, horror director Ti West has experimented with a multitude of sub-genres — including supernatural torment in The Innkeepers, a satanic cult in The House of the Devil, and an homage to classic ‘80s slashers in one of his latest bone-chilling projects, X. Due to the unexpected success of X — which centers around a group of young adult filmmakers on a remote farmhouse in Texas — a fresh-faced horror trilogy was born.
Following X, West’s newest horror adventure, Pearl, was initially greenlit around the same time as the first film in the trilogy. And as West revealed while chatting with Bloody Disgusting, the prequel likely wouldn’t have happened if production house A24 had not given the nod of approval right away.
We would’ve never made this [Pearl] movie. That was part of it. It was like if we go home, this script is nothing. I knew that when we wrote it. I knew that it was completely a gamble to do this back-to-back, or it was a writing exercise, and that’s all it would be because it wouldn’t make sense. The movie’s budget would be enormous to recreate all this stuff.
Luckily for horror fans, A24 took a chance on the mind-boggling trilogy, which further shined the spotlight on West’s impressive work in the genre — with directing legend Martin Scorsese even offering up his praise. And with MaXXXine set to happen on the horizon, A24’s gamble on the horror trilogy could prove to be a tremendous move.
Pearl is now available in theaters.
Published: Sep 20, 2022 10:32 am