By Michael Kalafatis
“One day, the whole world is going to know my name.”
Pearl opens like an old film; its cinematography is reminiscent of Technicolor and the musical score has swelling violins and a playful tone. We see Pearl (Mia Goth) talking to animals in a barn, she dances around while talking about her aspirations of becoming a famous dancer, then a white duck walks in, and she abruptly stabs it with a spading fork. This opening sequence set the tone for the rest of the film’s narrative. Even though we are familiar with Pearl as an antagonist from Ti West’s previous film X (2022), the juxtaposition of bright colored cinematography with unexpected violence still manages to shock, because Pearl is presented very innocently and carefree. Pearl’s innocent looks and disposition manages to fool most characters she meets, except her mother Ruth (Tandi Wright), who has an inkling of her evil nature.
The film takes place in 1918, Pearl lives in a farm with her German immigrant parents. Her mother is stern and always chastises her and at one point she tells her, “I won’t allow you to wander around in foolish fantasies and hide from responsibilities any longer. It is a sign of weakness.” Her father does not take an active role in anything around the farm as he is infirmed, and he relies on his daughter and wife to take care of him. Pearl feels trapped in this dull life on the farm, taking care of her father and doing chores. One day she goes to town to pick up her father’s prescription and watches a film, there he meets the Projectionist (David Corenswet). This is a pivotal moment for Pearl who starts to realize that she needs to get away from the farm and pursue her aspirations, but things don’t always go according to plan as Pearl will learn.
Pearl is a prequel of X and was filmed after the completion of X, using the same set. This time, Ti West does not have a sole writing credit as in X, he collaborates with Mia Goth, in her first writing credit. Pearl, unlike X, is a tamer film with less gore, violence and explicit images because it is more concerned with its protagonist, whose past was partly hinted in X.
Pearl was filmed at the time when Covid had a major impact on cinema, and everyone working on films had to take pandemic safety precautions, this mirrors the pandemic of Spanish flu which happened in 1918-1920, which is also heavily featured in the film as well. When Pearl goes to town, we see her wearing a mask like everyone else and her mother even tells her to isolate when at a later point she come back late at night. The inclusion of the Spanish Flu makes the film feel more realistic and add a layer of relatability to the script.
Mia Goth in X played its main character Maxine and its antagonist Pearl, even though you could hardly tell from the realistic prosthetic makeup she was wearing while playing a much older Pearl. But in Pearl, Mia Goth gives a performance that is better than her dual roles in X, inhabiting a character who is psychological unstable and becomes more deranged when things in her life starts to get out of control.
Most horror films are interested in creating frightening or gory sequences and neglect to feature good performances that would make these sequences better and more frightening. The most effective horror films are the ones that features great performances like Jack Nicholson in The Shining (1980), Toni Collette in Hereditary (2018) or Kurt Russell in The Thing (1982), these lead performances like Mia Goth’s in Pearl are vital part in creating an effective horror film that has at its core believable characters.
Pearl works surprisingly well as prequel even though we can already infer from watching X what is going to happen, it still does not detract from its effectiveness of showing an unstable character’s world unravelling in a very disturbing and gruesome way.
Rating: 4/5
Where to Watch: