X

 

Delaware's other favorite son is writer / director Ti West, whose latest horror flick after a lengthy hiatus in televisionland is titled "X" -- as in X-rated and X-cessive and X-ceptional.

British actress Mia Goth (Emma.) is an eager, young woman in 1979 Texas who wants to make it big in the burgeoning home video pornography industry. She and her boyfriend / producer Wayne (Martin Henderson) and his crew (Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi, Jenna Ortega, Owen Campbell) rent an isolated guest house owned by a decrepit farmer (Stephen Ure) and his wife (Goth also plays the part of the randy old woman). All goes well with the filming until old Pearl starts getting ideas and then things "go to hell" pretty rapidly.

The film is divided neatly into two acts -- the build-up with the filming of the movie and then the aftermath, the hunt. West stages a nice, split-screen musical interlude with the characters played by Snow and Cudi performing "Landslide" while old Pearl pulls a brush through her thinning, white hair and smears shadow on her lids. It's a quiet, artful breather before the chaos.

In "X", West invites audience members to think about their own relationships to sex and violence, as he blends these elements in fascinating ways, prompting viewers to consider which is more repulsive.