Pearl is a horror movie directed by Ti West starring Mia Goth. It is produced by none other than Sam Levinson (Assassination Nation).
This prequel to X (2022) is a small photographic gem with a myriad cinematic references, and which manages to tell more than it appears to at first glance.
Premise
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’s ambitions, temptations and repressions collide.
Movie Review
There is movie reference after movie reference making this movie quite an homage to cinema with all the “meta” language, and with more than the horror story tells. It is has a good narrative structure, which Ti West has really outdone himself, with the technicolor style, the sought for cinematographic contrast, and create, first and foremost, a horror movie that very notably differentiates itself from the rest in the genre.
Pearl is a movie that engages from the very start with the credits, and that allows the viewers appreciate every photo graphic framing that has been meticulously picked, applied at a metronomic tempo, and do what was done (to his degree) Charles Laughton in The Night of the Hunter (1955): namely, to take a horror movie seriusly on an aesthetic and artistic level that, without being pioneering, certainly is an exception to the genre rule.
When you see the poster it is already clear to you. The story is already told, but they will offer you something different with the camera, and play with “painting” cinema, treating the mise en scène with rigorous respect, and transform its anti-heroine into a star of macabre horror.
We liked this movie because it aimed to be different, and has managed to be it, and attaining it with its style, classicism and, especially, for its true appreciation and respect for cinema.
Our Opinion
This is a horror movie that is defined by how it differentiates itself from other pieces in the genre, thanks to its style, the craftsmanship, and particularly, the contrast between the technicolor tonalities of its photography and the sordidness of the story.
Direction
Cast
 Mia Goth / Pearl |  David Corenswet / The Projectionist |  Tandi Wright / Ruth |
 Matthew Sunderland / Pearl’s Father |  Emma Jenkins-Purro / Mitzy |  Alistair Sewell / Howard |
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