X

Summary

Ti West’s X (2022) follows a small, ambitious film crew traveling to rural Texas in 1979 to shoot an adult movie. Producer Wayne brings along his girlfriend, aspiring actress Maxine, actors Bobby-Lynne and Jackson, director RJ, and RJ’s girlfriend, Lorraine, who is helping with the production. Their plan is to make something more polished and meaningful than the usual low-budget fare, but their isolated location and lack of resources quickly make the project feel precarious. The group rents a guesthouse on an aging farm owned by the withdrawn Howard and his elderly wife, Pearl. At first, the hosts seem merely strange and watchful, but the filmmakers gradually sense that they are not welcome and that the property conceals deeper dangers. As tensions rise around the shoot, the crew’s professional disagreements, romantic entanglements, and personal ambitions become increasingly difficult to separate from the threats surrounding them. At its core, X is both a slasher film and a dark examination of the entertainment industry. It explores the desire to be seen, the pursuit of artistic and sexual freedom, and the way society judges performers according to age, appearance, and respectability. Maxine’s determination to become a star is set against Pearl’s bitterness and isolation, creating an unsettling contrast between youth and old age, aspiration and regret. West also plays with the voyeurism of filmmaking itself: the camera observes bodies, intimacy, fear, and violence, while the characters struggle over who controls that gaze. With its period detail, humid rural atmosphere, and deliberate affection for classic exploitation cinema, X balances grim suspense with flashes of humor and social commentary. The result is a stylish, provocative horror movie about ambition, repression, and the dangers that can emerge when private fantasies collide with a hostile reality.