Pearl is a slow-burn horror film that turns a young woman’s desire for stardom into something genuinely unsettling. Mia Goth plays Pearl, a 1918 Texas farm girl trapped under her mother’s watchful eye while tending to her paralyzed father. The film is the second installment in Ti West’s X series and a prequel to the first X, with Goth reprising her role as the title character.
Trailer, via A24.
The Farm and Its Secrets
Pearl is isolated from the world, with her family hiding from the Spanish flu pandemic. She dreams of becoming a chorus girl or a film star, but her mother Ruth forbids it. The tension builds slowly, through small humiliations and quiet resentments. Pearl’s father grows weaker, and she nurses him while secretly abusing him and killing animals, feeding them to an alligator she calls Theda.
The film draws on Douglas Sirk and Technicolor classics like The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins, giving the story a glossy, almost fairy-tale surface that cracks under the pressure. Goth plays Pearl as a girl caught between longing and cruelty, and the shift from sweet to monstrous happens gradually enough to feel earned rather than forced.
The Projectionist and the Stag Film
Pearl’s brief encounters with the projectionist offer the closest thing the film has to a romance. He introduces her to the forbidden stag film A Free Ride, urging her to chase her dreams. But Pearl refuses to leave her family, saying, “If only they would just die.” That line lands harder than any jump scare.
The climax arrives at supper, when Ruth catches Pearl in a lie about buying sweets and accuses her of wasting money on tickets to the pictures. Pearl confesses her desire to audition and asks for Ruth’s permission, only to have Ruth call her her biggest failure. The argument escalates until Pearl shoves Ruth against the hearth, setting her dress on fire. Pearl pours boiling water on her mother to extinguish the flames.
What Works, What Doesn’t
The film’s strengths are its performances and its restraint. Goth commits fully to the role, making Pearl’s descent feel inevitable rather than cartoonish. Tandi Wright as Ruth and Matthew Sunderland as the father round out the core family dynamic, though the supporting cast stays mostly in the background. The staging is deliberate, with long takes and minimal music that let the dread build on its own terms.
Where the film falters is in pacing. Some stretches feel padded, especially in the middle section where Pearl’s visits to town and her interactions with the projectionist repeat similar beats without much variation. The film’s 102-minute runtime could easily have been shorter, cutting the filler to sharpen the central conflict.
The ending ties back into the larger X series, setting up the character’s future arc without resolving the immediate drama. That choice will frustrate viewers who want closure, but it fits the series’ larger structure.
By the Numbers
- Runtime: 102 minutes
- Release: September 16, 2022 (US release)
- Distributor: A24
- Gross: over $10 million
- Score: 7.6/10
Pearl is a flawed but compelling entry in Ti West’s X series. Mia Goth’s performance carries the film, and the origin story format allows for a deeper exploration of the character’s psyche. The pacing drags in spots, but the final act delivers a brutal payoff that lingers. For fans of slow-burn horror, Pearl rewards patience.
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