STACK #223 May 2023

MOVIE FEATURE

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THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD Ti West’s vision for his newly created franchise went beyond the simplicity of interconnected stories, and with each instalment taking place in different eras, he seized the opportunity R

to indulge in juxtaposing styles. Where X ’s gritty and unforgiving dustbowl aesthetic paid homage to ‘70s exploitation films, his vision for Pearl was much bigger. His film conjures memories of the Golden Age of Hollywood, making Pearl as much a tribute to

those studio films of the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s as it is a psychological horror. The rural farming environment is depicted with romanticism, projected onto the screen like a Technicolor wonderland with echoes of The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Oklahoma (1955) informing its style. In fact, savvy movie buffs with attention to detail will have fun finding various Hollywood Easter eggs placed throughout the story. In creating the tone of Pearl , West also turned to Walt Disney for inspiration. “There’s a purity and sense of wonder in those stories – this optimistic, anything-is-possible element that becomes magical in Mary Poppins ,” he says. “And there’s the fantasy element, of course – the idea that [...] things never happen in these movies because they don’t belong. Pearl was an opportunity to do something I hadn’t seen before – to take that Disney-style aesthetic and weave in a much darker and harder-edged story. It was a way to take those archetypal Disney characters, and give them more real and even surreal challenges.”

Meet Pearl, the plucky young country gal with stars in her eyes. Sadly, she lives a life of servitude, tending to chores on the farm while caring for her crippled father under the strict rule of her cruel mother. But she has dreams of stardom, and won’t let anything – or anyone – get in her way. Words Glenn Cochrane

I f you’ve got a penchant for horror, or even just well-told stories, you’ll want to get in on Pearl . We were first introduced to the character of Pearl – played by British actress Mia Goth, whose star is steadily on the rise – in director Ti West’s acclaimed slasher X (2022), which was set in 1979 and paid homage to classic exploitation films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Over the course of several Zoom meetings, West and Goth fleshed out the character and got the ball rolling on an entirely new movie. Their script was delivered and green-lit within four weeks, wrapped than Pearl was being shot covertly, remaining secret until its trailer reveal at the end of X ’s credit sequence. and production was fast tracked. No sooner had X

The owners of the property used in X and Pearl were so pleased with the film team’s makeover of their house and barn, they decided to keep it permanently. DYK?

Director TiWest

(1974) and The Last House on the Left (1972). In X , Pearl was an elderly woman with a lustful appetite and a want for stardom, with Goth performing dual roles playing the older woman and the younger final girl, Maxine. In Pearl , we go back to 1918 to

• Pearl is out on May 24

TAKING PEARL TO THE MAXXX West and Goth are currently in production on the third chapter in the series, titled MaXXXine . Set to take place after the events of X , the film will explore another seminal era of cinema: the advent of home video and its revolutionary cultural impact on society. Taking place in 1985, the story will follow Maxine – the lone survivor of the massacre in X – as she continues to pursue her Hollywood dream. Little else is known about the story at this stage, other than that the cast of players will include Elizabeth Debicki ( Guardians of the Galaxy ), Bobby Cannavale ( Vinyl ), Lily Collins ( Mirror Mirror ), and Kevin Bacon.

learn all about the character’s origin and how she became a murderous geriatric. The concept came to West while he was quarantining in New Zealand ahead of shooting X ; as his restless imagination roamed during the pandemic-forced isolation,

he conjured Pearl’s backstory, and in turn, the possibility of a franchise.

36 MAY 2023

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