Well, here’s a surprise for your Tuesday: Apparently, Ti West made another movie for the 2022 release calendar and managed to keep it hidden from public view long enough to have a trailer and marketing campaign ready to go seemingly out of the blue. It’s called Pearl, a prequel to his porn-horror X about its chief antagonist back when she was “purty” (though one has to imagine Mia Goth was pretty stoked not to have to pull double-character duty and be forced to sit in the old-age makeup chair for a full twelve hours this time around), and it’s coming out in about two months — talk about a quick wide release! If you like sexy faux-technicolor nightmares, this one might be worth a watch, and this trailer that A24 dropped earlier in the day will give you a pretty good idea if you’re in its target audience. We know we are, and we think you might be too.
Take a look:
Here’s a synopsis:
“Filmmaker Ti West returns with another chapter from the twisted world of ‘X,’ in this astonishing follow-up to the year’s most acclaimed horror film. 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 all collide, in the stunning, technicolor-inspired origin story of ‘X’s’ iconic villain.”
Pearl arrives in theaters on September 16. We have a bit of a bone to pick with that “Year’s most acclaimed horror film” descriptor, which probably would have made more sense before Nope came out (or even The Black Phone, but that’s neither here nor there). But, hey, it’s a surprise horror prequel dropped in the middle of the post-Labor Day slog: what could possibly go wrong?