A24 has released the much anticipated trailer for Pearl, the prequel to Ti West's 2022 horror film X. Mia Goth reprises her role as the main character and this time, audiences will learn how she became a killer.
Goth has been celebrated for playing both Pearl and Maxine, a young actor who is among the group of filmmakers who stay at Pearl and Howard's (Stephen Ure) farm while shooting their movie.
The trailer for Pearl gets off to an intelligent start, with the words "A24 invites you to discover an X-tradionary origin story" setting it up. A young Pearl prays and says "Please Lord, make me the biggest star the world has ever known. So that I'll make it far, far away from this place."
The setting of Pearl is the same as X, featuring the old and crumbling farmhouse in the country. When Pearl was younger, she ran a boarding house on her Texas farm and took care of World War II veterans. The makings of a killer are present when Pearl is told that this is "admirable" but she shares her dream of them passing away. Pearl also wheels one elderly man out to the water where an alligator stares, a menacing nod to the scene in X when Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) dies that way. The movie takes place in 1919. There are many filmmaking lessons in X and it looks like Ti West has made another creative and impressive film. West and Goth co-wrote the script together.
The title X has a double meaning, as it refers to the adult film that the characters are working on while also suggesting that Pearl "axes" the people who come to stay at her farm. Pearl plays around with this letter as well, as Pearl goes to a casting call and is told "We're looking for someone with an X-factor." The movie also hints that Pearl does early 20th century porn. It looks like fans of X will learn a lot about how Pearl becomes the person who she is and why she is so lost, lonely, and heartbroken in her older years.
Pearl looks just as intense, dark, and intelligent as the first film, with Goth's character wielding an axe while walking throughout the property and, in one scene that is sure to be memorable, another character has been lit on fire. X is among the highest-grossing A24 horror films. According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed $11,765,309 domestically and $14,327,406 worldwide.
Pearl will be released in theaters on September 16, 2022.