Rent X (2022)

X (aka Iks) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

On its surface, X may just look like a retro slasher picture about people being murdered while filming a porno. But there’s more to it than that. There’s a brilliant moment where the central characters bicker and debate about what constitutes a horror film. One of the artistic filmmakers argues that pornos can have the same build-up as horror movies, only for another to argue they’re not making a horror movie. True enough, but they don’t know that they’re in one at this very moment. This clever staging builds towards a satisfying dose of horror commentary amid its psycho-sexual staging of religious dogma and the ravages of age.

It’s 1979 and a band of young Texans is seeking to get into the world of pornography. The team is led by the slick businessman Wayne (Martin Henderson) who has secured them a location shoot on a farm. The only catch is that he hasn’t exactly told the elderly couple who reside there exactly what they’ll be doing. The grumpy Howard (Stephen Ure) and the quietly creepy (played by Mia Goth in elderly makeup) are under the assumption the young folks just need a place to sleep. It’s only once they discover the acts of sex being filmed right on their farm that things turn dark.

Before the first kill is had, however, we get to know and like some of the slasher victims. We see a lot of ambition in the actress Maxine (Mia Goth without the old-lady makeup) and the curious nature of the Christian girl Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), tempted to make her film debut. There’s sly energy between the actor couple of Bobby-Lynn (Brittany Snow) and Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi), skilled enough in the craft they offer solid input on filmmaking. Aiming higher with the production is RJ (Owen Campbell), a director who believes that even porno can be cinematic and artful.

After a lot of tense building with the creepy couple and the gator in the lake, the kills eventually start but in the most intriguing way. Pearl is established more as the killer, bound by jealousy and a desire to be young and sexual again. Slowly, we realize that Pearl has a longing for a past that was denied. It doesn’t make her murder spree justified, of course, but it does highlight an interesting motive. It’s also a far more pleasing aspect of being aware of the passage of time, the shortness of youth, and the erotic desires than just going with the tired tale of a redneck couple just being crazy because of a mental disorder or radiation.

Despite not being so bound by the tired tropes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, there’s definitely a spirit of retro horror present. The film doesn’t shy away from featuring the more erotic sex scenes, the goriest of deaths, and the tensest of scenes. That gritty aspect of horror films from the 1970s is alive and well in this grotesque picture, going so far with the explicit nature there’s a dark absurdity to it all. You can’t help but laugh at a moment where Mescudi approaches the old man while in the nude, letting his long penis become visible in shadow.

Director Ti West made a big return with X considering how long it’s been since his last horror film. Here is a film that feels brutal and vicious while still having more to talk about than how cool it looks that pitchforks go through eyeballs and the old people have nasty sex. It’s the down-and-dirty horror film you didn’t know you needed and it’s great that a talented director like Ti West is still delivering some amazing horror delights for the screen.