Pearl: Ti West’s voguish slasher flick is fun, if not quite as much fun as it thinks

Ti West’s X dumped the cast and crew of a scuzzy 1970s porno in a Texan outpost that, in the film’s winking schematics, might have been called Leatherface County. Some wildly anachronistic sex-positive chatter later, the gang were stalked by the twin evils of an alligator and a murderous, randy old lady. During a Covid-enforced break in production, the actor Mia Goth, who double-jobbed as Maxine, an aspiring porn star, and Pearl, the frustrated crone, conceived of a wild backstory.

Her imagined origins tale for the titular beldam is the basis for this campy horror, which, thanks to Elliot Rocket’s cinematography, liberally borrows from The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins. (Goth, in a fiercely committed turn, even emulates Margaret Hamilton’s frenzied bike pedalling.)

Pearl (Goth), a young married Texan, is awaiting the return of her enlisted husband as the first World War grinds to a bloody halt – the film’s 1918 setting allows the threat of Spanish flu to require Covid-friendly mask-wearing – and dreaming of Hollywood as she goes about her chores. “One day you’ll never see me again,” she poignantly tells an audience of farm animals.

Her stern German mother (Tandi Wright) scolds her for not pulling her weight and for entertaining silly notions. An early scene in which Pearl pitchforks an unsuspecting goose suggests that the formidable matriarch is right to be concerned.

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Voyeurism and elder abuse define Pearl’s relationship with her catatonic father (Matthew Sutherland), whose condition requires medication that the heroine liberally chugs. (More red flags: Pearl’s pet is the teen-gobbling alligator from X.)

On a starry-eyed trip to the movies, Pearl encounters a smooth-talking projectionist (David Corenswet), who shows her an early stag film called A Free Ride. There’s a loony sexual encounter with a scarecrow, and that’s before the movie gets properly crazy.

[ Mia Goth: I always felt it's plan A or I'm f**ked ]

The second film from the X universe – stay tuned for MaXXXine, the sequel – is fun but falls a little short of making merry for all 102 minutes. With its lurid libidinous action and over-the-top murders, Pearl is a jokey spin-off of a jokey film. Imagine – and we mean this as a compliment – the slasher equivalent of The Naked Gun 2. Offsetting the self-indulgence, Goth sinks her teeth into the goose-killing heroine and spits out all the feathers.