On the surface, Ti West’s X is a throwback to the late ‘70s era of slasher horror movies. You’ve seen the setup plenty of times before: a young group of acquaintances or friends (with one or two couples within it) shacks up in a creaking old house out in the middle of nowhere for a few days. The film does very little to hide its mirroring of the motions that films like Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre go through. And while the premise certainly delivers on the blood and gore expected of the genre, West clearly has more on his mind than senseless violence.
In X, the central group of acquaintances is actually a film crew who make rent out a house on the property of an elderly couple in order to shoot a pornographic film. Most of the crew members are excited to get started, as they think that the film will be their first step towards a break within the entertainment industry. The film’s producer, Wayne (Martin Henderson), sees the porno as a means to an end for his aspiring actress girlfriend, Maxine Minx (Mia Goth). For the porno’s director, RJ (Owen Campbell), he sees it as an opportunity to implement a style of filmmaking he learned from watching independent and foreign films. The excitement of everyone in the crew is palpable, and West makes it apparent that he shares their enthusiasm. In the film’s combination of paying homage to slashers and lovingly developing its scrappy group of filmmakers, X reveals itself to be a love letter to both the horror and pornographic film communities.
For the first half of the film, you’d be forgiven if you questioned the label of the film as a “slasher.” Sure, there are some tense moments of the elderly couple spying on the film crew, but none of it amounts to anything noteworthy for the first hour. In fact, the first hour is almost an entirely uninterrupted celebration of the crew creating their film. Throughout the film, RJ’s hands never let go of the camera that he uses to shoot the porno. On multiple occasions, West cuts back and forth between the shots from his own cinematographer, Eliot Rockett, and the footage coming from RJ’s ‘70s film camera. Through the editing of these sequences, West makes clear his admiration for these characters and their determination to get out there and make a movie. Even within the group, the constant musing about the doors that their porno will open up becomes infectious. After initially being dismissive of the whole ordeal, RJ’s girlfriend, Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), who had just been working the sound up until this point, begins to see some appeal in the porno. Seeing the joy that creating the film brings to the people around her, she petitions for a role in the film, hoping it can be an outlet for her to express herself more and grow.
Beyond the instances of switching between the two cameras, West also expresses his reverence for the film crew through his lovingly crafted montages. In the sequences, West’s editing draws parallels between the independent and pornography film industries. Both industries were marginalized for their unorthodox tastes and both were invigorated by the exact entrepreneurial and hopeful spirit that the film crew in X carries. And seeing Wayne and RJ come together despite their differing film backgrounds is very much like watching West’s vision for his film coalesce into a celebratory whole. It’s here in this first half that West really drives home what makes his film a love letter to the independent horror and pornographic film communities.
Before any blood is shed, the film earnestly commits itself to following the bonding of its ragtag gang of filmmakers. And after West has laid all the groundwork for his loving homage to the slasher and porno genres, when the killings do start happening, there is an extra layer of enjoyment because West clearly respects the films he is taking inspiration from. When the body count starts rising, it’s not like West shifts the gears of his film so that it suddenly becomes a slasher. In paying tribute to slasher films, West taps into something that people often forget was at the heart of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: dark comedy. When the antagonistic elderly couple begins to kill the film crew and their motivation is revealed, the rationale is both reductive and undeniably silly fun. Like the cannibal family arguing over dinner in Hooper’s film, West does something similar by focusing on another family’s peculiar interests. In the second half of the film, West finds a way to perfectly marry his celebratory first half with his homage-heavy second. The result is surprisingly cohesive, and West’s veneration for both independent horror and porno is crystal clear.
Lastly, at the end of the film, when the body count has stabilized, the police officers that report to the elderly couple’s farm the next morning find RJ’s camera. At this moment lies one last tip of the cap from West to his filmmaker protagonists. Blood has been shed from both parties, and although the crew won’t be able to make any more films, the footage that they have already made will continue to outlive them. One of the promises of art is that it allows the possibility to create something that will endure long after you have gone, and that’s exactly what the film crew’s porno does in X.
One of the best things about X is that even if you ignore the love letter aspect of it, the film is still completely enjoyable as a slasher flick. West adds his celebration for filmmaking like a layer of icing on a delicious cake. West is no stranger to paying homage to horror films. In another film he directed, The House of the Devil, West shows his reverence for both the slasher and haunted house films of the 1980s. What X adds to this calculation is the connection between horror and the pornography industry, and the subsequent film is a sincere celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit that both industries share.