SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.The use of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho within the film’s structure is brilliant. At one level, Psycho operates by bifurcating the story into two distinct halves, the first of which is a misdirect for the second. When it’s mentioned, the film transforms from a story about filming porn to a story about women’s desire( I’d have to re-watch the film and get the time, but this moment seems to formally happen at the halfway point of the film); it’s at this moment that Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) and Pearl’s (Mia Goth) desires come to the forefront one after another.

Pearl decides to stop holding back and participates in the shooting of the film which she forces RJ into filming – a form of cuckoldry from his perspective. He can’t stop her from getting what she wants. When he tries to leave and get the last laugh on the situation, he’s stopped by Pearl who, having been refused sex with her own husband, now tries to get RJ to have sex with her. His refusal is met with a brutal execution (wonderfully done to “Don’t Fear the Reaper”). His control of the film and attempt to steer it give way to woman’s desire instead of man’s (an inversion of Psycho‘s order).

At a more literal level, RJ’s execution by the unassuming killer posing as victim of a more dominating personality and desire becomes revealed; far from being a docile victim of Howard’s (Stephen Ure), Pearl is very much in charge and is responsible for the murders as replacement for sexual satisfaction. It’s an incredibly unexpected explosion of sexual desire meeting a violent climax with plenty of stabs to go along – Psycho homage indeed.

2.X bifurcates itself along the identity of the slasher: the first half is focused on the character build-up and fan-service to accompany and the second half is the carnage candy meant to serve as violent pay-off. By the half-way point of the film, one pornography is exchanged for another – both sides like an inverted version of the other.

This is why Pearl, the pornstar with the “X-factor”, is the perfect final girl for the situation. Far from being the prototypical virginal damsel-in-distress turned temporary warrior, Pearl is an experienced veteran. While the situation has changed, her ability to rise through pornography hasn’t, so her triumph in the final act feels poetic without even getting to the divine intervention bit.

3.Having Mia Goth play both Maxine and Pearl is a splendid move that exemplifies the parallels between the two characters. Both characters gaze into the mirror to augment their self-identifications and consequently both of them believe that they are owed “something” more from the world. The seeming difference between them is that Maxine is willing to break free of her constraints to get what she wants while Pearl would rather couch her inability to achieve on the world around her.