Production company A24 premiered its newest film “X” on March 17, combining horror with comedy and suspense. This crowd-pleasing slasher film is gloomy and old-fashioned, consisting of elements from A24’s “Midsommar” mixed with the horror film “The Visit.” With its spectacular cast, “X” includes a premise that is unique and abstract — divulging into a narrative that contemplates faith and divine intervention.
The film is set in 1979 and opens with a gut-wrenching scene: a team of police officers arrive on what appears to be an old farm where they come face-to-face with death. A body is found right outside the farmhouse, throat brutally slashed and disfigured, and as they journey toward the front entrance of the house, they walk into a somber and chilling room where a vintage television is playing a tape of a pastor discussing the effects of sinful acts, thus adding a very cultish-feel to the overall scene. Then, they travel down to the basement where the police officers have a horrified expression on their faces, giving off a very “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”-vibe in regards to the Manson family killings.
After that blood-curdling opening, viewers are immediately taken to the real beginning of the film where we then move through a chronological timeline, starting with the root of the plot: “X” being a film about a small indie-sex film being made called “The Farmer’s Daughter.” Wayne (Martin Henderson) is the writer and director of “The Farmer’s Daughter” who has put together a crew of five others consisting of actor Jackson (Kid Cudi), actresses Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and Maxine (Mia Goth), the cameraman RJ (Owen Campbell) and the cameraman’s girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) who serves as the sound engineer/featured actress.
Dedicating their entire time to creating this film with the hopes of it being their big break, they travel to an off-the-grid farm in the state of Texas where Wayne has rented out the farm couple’s smaller house on the property. And yet in the middle of the highway, on the way to the farm, they stumble upon a terrible accident: a cow dead, gory and bloody with intestines all over the road, who had gotten hit by a semi-truck. Though horrifying and grotesque, the image is quite ethereal, switching back and forth between the bloody scene and cows grazing in the nearby field.
The beauty of “X” remains in its cinematography with breathtaking and picturesque shots, including one of Maxine floating in a lake with a crocodile slowly swimming towards her. The closer the creature gets, the farther the camera zooms away, creating a viewing experience that is quite heavenly yet frightening, forcing the audience to tense up in their seats and scream at the big-screen in an effort to tell the character that she is in imminent danger. And yet, this isn’t the only moment where the filmmakers choose to highlight a particular scene, zooming the camera further out.
When they first arrive at the farm, the film focuses on the scenery and vintage aspect of the image with eerie, menacing music playing; this again happens when Maxine ventures into the home of the old couple who owns the farm. After sharing a glass of lemonade with the older woman, who is also played by Goth, Maxine finds herself exploring photographs of the couple hung up on the wall near their stairs where she learns that the woman was a ballerina when she was younger. During this particular scene, the music turns sinister, yet whimsical, with the older woman busting out in a delicate ballet dance with the lighting turning suddenly dark and mysterious with red muted and murky tones to symbolize the themes of sinister acts and death within the premise.
Unlike other slasher films such as the “Scream” franchise, “X” does not stray away from blood and guts; rather, it highlights its violent scenes focusing the camera on those gory moments. With every murder, the film pivots on the cause of the characters’ death; usually in an extremely gruesome and grim way, allowing the film to serve as an ode to the slasher genre, but with a disgusting twist. It takes viewers on a morbidly fun and terrifying journey, with the ending shedding light on God and divine intervention during an extraordinary dark and demented experience the characters face where, essentially, one survivor remains and is lucky enough to walk away from the situation alive and breathing. Hit the theaters and indulge in the horrifying vacation that the cast and crew of “The Farmer’s Daughter” embark on.
McKenzie Boney is an Entertainment Editor. She can be reached at mboney@uci.edu.
