Ti West wrote X’s slasher sequel in quarantine so he could make the movies back-to-back

Ti West wrote X’s slasher sequel in quarantine so he could make the movies back-to-back

Picture: A24
The new horror film from director Ti West X is a wonderful throwback to old school slashers. It’s set in a remote cabin, features teenagers who are mostly doomed, and includes plenty of gruesome kills. Of course, a truly classic slasher also needs a sequel, and Xis already on its way.
In a recent Zoom interview with Polygon, West explained how he filmed X and its sequel, pearlback to back, and how one of X‘s stars is key to making both films work. In case you still need to catch up on the first movie before the sequel arrives, X is now available on VOD from services like Apple Movies, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for X.] The project of X started with a single film about a group of young people who rent a cabin in Texas where they plan to shoot softcore porn. Before they can finish their movie, they find themselves hunted down by the strange old couple who own the property. While most X plays out like a traditional slasher, one of its big twists is the double casting of Mia Goth as both porn star Maxine and old woman Pearl who murders every youngster in sight.

Photo: A24
“The goal has always been to [double cast], but I didn’t know if I would be able to pull it off,” West told Polygon. “But that’s a credit to Mia. Once I met Mia, I was like, ‘We can get through this.’ Also WETA [Workshop] to make incredible prostheses. We had a world-class performer and a world-class effects company, so we were able to do that.
pearl will bring back Goth to play the younger version of Xis the murderer. While X includes pieces of the character’s backstory, pearl will show us exactly what happened to the character in the mid-20th century to turn her into an octogenarian killer. While it all seems to fit together nicely, creating the sequel was more of an impulsive move for West.
X had to be shot in New Zealand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but at the time the country had a 14-day quarantine for anyone coming from overseas. That two-week stretch gave West plenty of free time and some fresh ideas, so he got to work on the sequel.

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“It’s a long time to sit in a room,” West said. “So I had an idea for a prequel. I thought I’d write it in those two weeks and Mia and I kind of collaborated on FaceTime. We watched it like ‘I think it’s a great idea. […] There’s a good chance we can make this movie and at the very least, it serves as Pearl’s very detailed backstory.
West then pitched the idea to A24, Xproduction studio, which was immediately on board, so West, Goth and the film crew made X and pearl more or less at the same time. Of course, making one movie is hard enough, so making two in a row turned out to be an even bigger challenge, but in a somewhat unexpected way, according to West.

Photo: Christopher Moss/A24
“It was really like not doing both movies but editing them both, that was the biggest challenge,” West explained. “Because you have come to the end of Xand you were kind of enjoying that triumph of being almost done, of being back to zero on pearl was like psychologically, you know, quite difficult.
West was reluctant to divulge many more details about pearl, but he let it slip that he was finishing the film in the near future and hoped it would be released sometime next year. As an added little bonus, he mentioned that “the movies are very different.” But we’ll have to wait until our first look at pearl to see what that means exactly.

#West #wrote #slasher #sequel #quarantine #movies #backtoback

Ti West wrote X’s slasher sequel in quarantine so he could make the movies back-to-back

Picture: A24
The new horror film from director Ti West X is a wonderful throwback to old school slashers. It’s set in a remote cabin, features teenagers who are mostly doomed, and includes plenty of gruesome kills. Of course, a truly classic slasher also needs a sequel, and Xis already on its way.
In a recent Zoom interview with Polygon, West explained how he filmed X and its sequel, pearlback to back, and how one of X‘s stars is key to making both films work. In case you still need to catch up on the first movie before the sequel arrives, X is now available on VOD from services like Apple Movies, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for X.] The project of X started with a single film about a group of young people who rent a cabin in Texas where they plan to shoot softcore porn. Before they can finish their movie, they find themselves hunted down by the strange old couple who own the property. While most X plays out like a traditional slasher, one of its big twists is the double casting of Mia Goth as both porn star Maxine and old woman Pearl who murders every youngster in sight.

Photo: A24
“The goal has always been to [double cast], but I didn’t know if I would be able to pull it off,” West told Polygon. “But that’s a credit to Mia. Once I met Mia, I was like, ‘We can get through this.’ Also WETA [Workshop] to make incredible prostheses. We had a world-class performer and a world-class effects company, so we were able to do that.
pearl will bring back Goth to play the younger version of Xis the murderer. While X includes pieces of the character’s backstory, pearl will show us exactly what happened to the character in the mid-20th century to turn her into an octogenarian killer. While it all seems to fit together nicely, creating the sequel was more of an impulsive move for West.
X had to be shot in New Zealand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but at the time the country had a 14-day quarantine for anyone coming from overseas. That two-week stretch gave West plenty of free time and some fresh ideas, so he got to work on the sequel.

Related

The best movies of 2022, so far
“It’s a long time to sit in a room,” West said. “So I had an idea for a prequel. I thought I’d write it in those two weeks and Mia and I kind of collaborated on FaceTime. We watched it like ‘I think it’s a great idea. […] There’s a good chance we can make this movie and at the very least, it serves as Pearl’s very detailed backstory.
West then pitched the idea to A24, Xproduction studio, which was immediately on board, so West, Goth and the film crew made X and pearl more or less at the same time. Of course, making one movie is hard enough, so making two in a row turned out to be an even bigger challenge, but in a somewhat unexpected way, according to West.

Photo: Christopher Moss/A24
“It was really like not doing both movies but editing them both, that was the biggest challenge,” West explained. “Because you have come to the end of Xand you were kind of enjoying that triumph of being almost done, of being back to zero on pearl was like psychologically, you know, quite difficult.
West was reluctant to divulge many more details about pearl, but he let it slip that he was finishing the film in the near future and hoped it would be released sometime next year. As an added little bonus, he mentioned that “the movies are very different.” But we’ll have to wait until our first look at pearl to see what that means exactly.

#West #wrote #slasher #sequel #quarantine #movies #backtoback