Pearl: A Return to Form
“Return to form” is a slippery little phrase in the film-critic world. It accompanies rave reviews of “comebacks” from established filmmakers who’ve had some stumbles since their last “good” effort. It’s also a backhanded compliment that implies a director’s most recent work carries an air of familiarity that corresponds to the more favored entries in their filmography.
While it’s tempting to call Ti West’s Pearl a return to form, it’s not all that interested in pulling narrative beats from his previous efforts. Instead, the film borrows its horror-comedy tone from The Innkeepers and applies it to an original, character-based story.
So no…this isn’t Scorsese reluctantly treading back to critical favor with a movie that’s kinda-sorta an hour-longer version of Goodfellas.
X Marks the Extended Universe
That said, I was skeptical – and more than a little annoyed – at the prospect of West creating an “extended universe” around the overhyped and underwhelming X. Moreover, I didn’t particularly care for Mia Goth’s character(s) in that film. The prospect of spending more time with Pearl – a decrepit doppelganger from another era – didn’t fill me with excitement.
But from the old-school opening credits and the sweeping orchestral notes of Tyler Bates and Jim Williams’ score, Pearl establishes itself as a unique beast in the current horror landscape. From West’s Technicolor visual palette to his meticulous shot compositions to his methods of prolonging the nuances of his scenes to a sometimes-maddening degree, it’s a bold effort.
Credit A24’s marketing machine for having enough confidence to drop this character-driven original in multiplexes across the nation – it’s bound to piss off folks expecting an amplification of its madcap trailer.
Beautifully Ugly
While X felt like Tobe Hooper’s best tropes nuked in a shitty gas-station microwave, Pearl – with its period setting (1918, during the Spanish Flu scare and World War I) and its attention to character and mise-en-scene – feels closer to such failed-stardom epics as Sunset Boulevard, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, and Mulholland Drive.
Shoot, even the footage from a seedy stag film is presented with a sense of period accuracy and crude artistry. Pearl is beautifully ugly, and never less than human.
If horror can rise to the surface in the form of the unassuming and the mundane, then West (who co-wrote the script with Goth) taps into something strangely timely with Pearl: outside of its obvious correlations to COVID-19 (with masked citizens and people fearing germ transmission to loved ones), the film presents the creeping dread of inheriting an unhappy, unfulfilling existence because others have let you down. Putting your dreams on hold due to family obligation is one thing; overestimating your dreams and subsequently failing at them twists the existential knife even further.
Twisted Perversity
There is a great moment where Pearl and her mother Ruth (Tandi Wright) have a heated exchange over dinner, while her paralyzed father (Matthew Sunderland) looks on. There is another sequence that goes on for minutes, with Pearl giving a monologue that dredges up her ugliest thoughts and deeds while the camera remains static, capturing every emotionally charged word and every nuance as the character lays her blackened soul bare.
I wasn’t overly impressed with Goth’s dual performance (as Old Pearl and Maxine) in X, but that was largely due to West’s shallow rendering of both characters. Here, the actress arrives as a force of great hope, great wrath, and greatly twisted perversity. Through all the maggot-coated ugliness at play, Pearl is a real beauty of a horror flick.
4 out of 5 stars
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Crash Analysis Support Team
Jonny Numb
Jonny Numb (aka Jonathan Weidler) only disrobes before writing a review. He co-hosts The Last Knock horror podcast and occasionally pops up on Movies Films & Flix. His writing on non-horror cinema can be found periodically at The Screening Space.
THE LAST KNOCK horror podcast is a Crash Palace Productions’ featured show. Besides this site, you can find THE LAST KNOCK on iTunes and Spotify and more, with new shows posted every other Sunday at 9 PM ET.
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(Pearl movie still from A24.)