Pearl Film Review

When it comes to horror films it's not unusual for the follow up film to be released one year after the original film. However what is unusual is for the follow up film to not only be a prequel film but to also be released within a few months of the original film as was the case with the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and so then me as I review the film that made it's main villain a star with the film in question being called simply just "Pearl" enjoy.

The plot of this film is many decades before the events of X a young Pearl dreams of becoming a star and will do anything to make her dream come true. Now then in of what I personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with this films plot being a very thought provoking look into a character that we thought we knew only to reveal that we knew nothing about her whatsoever with this films plot being at best pretty thinly drawn out and while that might be seen as being a bad thing it's also something that does work to this films advantage as this film is being told from the point of view of Pearl and therefor it wouldn't make sense anyway and would be seen as being pretty thinly drawn out due to the fact that Pearl is mentally unwell and we are only spending a very brief amount of time with her and with this film showing us things from her point of view it does mean that we won't get to see the whole picture of the plot as Pearl herself is only focused on one thing and one thing only and that's becoming a star and with the film having a simple premise like this one it doesn't really need to have a deep plot as the draw isn't coming from the plot rather it's coming from seeing someone get driven to these extremes in the first place with that being the more interesting aspect of this films plot with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is one of this films producers and this films co-writer Mia Goth as Pearl and Superman star David Corenswet as The Projectionist. Also starring in this film is Power Rangers S.P.D. and Black Sheep star Tandi Wright as Ruth , The Lost City Of Z star Matthew Sunderland as Pearl's Father , Emma Jenkins-Purro as Mitsy , Amelia Reid-Meredith as Margaret and Alistair Sewell as Howard.

Now then in of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of this films actors turning in some really good performances in this film which is something that does both make sense and yet at the exact same time also not make sense as well as alot of this films actors aren't that well known and so it really wouldn't make sense to expect good performances from them in this film and yet at the exact same time it does also make sense as not only is Mia Goth a writer and producer on this move but she also played the older version of Pearl in X and is basically reprising her role in this film with her knowing the character inside and out and both she and David Corenswet are just a pair of really good actors in their own right as well with his acting in this film also giving me faith that his acting in Superman will be good as he's a really good actor in this movie as even tho he doesn't get alot of screen time he makes it count with the best actor in this film being of course Mia Goth who just simply kills it as Pearly with her not only making the character utterly hate able but at the same time also quite tragic as we the audience get to see what her life was like on the farm and how she just wants to be famous but her mother forces her not to try and reach for her goals with the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just the say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this film.

This films characters whilst they aren't the best written characters in the film they are some of the more interesting characters outside of Pearl. As even tho her mother does actively try to stop Pearl from achieving her goals it doesn't come from a place of hate rather it instead comes from a place of love somethin that Pearl can't quite understand as she's a very self absorbed character who is only looking out for number one with the war and being forced to stay on the one place that she wants to get away from being contributing factors in driving her further and further insane with her father oddly enough being the calming factor between the two ladies as while he doesn't say a line of dia the whole film you get exactly what he's feeling just from the looks that actor Matthew Sunderland gives and from those looks you can tell that whilst he does care quite deeply about Pearl he is also scared of her and what she's becoming with her only real friend in this film being Mitsy who is the complete and total opposite of Pearl as while Pearl is a pretty smart character Mitsy just isn't with her quite frequently flaunting her wealth in front of Pearl but despite all of that she is still there for Pearl when she really needs her to be something that isn't true even for Pearl's mother with The Projectionist being the only weak character in the bunch with that being more due to the fact that the character just doesn't get alot of time on screen to display just what he's like as a character with his only purpose in the film being to further convince Pearl to go to this local audition and that's really it but even so his character is one that's pretty important to the character of Pearl as she's so afraid of rejection and of people leaving her that throw him we get to see just how she reacts when someone does leave her.

There are two things that make this film stand out from all of the other prequels the first of which is the fact that it was filmed in secret and the second of which is the fact that it was filmed pretty much back to back with X. This is something that really hadn't been done before this film and it hasn't been done after it either with this being a huge shame as due to how this fil was made not only did it mean that the entire crew from X returned for this film but it also meant that the makers of this film got to use the exact same locations as they did in X thus making the films more connected then what they already were in the first place and while yes this film does falls into the same pitfalls that all prequels fall into as we know exactly how this film will play out due to the fact that Pearl is also the main villain in X and as such we the audience will already know that she' going to make it out of this film unharmed and yet that's the only pitfall that this film has with that even that pitfall still being a major one we don't get to see how Pearly became the sort of jaded character that we see her as in X with that aspect of her character only being hinted at all throughout the film but never really seen in full like it was in X which was such a smart choice on the part of this films co-writer , producer , editor and director Ti West as it means that there is something left to the imagination and that is something that can be more scarier as it means that we the audience now get to imagine how she became like that with that being something that could even be developed further in sequels to Pearl which they very easily could do given how this film ends and the fact that Howard has become quite apt at killing people by the time that the events of X take place.

While X was a straight up slasher film and MaXXXine a slasher detective film this film is a slasher drama film. With there being just as much dramatic moments in the film then there are kills which is something that was quite honestly really refreshing to see as in order to understand why Pearl is the way that she is we have to first understand how she got that point in the first place and what better way to do that then to make your prequel movie part slasher and part drama as then we get to see these scenes that do show us the audience how Pearl became this truly messed up person with her truly believing that she's doing the right thing and heck because of that the fact that this is film is also a drama we get this long five almost eight minuet unbroken take of Mia Goth just delivering this long monolog near the end of the movie and that is something that not only should sell you on just how good of an actor Mia Goth really is but also on how well written the character of Pearl is as well as all throughout that speech she keeps on trying to convince herself that she's going to make things right for Howard whenever he finally does come home from the war all the meanwhile she knows that deep down she won't ever be able to make this right just due to the fact that she's killed innocent people and that is something that just wouldn't be able to be done or even be included in the film if this film was a straight up slasher film as you'd have to get to more kills and that is something that would get in the way of having a truly great scene like that in the movie and while yes it would have been nice if this film did have more kills in it in this case it's not something that was needed as seeing just how Pearl got driven to that place where she has to kill people is more the scary enough.

What was shocking to see was the fact that we got to see into the mind of Pearl during certain sequences of the movie. Like the fact that when she's at the audition she imagines herself dancing with a group of army soldiers all around her and while these little insights into her mind were great how showing us just how far of the deep end that she is they were also pretty distracting as they add nothing to the overall plot of the film and felt like that they were put in there for the sake of being there and while this film was called the female Joker with that fil the insights into Arthur Fleck's mind where done so subtly that you needed to watch the film a second time to make sure that you caught it where as with this film they just straight up hit you over the head with it when something like this could have been more subtly just by going the route that they did with Joker by having certain things play differently in pearl's mind only for it be reveled near the end of the movie that everything that Pearl thought she knew and saw she didn't which is something that would work as she's mentally ill anyway and so it wouldn't be that far of a stretch for her character to do those kinds of things and still think that she's OK and while those brief looks into her mind loke the rest of the film do look very visually stunning they are things that could've been left on the cutting room floor due to how little that they add to the films plot and while that wouldn't be a bad thing if they at least added to Pearl as a character but they don't and therefor one has to wonder why they were included in the first place.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and forty two seconds minuets and ten seconds. Which to be fair is a pretty solid running tome for this film to have as this film really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place and while yes in some respects this film doesn't it's running time all that wisely as none of the films newer characters are that well developed it could also be argued that that's the point as we the audience are seeing the film through Pearls eyes and therefor if she's not spending alot of time with them are getting to know them all that well then we audience don't get to either but on the flip side of that is the fact that it would have been nice to get to know these characters as we that would make there kills all the more impactful and the characters all the more memorable and heck we don't even get to find out the name of The Projectionist as that's all he's called in the movie but while the film does fail on the character development front it does succeed on the world building front which yes granted is also due to X but this film has to take that same world and now de-age it by about fifty years with this films world feeling very Americana with everybody just doing there best to get by in what were very difficult times not only for America but for the world as a whole with the film even taking the time to build up alot of tension something that is now kind of a lost art in horror films with this films world building even playing a part in that as we get to understand where Pearl is coming from and how this just struggling to get by outlook might be good for other people but it's not one that works for her character but this film does it wonderfully but I really will it that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a slasher film that really does means that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. As even tho this film only has about four kills throughout the whole film it's the build up and tension surrounding each and everyone of those kills that makes them standout and that makes what could have been seen as being very generic and boring kills seem scary and borderline frightening all over again as we the audience get to see how Pearl really is just thinking on the fly when she commits these kills more often then not just using whatever is at her disposal as her main weapon of choice at the time which does result if some pretty unique kills as we really don't get to see someone smothered to death alot of the time in slasher films with the same thing also being true for the use of a garden rake either and while using a hatchet is kind of a predictable weapon to use given the main location of this film is a homestead it is understandable that there would be one of those just lying around the house as she most likely would have needed to use one to get things like firewood with it being quite honestly hard to say just what the best kill of this film is in the first place but if push comes to shove it would have be Mitsy's death as we get to see it done in one largely unbroken one shot which are always super hard to pull off and it was really ambitious for this film to not only pull it off but also get a good kill out of it as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall while X more then set the standard for this trilogy of films it was this film that more then not only met those standards but sured them and while this film might not be everyone's cup of tea it would have hard to deney the fact that this film is just a really good film regardless of it's connections to X as it is a film that did all of the things that X did only alot more better that what X really did in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because the official Scream fandom wiki page actually has images from this film really are up and on the Google Image and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.