Hoping to make a fortune from the burgeoning video store industry, a team of novice filmmakers arrive on a Texas farm to shoot a porn movie, unbeknownst to Pearl and Howard, the elderly couple who rented the place to them. However, when the old spouses discover the pot of roses, the flesh exhibited quickly takes on a dark red color. And here are the young people who, during a disastrous night, try to escape the massacre.
Camped in 1979, Ti West’s new film, aptly titled Xturns out to be much richer in subtext than its frivolous summary suggests.
For the record, we owe the American filmmaker the excellent The House of the Devil, an exercise in style that brilliantly pastiches the horror cinema of the early 1980s, in which a babysitter finds herself the target of a demonic plot. Displaying a stunning attention to detail, X could, like its predecessor, have been filmed during the time it depicts. Minimalist and terrifying variation on the shining by Stanley Kubrick, his successor The Innkeepers offers a very clever story of a haunted hotel with outdated accents. Nostalgic filmmaker, Ti West? We asked him.
“Yes, I guess I’m nostalgic, admits the director. But in the case of X, I chose the year 1979 for very specific reasons. It was at this time that the link between producers and consumers became more direct, with the emergence of video clubs. So, from a narrative point of view, it was interesting, it made sense; it justified the approach of the characters. »
The 1970s is Ti West’s favourite.
“In American cinema, the 1970s were dominated by a more ‘auteurist’ approach. [le mouvement Nouvel Hollywood]. Mainstream films were daring and revered the craft, the cinematic art. Even exploitation films were based on bizarre and original concepts. »
In this regard, one of the most famous exploitation films of the time is undoubtedly The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Chainsaw Massacre), by Tobe Hopper, about young motorists in the city who are having a feast with a clan of cannibal rednecks. Both in its context and its aesthetics, X evokes this flagship film, but also Hopper’s next film, eaten alive (The Crocodile of Death), with this crocodile prowling the property. In fact, the tributes are numerous, but perfectly integrated, never free.
Memorable victims
Still with regard to the history of horror cinema, the year 1979 is interesting, because it corresponds to a transitional period. In that if the 1970s were precisely fertile in unusual proposals, the 1980s saw the advent of slasher in series, with infinite sequels and archetypal characters destined to be the victims of sometimes interchangeable mad killers. By positioning his film on the middle line, Ti West brings together the best of both eras, a game of massacre with a high content of gorebut populated by memorable characters immersed in an ambitious narrative.
“When the characters have depth, we become attached to them more easily. Therefore, we tend to think that they will survive, because horror has often accustomed us to the victims being one-dimensional characters. You know, making a film is long and complicated, and limiting myself to filming the killings of anonymous characters… I don’t know: it’s pointless. It’s funny, because basically, in most of my films, it’s as if the main characters had been dropped by mistake into a horror story. »
This is certainly the case with the unlucky film crew of X. Besides, why, specifically, stage the shooting of a porn film within the framework of a horror film?
“Here again, the period chosen is interesting. Because to shoot a film, you had to have contacts in Hollywood. But not to shoot a porn film: in addition to the video market which was just beginning, there were specialized cinemas. It was the same for horror, with cinemas of the type grind house. Porn films and horror films of that time are very closely linked, I find, because it was precisely possible to shoot them independently, outside of Hollywood. »
But there is more. Indeed, Ti West wanted to use the design of said butt film as a humorous engine. ” To the picture sexy and sulphurous that one can have from such a shoot, I wanted to oppose a technical reality not sexy at all, if not frankly ridiculous. For me, resorting to humor in horror goes without saying, to lighten the tension, but also to better surprise, because once relaxed, it is easier to frighten. And at the same time, it’s still the description of a shooting, and I liked the idea of showing how a film is shot, in the hope, perhaps, that this film within the film encourages the public to wear more Pay attention to some of my directing choices. »
Repressed sexuality
The juxtaposition of the filming of the porn film and the horror that is in the making also allows to explore the themes of sexual repression, bigotry and aging, in particular. For example, Pearl, the octogenarian housewife, longs for her husband Howard, who is no longer able to satisfy her. Their respective frustration turns into a homicidal impulse in the face of the casualness of these naked young people. And repressed sexuality to turn into expressed violence…
Except that, unlike the maniacs of slashers of the Reagan era, who punished the sexuality of the young characters, Pearl and Howard envy this sexuality. Pearl, in particular, seems obsessed with Maxine, the aspiring actress who wants to become famous, anyhow, at any cost.
“In many ways, Pearl and Maxine are complementary,” suggests Ti West. We will not reveal to what extent, except to say that the filmmaker made a very wise choice of distribution in the matter.
On the technical side, X is for the account the most complete film of Ti West. “Showing the shooting of a film as a narrative device forced me to think about directing like never before,” he concludes.
In short, apart from its copious nudity (men-women, young-old) and its bloody special effects, X gives a lot to see and think about.
Presented at the SxSW festival on March 13, the film X opens on March 18.