what is going on to all my horror fans out there and welcome back to my channel movie files elliott
back again with a brand new a24 horror slash movie review and today we're breaking down x
which i just got back from cnn theaters and i'm so excited to share my thoughts with you on let you
know if it's worth checking out in this spoiler free review before we get into it check me out on
all my other social media accounts if you're new to the channel we are building something special
here and i want you all to be a part of it so if you love early movie reviews tv reviews and live
streams we'll come and join the community by subscribing and hitting that notification bell
as you can see on the screen now if you enjoyed this spoiler free movie review i'm going to put a
challenge to you all let's get this video to 100 plus likes and also share this review to anyone
and everyone you know that might enjoy this film but more importantly once you've seen x what did
you think about it let's talk pros and cons but let's dive a little deeper let's talk about the
direction the production who was your favorite character what was your favorite kill what were
some things that didn't work for you all and let's talk a24 in the comments i want to know top three
a24 horror films on your list let's talk about it in the comment section so jumping right into my
thoughts starting off my positives i'm a fan of ty west i like his short films his feature films he's
an actor as well i'm a fan of his and i have to say being a fan of his this is his best project
to date now i think he was able to give us i'm an a24 fan first and foremost not all their films
resonate with me and particularly in the horror realm but i always love to go into an a24 film
expecting the unexpected so i love how ty west was able to kind of play within what i love
about a24 but also giving me a full blown horror slasher all within the confines of an hour and 45
minutes which again being a fan of horror that's like the sweet spot for horror films for me he
was able to hit that spot with building characters building tension being a slasher having some style
and substance ty west did a great job in the direction i also want to give him applaud for
paying homage to the 70s and the 80s horror films and particularly texas chainsaw massacres all
up in this thing but he is able to give you his style his substance build characters and having
a great slasher film all at the same time so again i'm a fan of side west and i have to say
this is his best project to date but also let's talk about these actors here now i'm a fan of
this entire cast and i had so much fun with this cast because again being a fan of horror there's
a lot of times you watch horror films you're just like i can't wait for them to kill that character
i can't say that about this film i enjoyed this cast i think of my boy kid cudi and also his scene
partner and britney snow and i say scene partner because they're shooting the porn you know the
basic premise of this film we have a cast and crew going to a secluded farm to shoot a pornography
and let's just say they don't get the money shot that they were looking for in this film but again
i thought scott brittany snow were fantastic they brought a lot of levity to this really kind of you
know dark and scary film at times and also i think of martin harrison has wayne so much fun with that
character but those supporting casts was fantastic the two of our main leads more so jenna ortega who
is more prominently heavily involved in the second half of this film who was her agent because they
have given this girl such a great career and give her credit to she picks projects so perfectly
she's becoming one of my favorite up-and-coming actresses and just seeing her in scream this year
and now this and she's going to be in you know the adams family later this year she's so great and i
really enjoyed her character in this film lorraine who is someone that's kind of in this situation
that's an uncomfortable situation shooting porn and her thoughts on porn and her just
having this particular decision later in the film that was very surprising i'm telling you all she
is fantastic she's becoming a scream queen and i really enjoyed her but speaking of enjoyment
i have been a fan of this actress for such a long time and i love seeing her in horror i'm talking
about maya goth who plays maxine who's given two heavy loading jobs in this film uh i think
it's suspiria and i thought a lot of suspiria in this film especially with her character but
she's great she wants to be a star she wants to be a porn star but she wants you to know her name and
i really enjoy just the subtlety in her character it's all about the eyes it's all about the
movement it's about the way she carries herself which by the way i love the southern accent from
everyone this cast but again maya goth she did her thing and i'm really excited to explore a lot
more for acting sensibilities and i'll talk about something a little bit later in this review but
she was fantastic and overall the cast was great all together i want to talk about something about
this film and going back to me being a horror fan a lot of horror films they're just killing people
just to kill people and it's fun sometimes right and seeing people go down left and right but i
always appreciate a good horror film that gives you a little bit of an understanding of why the
killers are doing what they're doing and by no means i sympathize with them but i understood
why they were doing there are some plot stuff that didn't really flash out the way i wanted to when
it involves our villains but for the most part i still appreciate and applaud the fact that we
get a little understand of why they are doing what they're doing in this film which also brings me to
tackling a little bit of the story and themes this is not only a very stylized horror slasher
film but it has substance and i thought that the themes especially highlighted in the first half
we're talking about porn and i love the conversation that our characters have to say about
sex and the double standard and the perspective of sex during the late you know 70s into the
80s i enjoyed that narrative especially when you look at the horror genre and it comes to
normally sex is like a bad thing in horror films right we see the virgins being killed off or
survive in the film and the people that have sex are the ones that die first this film has its own
stance it has its own thing to say about sex and i really enjoyed what it had to say beauty is in the
eye of the beholder is something that this film brings up and uh yeah some pretty interesting uh
uh thoughts on beauty in this film that i enjoyed and being young and being lightful so i really was
surprised by how many themes and things were kind of highlight it in this film but this is a horror
film is it scary does it have good kills well i judge a horror film based on his first kill
and for me personally the first kill did not disappoint it was such a awesome first kill
it was not only stylized which by the way the production this film was fantastic the score
the cinematography all great the lighting so great but going back to that first kill it was just the
tip of the iceberg i do have preferences like i enjoyed some kills more than others i think
of my two favorite kills in this film it involves a lake which has a great call back and then also
involves the house so i'll just say those are my standouts and i thought that again if you're a
horror slasher film the kills pretty top-notch in my opinion but let's get into my criticisms here
i thought the pacing for the most part was fine it worked for me but i do think there will be people
out there that will watch this film because it's a tale of two halves the first half is building
tension building the characters building a story the second half is the more slasher elements
i think that first half i was never bored but there were moments where i wasn't fully locked in
i wasn't fully invested in the narrative i think of some scenes that could have been cut out like i
think of the the sing-along which was creatively looked cool and there's some cool cuts between
there's like a message of sex in this film from like a religious standpoint how they cut between
that and what was going on and there's like two of the same scenes going on at the same time so again
creatively the film had a lot of cool creative choices but there were moments where i wasn't
completely invested in the narrative that was going on which also brings me to i applaud the
substance with the style but there were certain things that were introduced in the
first half of the film the conversation about sex and certain things that our characters do
but then it kind of falls off and goes right into that second half which again was fun and
entertaining and bloody and gory and i love that stuff but i wish that things were fleshed out
more and i think that the script was a little lacking at points in my personal opinion again
i thought the direction was great but the he's also ty west was the right of the film
the writing wasn't all that great in certain portraits of the movie and i will point out
just small little nitpicks i mentioned the kills were great i preferred certain ones over others
there were two kills that i thought were just a little a little lacking i wish it was a little
bit more creative which also brings me to again this is a horror film so there are expected tropes
i think of jump scares which i'm not going to blame the film for you know trying to have those
elements because it got some people in my theaters but there were some tropes that were just not as
creative as others and they were a little generic and i'll just kind of say that and then lastly
going back to our villains i do feel like we get an understanding of what they're doing but it's
not as developed it was kind of underdeveloped i wish we would have learned a little bit more
about their stance of why they're doing it completely and also there's a scene with our
villains that i could have went without it was just it was a very awkward scene which i
applaud the film showing again all a's of life and beauty as i beholder but i could have went
without a certain scene and i think you'll know what i'm talking about when you see the movie so
those are kind of my main criticisms before i give you all my overall score and if it's
worth checking out if you haven't already make sure to like the review share the review comment
below and of course subscribe to the channel overall i believe tai west managed to make a
fun entertaining a24 horror film it has it's not overly sad it's not depressing it's not
pretentious but it's entertaining it's interesting it has a lot of fun elements it's a throwback to
the slashers back in the day with today's budget and the advancements and cameras and equipment
the performances were believable and fun the kills left me on the edge of my seat and i
had a good time with this film i'm gonna give x a four out of five i can't wait to revisit this film
and i will let you all know stay around to the end credits because there is a post credit scene and
let's just say i can't wait to get into this post credit scene i just kind of leave it at that which
yeah i don't want to give too much away stay in your chair to the end of this film so again
four out of five for x for me i recommend you all give it a watch and when you do let me know your
thoughts again favorite characters favorite kills what were some things that didn't work for you all
and did you stick around to the end of the film and if so are you excited let's talk about that
in the comments thank you all for watching this review again just a friendly reminder to like
share comment subscribe to the channel come and join the community let's get this video to
100 plus likes hope you all enjoyed the review hope you're staying safe as you can see on the
screen now subscribe to the channel check out my other content we'll catch you on the next video
you