Pearl leads a lonely life in her isolated family farm, where she must care for her seriously ill father under the watchful eye of her domineering, pious mother. But the young woman aspires to a life of glamour, like in the movies. Her ambitions, temptations, and own repressions come crashing down in this deliciously evil story that reveals the origins of the iconic character from the movie X. Pearl is the second film in Ti West’s X trilogy, which centres on the extraordinarily brilliant Mia Goth.

By choosing to explore the life of his previous film’s heroine, West can fully invest early 20th century America and pay vibrant homage to it through sumptuous Technicolor. The screen’s colours contrast with the harsh reality of the pursuit of the American dream when one’s goals turn out to be a lot less easy to reach than initially thought. Which makes Pearl’s slow descent into madness all the more horrifying and believable.

Often acting as editor, writer, and director, Ti West enjoys a comfortable place among the most prolific US genre filmmakers since the early 2000s. While he takes inspiration from legends such as Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper, Ti West has become a household name himself, sometimes joining forces with directors of all backgrounds for anthology horror film projects that have gone down in the genre’s history.