'X' Review: Ti West Jumps Back Into Horror After Nearly A Decade With A Tribute To Texas Filmmaker Tobe Hooper

Arlington TX

21 March, 2022

8:33 AM

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By Joe Friar, Fort Worth Report March 19, 2022 It's evident that writer-director Ti West is a fan of 70s and 80s horror. In 2009 he gave us "House of the Devil" a refreshing return to fright films from three decades earlier. Now, after nine years away from the genre, he dives back in with "X" a gory tribute to Austin filmmaker Tobe Hooper and while "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is the first thing that comes to mind, it seems that West was inspired by Hooper's follow-up 1976's "Eaten Alive." "X" opens in 1979 at a Houston strip club named Bayou Burlesque situated in the middle of a group of oil and gas refineries perfect for those third-shift workers. Mia Goth plays Maxine Minx, a young stripper with stardom in her eyes. She may be the lead actress in the forthcoming porn film "The Farmer's Daughter", but Maxine aspires to be the next Lynda Carter and by the time the credits roll you'll witness some Wonder Woman-like heroism as events take a turn for the worse. There are moments that feel like we're watching a reboot of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" especially when we see Maxine with five young people traveling through rural Texas in a van. They don't pick up any hitchhikers, but they stop at a small gas station-convenience store that reminds one of the comparable joint owned by the Hardesty family. There's also an isolated country home where "X" takes place that is very déjà vu. The elderly owners of the country estate, Howard (Stephen Ure), and his wife Pearl (also played by Mia Goth under a heavy layer of makeup and prosthetics), have rented out the cabin behind their home to Maxine and her bunch, unaware that the group plans to shoot a low-budget porn film on the property. Crusty old Howard doesn't like his new tenants, but voyeuristic Pearl takes a shining to Maxine who she sees as a younger version of herself. West, surprisingly, incorporates heartbreak into the story as the audience is forced to feel empathy for the old proprietor who just wants to be loved. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.