“Am I the drama?” Pearl asks of herself during a lengthy third-act monologue that will surely go down as a legendary moment in film history. Yes, she is, and that’s exactly why we’re seated for director Ti West’s surprise prequel to X, his hit Texas grindhouse slasher from earlier this year. Starring Mia Goth, who co-wrote with West, Pearl is the origin story of the titular character, who is both the geriatric villain of X and the doe-eyed anti-heroine of her own story set 61 years prior, in 1918. Positioned at the end of WWI during the Spanish flu pandemic, it’s West’s deranged tribute to technicolor films of yesteryear, which expands upon its predecessor’s themes of fate and desire like you’ve never quite seen before. It’s more shocking than frightening, but if The Wizard of Oz in the vein of Lars von Trier piques your interest, you’re in for a treat.

While X’s mantra was “I will not accept a life I do not deserve” Pearl focuses on how and why the murderous elderly woman living in a rural farmhouse seemingly came to accept hers. Pearl spends her days at the beck and call of her strict German mother, resenting her husband for serving in the war overseas and damning her to such an existence. She begrudgingly helps around the farm and cares for her infirm father, whom she pokes and prods with morbid curiosity as if to wonder why he bothers to stick around. In secret, Pearl drapes herself in her mother’s finest clothes and dances, dreaming of a life in the spotlight far away from home – Europe, perhaps. The onset of the Spanish flu only enhances her suffocating isolation in a way we are all too familiar with today. When auditions for a traveling dance troupe come to town, she plans her macabre escape. It’s more of a grisly character study than a straight-up slasher, and it could use a little more tension throughout, but watching Goth transform Pearl from bratty Dorothy into a blood-stained Wicked Witch will leave you transfixed.

For all its stylish delights, Mia Goth is the one who carries Pearl to greatness. As mentioned, she co-wrote the film with West, and having such a direct influence on the trajectory of her character has made a profound impact. Pearl’s charming instability as a sympathetic psychopath with child-like rage bubbling below the surface is immediately evident. Although she cares greatly for her farm animals, she slaughters a goose for her pet gator without blinking and incredulously tells a scarecrow she’s married before simulating sex with it. Displaying both comedic and dramatic range that certainly warrants discussion during awards season, Goth lays it all out on screen. Comparisons have been made to Toni Collette in Hereditary, and hopefully, the powers that be take note and get over their genre bias.

And speaking of that A24 classic, the film’s other standout is Tandi Wright as Pearl’s mother, Ruth. Unafraid to go toe to toe with Goth, her performance culminates in a dinner table monologue that mimics Hereditary to the point of being an homage – with a twist. Fear of wasted youth is generational, as Ruth sobs through the night at her miserable existence, while Pearl looks at her mother in disgust, and in 1979 X’s Maxine looks at elderly Pearl with as much contempt.

These ideas are given levity by the sheer whimsy West’s eye brings to such a grim tale. While known for his slow-burn approach, nothing has changed here, but he maintains focus in Pearl’s meandering world with tight pacing and editing. We’re transported immediately into a bygone era via the film’s opening credits, and the presence of sex and gore only highlights what a unique and strange experience this is. West illustrates Pearl’s journey through bold and bright colors that frame the hope of the outside world, while he enriches the imprisoning farmhouse interior with deep and dark hues. Her appearance, likewise, shifts from an innocent farmgirl to a literal replication of Miss Gulch (aka the Wicked Witch), and returning glances at a decaying pig carcass further symbolizes her transition. This attention to detail does not go unnoticed, and while it’s the farthest West has strayed from typical horror fare, it is an experiment gone right.

Such a thoughtful and demented background story of an already striking character is a gift. To that end, we have New Zealand’s strict COVID-19 quarantining measures to thank, which allowed West to write Pearl while waiting to shoot X and then film them back to back – it’s his personal Lord of the Rings. We’ve been enlightened as to why Pearl would remain in that decrepit farmhouse all those years later – protecting society from her homicidal tendencies – and even why she hates blondes so much. And finally, in one wild act of absolutely extravagant camp, Goth destroys Timothée Chalamet’s Call Me By Your Name end credits game with an iconic moment of her own. There’s no place like home, but for Pearl, home is hell on earth.

Stay tuned for MaXXXine, the 1980s-set conclusion of Ti West’s trilogy.

Piggy (Cerdita) is an intense, claustrophobic coming-of-age thriller about violence, revenge, and the consequences of cruelty.

The film focuses on Sara, a teenager stuck in a small town who faces intense bullying from her schoolmates because of the size of her body. After a peaceful swim turns into a terrifying attack, Sara is confronted with a complicated, confusing choice. The story follows the ripples of her decisions as she struggles to assert herself. Some scenes cut really deep, especially for anyone who’s ever experienced bullying, and during the screening at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival, it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.

This is the debut feature film from writer-director Carlota Pereda. Her 2018 short film by the same name earned her a myriad of accolades, including a Goya award for best short fiction film. Pereda wanted to tell a story featuring a body type that we don’t usually see as a protagonist, telling Variety, “I’m just so tired of seeing the same things over and over again. I’m just really bored.” She auditioned multiple actresses to find just the right combination of pride, stubbornness, and vulnerability, eventually turning to the theater scene and casting Laura Galàn.

Galàn brings so much to the role of Sara, infusing a mix of simmering rage and abject terror into her performance. She embodies an all too human duality; she may desperately yearn to be independent, but she lacks the confidence and experience to stand up for herself. Though audiences may find it frustrating to watch Sara struggle, Galàn delivers the entire range of human emotion, making her performance nuanced, messy, and real.

Pereda added a layer of budding sexuality to Sara in the adaptation of her short film. The design of her room and wardrobe signal just how young she is, even though she bears the enormous weight of her entire town’s opinions and fears about her body. When Sara first meets someone who likes her for her, we understand the power of that feeling and how incredibly vulnerable that makes her. The camera also emphasizes that sense of vulnerability by looking down at her from a slight angle. Throughout all the terror, the camera stays on Sara in a tight 4:3 aspect ratio, giving the audience nowhere else to look but at our protagonist. We are scared when she is scared, we are angry when she is angry. We exhale when she is finally able to exhale.

A big part of what makes Piggy so scary and thrilling is how Pereda incorporates bystanders into the violence on screen. It’s the microaggressions, gossiping and throwaway comments targeted at Sara’s body and character that contribute to her indecisiveness when faced with more immediate threats, and it’s natural that she doesn’t trust any of the adults to actually help her. Though Sara’s classmates mock her ruthlessly by calling her Piggy, their parents (including Sara’s) are no better, and are often too wrapped up in their own fears and insecurities to understand the harm they cause.

Despite the brutal concept, Piggy has many moments that are uncomfortably funny. Sara is stuck in a small town where everyone knows everything, which is the last place anyone wants to be when they have a secret. She clings to whatever privacy she can get, mostly by shoving a giant pair of headphones over her ears to block out the world. This is a movie that could have been a sweet, quirky slice of life story, were it not for all the blood, violence, and murder.

Piggy never treats Sara’s body as a hindrance. In this movie, her body is able and capable. She seeks redemption not by restricting herself or by being thin but by taking a stand and fighting for her needs. The final act of Piggy is filthy, gory and brutal, but satisfying.