“Don’t Fear the Reaper” plays right before a character dies, hinting at their death to the reaper but also the theme of living life to its fullest. Pearl is the individual who has the fear of regrets over not making as much use of her youth, while Maxine is the one following her dreams. The song revolves around the fear of regrets or following your dreams, with our two main characters falling into one of those two categories.
Two song choices of “Landslide” and “Don’t Fear the Reaper” play immensely into the theme of the film even though “Don’t Fear the Reaper” is foreshadowing for the death of one of the characters, its “Landslide” that contains the most importance. The concept of getting older and either letting go of the past or embracing it can also be seen within the choice of music in the film. Her desire to be an adult leads her to her unfortunate death. The character of Lorraine, portrayed by Jenna Ortega, becomes an individual shying away from her naiveness and wants to be considered an adult. This idea of getting older can be seen throughout the film, with each character representing a unique take on this theme. While Maxine wants to use her beauty for everyone to love her before she ages, Pearl wants her beauty back for at least one person to love her. Both of these characters are blindsided by how much they believe their looks impact others. Pearl exists as what a wasted life would lead Maxine to, explained by her desire to go back to her youth and change her life. These two characters contrast each other perfectly but, in the end, are one in the same. Now her husband wants nothing to do with her, and she feels completely alone.ĭespite Pearl brutally murdering our group of teens, she carries the examination of the film heavily alongside Maxine, also portrayed by Mia Goth. Pearl herself talks about how beautiful she used to be when she was younger, and all the guys wanted her. The film’s antagonist of Pearl, portrayed by Mia Goth, is an older woman who is jealous of the teens for how beautiful they are. X definitely does the latter of the two, with the majority of critics calling out how gory it is, like Peter Gray, who wrote, “A nasty-minded slasher with a wicked sense of humor and a taste for blood.” Yet, between the gore that can be described like Eli Roth’s Hostel the film poses a deep message around getting older and wanting to go back to the past. Slashers are not known for having a theme to resonate with the audience the films’ goals are always to scare you and disgust you. X combines a strong theme, classic filmmaking, and meta storytelling to make this film a love letter to the 70s slashers. With a film that boasts a 95% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes with Tim Cogshell writing, “This is really great, a throwback to those grindhouse films of, the 1970s” how exactly is X considered a love letter to the films of the 70s? How did a director known for his previous genre-bending work in V/H/S (VHS) and The House of the Devil create a film so simple yet complex in every possible way? X as a whole feels like the standard slasher where a crazed killer murders a bunch of sex-crazed teens, however, the film does that and more.
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