Peter Charney’s review published on Letterboxd:
Hooptober 9 #1 of 32
IT'S HOOPTOBER SEASON!! This is my 5th time participating in what has become one of my favorite yearly movie traditions, and Pearl was accidentally a perfect way to open considering Ti West's clear fondness for the work of Tobe Hooper, the challenge's namesake. It's pretty safe to assume that I never would've been at an opening night screening of an auteur-driven horror flick if I hadn't found a love of the genre through Hooptober. So thank you to all who participate and/or follow along!
Pearl sends us back into the pre-technicolor daze of a farm girl who dreams of dancing in the pictures. What first plays as a strangely off-kilter period piece quickly evolves into one of the most fascinating character studies of a psychopath portrayed on screen. West returns with his eye for period cinematic flair, conjuring something that closer resembles a tormented vision of The Wizard of Oz than it does a contemporary horror film; complete with a scarecrow, film projectionist, and cowardly sister-in-law.
Mia Goth carries the movie as brilliantly as any of our favorite recent horror leads and deserves every piece of additional acknowledgement as an executive producer and co-writer. While the journey feels a bit preordained compared to the slasher twists and turns of X—a natural result of a prequel whose protagonists' fate we already know—Pearl presents a much more focused narrative. It’s smaller in scale, but with far more emotional resonance that relishes in its psychological exploration of obsession, rejection, and the need to feel loved.
For Pearl, it’s this “love” that dances with madness; a delusion of grandeur, forever trapped in Oz, refusing to wake up from the dream.
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