It seems that 2022 is a big year for slashers with new installments in the Texas Chainsaw and Scream franchises. The Foo Fighters even showed up to the party with Studio 666 and though it seemed a movie for the sake of making a movie, it was slightly better than Kiss meets the Phantom of the Park. We’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews circulating around these new movies, especially from fans of tradition who want them to feel more like slashers from the 70s and 80s. If you are one of the folks that believe that the new slashers don’t have the right balance of gore, grit, disturbia, and nudity then look no further. X is the flick for you.
X follows a group of young filmmakers in 1979 who are making an adult film in Texas called The Farmers Daughter. They rent a guesthouse to film in from a guy that might have been Leatherface’s great uncle and things become problematic. I don’t want to go too far into the plot and spoil it for you, in fact, I would recommend avoiding the trailers on this one altogether. I will tell you that there is a great balance of jump scares and well-paced creepiness.
TI West does a really good job at making a story that creates expectations as he goes above and beyond the ones that we’ve pre-conceived while adding nuanced themes within the story that hit in different ways. The framing of X reminds me a bit of Rob Zombie’s work in the transitioning of shots and the look of the film but West orchestrates intensity in the unexpected details. While X is a tightly woven package, I felt like I understood these characters and I was left wanting more at the end.
We’ve talked a lot about Slashers lately and at first glance at previews X seems to be a cookie-cutter throwback but it has a bit more to offer. The cast in this film was excellent, my favorite casting being Kid Cudi! Having Kid Cudi in the film was a powerful move and should have been used more in the promotion. Brittany Snow did an excellent job in X, especially in one particular scene where she awkwardly lends a musical performance to the flow of the picture. This is not a film for everyone for obvious reasons but if you like a good gritty slasher flick then X is the film you’ve been waiting for. It’s only March but I would go as far as to say that X is the best slasher of 2022 so far.
About Nathan Conrad:
He’s best known as the Nashville-based Hip Hop/Indie Pop emcee Spoken Nerd, but this isn’t your typical rap project. He rhymes playfully at times, singing and/or rapping, juxtaposing his style with real-life situations and subject matter. Occasionally Spoken Nerd will find inspiration in films and will put it into song. With eight full-length albums into his career, the rapper has built a healthy catalog of music, which doesn’t include the number of EPs and singles released. His most recent release is the collaborative effort Grapes, with Juan Cosby.
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