A sharp, sleazy, and surprisingly affectionate slasher that turns a rural Texas porn shoot into a bloody meditation on youth, aging, desire, and performance. It’s especially rewarding if you like horror that is both knowingly trashy and technically polished.
X
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Horror
Thu · 1h 46m
Director: Ti West
Starring: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow
Overview
In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives.
Director
Ti West
Cast
Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, sleazy, and surprisingly affectionate slasher that turns a rural Texas porn shoot into a bloody meditation on youth, aging, desire, and performance. It’s especially rewarding if you like horror that is both knowingly trashy and technically polished.
Best for
fans of stylish slasher movies
viewers who like horror with sex, satire, and gore
people interested in 1970s grindhouse energy
audiences who enjoy character-driven genre films
fans of Ti West or Mia Goth
Skip if
you want straightforward scares over camp and commentary
you dislike explicit sexual content
you prefer restrained, realistic horror
you’re looking for a purely serious or prestige-toned thriller
Overview
X plays like a love letter to exploitation cinema that also understands why those movies worked: the tension between desire and danger, freedom and punishment, performance and voyeurism. Ti West stages the film with real control, giving the period setting a lived-in grime and letting the slasher mechanics build with patience before the violence erupts.
Worth noting
What makes it stand out is the way it treats its characters as more than disposable victims. The film is funny, horny, and mean in equal measure, but it also has a melancholy streak about aging, regret, and the terror of being replaced. That gives the bloodshed a sharper edge than the premise might suggest.
Bottom line
It won’t be for everyone, especially viewers put off by explicit sexuality or the movie’s deliberately provocative tone. But for horror fans who appreciate craft, attitude, and a strong sense of era, it’s one of the more distinctive genre entries of its year.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Karsten (3.5★) · 34995 likes
at a certain age having missionary sex with your bag of bones husband is considered a horror scene
tyler (4★) · 22957 likes
click now! horny bisexual granny is dying for young fresh meat
greg (4★) · 21186 likes
they should’ve just let granny do a scene
demi adejuyigbe · 20147 likes
This movie convinced me to never shoot porn in Texas in the 70s again
trin (4.5★) · 19335 likes
where the fuck were these bags of bones getting that speed and agility when it came to killing but couldn’t get the energy to fuck sooner
Themes
sex and desire, aging and mortality, voyeurism, performance and identity, exploitation cinema, youth versus decay, violence and survival, small-town isolation