"It's not about what I want anymore, Mitzy. It's about making the best of what I got."
— Pearl
Pearl (also marketed as Pearl: An X-traordinary Origin Story) is a 2022 psychological thriller film co-written and directed by Ti West. It is a prequel to West's previous film X, released earlier in the same year, and was shot in secret directly after that film wrapped production. Pearl provides an origin story for the namesake character from X, the female half of that film's Evil Old Folks duo, who is again played by Mia Goth, who co-wrote this film and collaborated with West on its original story.
Set in 1918, 61 years before the events of X, Pearl is living on the same Texas ranch with her ailing wheelchair-bound father and her overbearing mother, yearning for an opportunity to get away and live a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies. When a traveling troupe comes to town looking for a new dancer, she decides to seize this chance and get the spot by any means necessary… including murder.
West began writing the script for Pearl during production on X, with both films being the first two installments in a franchise. He stated that each installment will belong to a distinct style of horror; as X reportedly took great influence from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series and the works of Mario Bava, he described Pearl as heavily inspired by the works of Douglas Sirk and the Technicolor style of films like Mary Poppins and The Wizard of Oz. West further drew contrast in the film's themes; while X revolved around a group of independent filmmakers, Pearl explores Hollywood filmmaking.
A teaser trailer for Pearl was screened directly following X’s premiere at SXSW. The film later premiered in full at 2022's Venice International Film Festival on September 3, and was released in theaters on September 16, again distributed by A24. Three days before that, Ti West and A24 announced a full sequel to X titled MaXXXine, once again starring Mia Goth as Maxine Minx (the X protagonist also portrayed by her) seeking to make it as a Hollywood actress in 1985.
Definitely NOT to be confused with the animated film of the same name.
Previews: Official trailer
This film has examples of:
- Abusive Offspring: Pearl physically abuses her disabled father, and openly rants about how she wishes he would die to his obvious terror.
- Abusive Parents: Pearl's mother is strict, domineering, and frequently verbally abusive to Pearl, and eventually slaps her during a heated argument.
- Accidental Murder: Pearl first kills when she accidentally sets her mother on fire during their fight. Pearl is visibly shocked and puts the fire out, apparently not having meant for this to happen, but afterwards she deliberately leaves her critically injured mother in the basement to die.
- Advertising by Association: The trailers market the film as "An X-traordinary Origin Story".
- Alas, Poor Villain:
- Pearl's inevitable Sanity Slippage is treated as a genuine tragedy, and the final shot of her Broken Smile as she welcomes Howard back home with the corpses of her dead family is as horrifying as it is heartbreaking.
- Ruth is abusive, controlling, and unnecessarily cruel towards her daughter, but even Pearl is horrified and remorseful after she burns her alive during a physical altercation, with her even cuddling her corpse in a moment of despair.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- It's left unclear whether Pearl purposely pushed her mother closer to the furnace to catch her clothes alight, or if she acted on blind impulse.
- It's also unclear if Mitzy actually won the part at the dance audition. She denies it at first, but when Pearl presses her, she admits it in a strained, worried tone. This could mean she did win the part and really didn't think it was a good time to tell Pearl, particularly after the extended confessions she'd heard. On the other hand, Mitzy seems sincere enough that she genuinely might not have gotten the part and only admitted she did because Pearl clearly wasn't having the truth and she had hoped playing along would then placate Pearl and let her escape with her life.
- Ambition Is Evil: Pearl’s murders are driven by a desire for stardom.
- And I Must Scream: Pearl's paralyzed father is trapped in his own body, but still very much aware of what goes on around him. As Pearl descends further into her violent tendencies, begins physically abusing him, and makes no secret of the fact that she wants him dead, he's visibly fearful around her but unable to do anything about it. He also winds up being a captive audience to his wife ranting about how much of a burden he is to her and how much she resents him for his condition and the care he requires, before she puts a knife to his throat and threatens to kill him.
- Antagonist Title: Pearl is the Villain Protagonist performing her first kills.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Ruth gives Pearl a truly epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech which lasts several minutes and ends with her demanding to know why Pearl thinks she's so above her parents and the life they've worked so hard to build. Pearl destroys her with a single-sentence response, and the confrontation turns physical immediately thereafter.Pearl: I just don't want to end up like you, is all.
- Asshole Victim: It's hard to shed a tear for Pearl's mother when she turns up dead.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Pearl kills a goose with a pitchfork before feeding it to an alligator, just because the goose had wandered into the barn and bothered her. While a farm girl could be expected to slaughter animals for food without being squeamish about it, the killing here is pointlessly cruel, wasteful, and done purely for the fun of it. She further admits to Mitzy in her final monologue that she's been killing small animals for some time.
- Bad Liar: For someone who has had to sneak as much as Pearl has, she's an absolutely terrible liar. Her lack of empathy makes it difficult for her to craft an effective lie in the first place, and then she gets lost in her fantasies and forgets the lie she was telling. This occurs most notably when she just barely convinces the Projectionist to ignore the sounds of her dying mother in the basement by playing it off as the family dog. When he inquires about the dog's name a few minutes later, Pearl had already forgotten about the lie and shoots herself in the foot by replying, "We don't have a dog."
- Big Bad Slippage: Pearl starts the film as a girl with a dream to leave behind her boring farm life and become a star, and ends the film a violent murderer who will terrorize Maxine and her friends in X.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The central thematic argument of what Pearl should do with her life gives credence to and exposes flaws within both main sides brought up — whether she should listen to the Projectionist and pursue her dreams, as you only get one shot at life and it's better to do what you want than conform with the rest of society, or heed her mother's advice and accept her life at home, since life isn't about getting what you want but rather making the most out of what you're given.
- The Projectionist's stance is true for Pearl in the sense that her dissatisfaction with her isolated, oppressive existence isn't totally unfounded, and she uses the world of cinema as an emotional escape and to allow herself to visualize what life could be beyond the farm. However, the Projectionist's stance is also detrimental for Pearl as her fixation on her dreams often enables delusions of grandeur and separates her from reality, where the heavy workload of maintaining the farmhouse is left to be shouldered exclusively by her mother.
- Ruth's stance is true in several senses: it's wise to be willing to adapt and acknowledge that the idealized life you may envision isn't the only way things could turn out, she is speaking from experience with regrets and sacrifices in prioritizing taking care of Pearl and her fathernote , and part of her want to keep Pearl on the farm is her trying to contain Pearl's dark impulses (which she refers to as "malevolence") and being concerned over what would happen if she acted on these impulses while out in the world. That being said, Ruth's stance is also detrimental because she uses her own mentality as a means to keep Pearl under her thumb and crush any chance she gets at being her own person, which not only has dreadful effects on her sanity but implies that Ruth is passing her pain down to Pearl and forcing her to inherit it.
- Broken Heel: When Mitzy sees Pearl pick up the axe and start in her direction, she runs screaming while Pearl simply walks menacingly behind her. Mitzy trips and falls to the ground (over seemingly nothing), and the amount of time she spends getting back up allows Pearl to catch up to her and attack her without changing her pace.
- Broken Smile: At the end of the film, Pearl gives a prolonged one of these to Howard after he returns home from the war and sees the nightmarish result of her murders and breakdown. She holds that smile in a long take that lasts through most of the credits, with her face straining and twisting while tears start to stream.
- Bullying a Dragon: Pearl's mother knows how dangerous Pearl is — or at least claims to — but still thinks it's a good idea to push every single one of a budding slasher's Berserk Buttons.
- Cabin Fever: Discussed. Mitzy tells Pearl that all the isolation has been enough to make one mad, and Pearl concedes.
- Call-Forward: Plenty to X.
- The trailer features the sound of Lorraine’s scream underneath the crowing of a rooster.
- One of the people Pearl auditions for explains that they’re looking for someone with "X-factor", and she steps on a white marked X on the floor to start her audition.
- The phrase "The whole world's gonna know my name" recurs a couple of times, just as it did in X.
- A man in town is also seen wearing a sandwich board that reads "I will not accept a life I do not deserve."
- Pearl absolutely hates it when she's being stared at, a quirk shared by Maxine in X.
- The Projectionist tells Pearl that adult films are going to revolutionize cinema, the same thing Wayne tells the crew in X.
- Pearl hates blondes because the audition judges were looking for a blonde girl after accumulating too many brunettes in the dance troupe.
- The wheelchair in the basement in X is shown to have belonged to Pearl's dad.
- Howard was originally a farmhand for Pearl's family, meaning the Farmer's Daughters porno's scenario in X more or less actually happened between the people who owned the farm they were filming on. Pearl also wears a milking outfit very similar to Maxine's porn costume in her scene of The Farmer's Daughters.
- During the infamous scarecrow scene, Pearl performs the same shushing gesture on the scarecrow that Maxine would later use before killing Pearl by running her over.
- When Pearl speaks with Mitzy about the results of the audition, bitterly saying that things always seem to work out for Mitzy, her voice briefly twists to sound just like it will in X when she's many decades older.
- Mitzy tells Pearl that Howard loves her and will still love her no matter what happens, or what's "wrong" with her. While it's never confirmed if Howard finds out about Pearl's murder of Mitzy, Howard is completely accepting of Pearl and continues to adore her even as they're killing multiple people brutally.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Pearl early on uses the pitchfork to kill a goose and feed it to the alligator. We almost forget about that same pitchfork as we follow Pearl pursuing her dreams and the Projectionist at the same time. We don't see it again until the Projectionist, after getting freaked out by Pearl, attempts to start his car and drive away. She promptly stabs him with it.
- We also see Ruth chopping wood with an axe and planting it in the stump just as Pearl has come back from her trip to town. Want to guess what's conveniently within hand's reach for Pearl when she begins to pursue Mitzy out of the farmhouse?
- Corrupted Character Copy: In addition to the bitter old woman that X depicted her as, Pearl is also this to two other famous characters.
- First is Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Like Dorothy, Pearl lives on a farm with her family and longs to go someplace exciting and far away. However, she decidedly lacks Dorothy's sweet nature from the start and becomes increasingly comfortable with killing people who inconvenience such plans.
- Second is Carrie White from Carrie (1976).note Both are the beautiful titular main characters of their respective stories who live under the thumb of their oppressive mothers and dream of breaking free, a dream that ends in tragedy. Mia Goth does an excellent imitation of Sissy Spacek's Texas accent, and both films even have a pivotal scene where the main character hits her Rage Breaking Point after she's humiliated on stage while dressed in a rosy color (red for Pearl, pink for Carrie) during what she hoped would be the happiest moment of her life. However, Carrie was presented as a good girl whose suffering was largely the fault of those around her, from her mother to her school's resident Alpha Bitch, and could've been accepted by her peers if not for them. Pearl, meanwhile, is presented as a psychotic, mentally disturbed young woman with an ego the size of Texas and not nearly as much of a severe Freudian Excuse who kills animals for fun and later moves up to people, making her a far more malicious villain.
- Pearl's mother Ruth, therefore, becomes a Virtuous Character Copy of Carrie's mother Margaret. While she's still presented as a jerk who's responsible for a lot of Pearl's suffering, she has a very good reason to resent her daughter, knowing that she's violently insane, kills things for fun, and is willing to do anything to achieve her dream of stardom.
- The Corrupter: Pearl is revealed to be this for Howard. Dialogue in the film reveals that Howard was an upstanding patriot who chose to fight in the war, even when he could have used his upper class influence to dodge the draft. After returning home at the end of the film, he's visibly horrified at the corpses of Pearl's parents, but since he's the other half of the Big Bad Duumvirate in X, it stands to reason that Pearl eventually eased him into the habit of killing over the intervening years.
- Denied Food as Punishment: Ruth denies Pearl supper for returning home late and eight cents short, which she claims to have used to buy some candy on the way home when she really used it to go to the picture show.
- Despair Event Horizon: Pearl is catapulted all the way over after she's rejected at the troupe audition, having a complete meltdown and returning home considerably depressed, calling herself "a failure" and "weak". Even after everything she's done up to this point, including murdering her own parents and the Projectionist, it's absolutely heartwrenching to watch.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: As has been observed many times in real life, the 1918 flu epidemic looks a lot like the COVID-19 Pandemic: people quarantining themselves at home to avoid it and wearing masks and distancing themselves from each other when they must go out in public, businesses and entertainment venues being all but empty. One of Pearl's more selfish acts was to put her mother and her already-ill father at risk by ignoring safety precautions, and Ruth orders her to quarantine in the bunkhouse to prevent them from being further exposed.
- Downer Ending: Multiple people, including Pearl's parents and Howard's sister, have been murdered by Pearl, Pearl's audition goes nowhere, and the audience knows she will never escape the farm to a more glamorous and exciting life.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Pearl's many grandiose proclamations about getting out of the farm, and her whole doomed plan with the audition. The audience knows, no matter what happens, she's not leaving and she's not going to Europe.
- Mitzy complains to Pearl about how "some people just think they're God's gift" but says that such people always get what they deserve. She also says that she hopes a particular girl doesn't get the role because of it. Pearl is very arrogant, though not to Mitzy (beyond her repeated insistence while waiting to audition that "it has to be [her]"), and is immediately turned down for the role.
- Pearl tells "Howard" (actually speaking to Mitzy) that he's a good man, he'll never stop loving Pearl, and he'll always be one. By the time of X, he's a Serial Killer just like Pearl because he never stopped loving her.
- Dramatic Thunder: A heated argument between Pearl and her mother takes place over dinner on a stormy night, with loud thunderclaps and lightning flashes punctuating the tension as it simmers and eventually escalates into a physical fight.
- Ends with a Smile: Pearl ends the movie by greeting Howard's return from the war with an enormous Broken Smile, which she then holds as the credits roll. Her smile therefore becomes increasingly strained and painful as tears start to come through...but she still doesn't lose it.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
- The Projectionist is not given any name besides his job title.
- Pearl's father isn't given a name, either.
- Fan Disservice: Mia Goth taking a bath? Quite a pleasant sight. Mia Goth taking a bath while her character’s catatonic father sits three feet away in his wheelchair? Much less pleasant.
- Foregone Conclusion:
- Try as Pearl might to become a movie star and get away from the farm, the existence of X means that her efforts are doomed to fail.
- Similarly, we know that Howard will not only survive the war but will become just as murderous as his wife.
- Foreshadowing: Arguably counts as a Rewatch Bonus - the supporting cast are credited in the order that their characters die.
- Gardening-Variety Weapon: Pearl ultimately kills the Projectionist with a pitchfork.
- Germanic Depressives: Pearl's strict, dour mother is a German immigrant, who still speaks the language around the house and speaks with a strong accent in English. Wartime prejudices against people of German descent are a minor plot point. Pearl is more like a manic depressive, suffering from violent depressive episodes in between moments of extremely optimistic mania.
- Good Is Not Dumb: How "good" Ruth is may be debatable, but she has appointed herself to contain her murderous daughter, and she is not at all fooled by Pearl's (admittedly rather weak) deceptions.
- Gory Discretion Shot: When Pearl smothers her father to death with a pillowcase, the shot zooms past the two of them and instead focuses on a birdcage in the room, at most giving us the sounds of her father struggling as he's suffocated.
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- Pearl can barely conceal her envy and resentment when she "compliments" Mitzy's dress. You can tell she was tempted to start her murder spree then and there.
- And that's before we even get to Pearl's assumption that Mitzy got the dancing part she wanted so badly. It's pretty much a given how it's going to play out when Mitzy (possibly) admits to getting the part.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: Several instances occur of the nauseating images of Pearl's thoroughly dead parents, the rotting roast pig, and Pearl dismembering Mitzy being depicted in excruciatingly close detail.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: The insane, poor Pearl has dark brown hair, while the sweet, rich Mitzy has blonde hair.
- Homage:
- The film is largely done in the style of '50s melodramas by Douglas Sirk, with its framing, acting, and Technicolor visuals.
- Going with the vintage film style, the film has several to The Wizard of Oz:
- Pearl is a lonely brunette farm girl who dreams of something more and wears blue colors and braids loosely similar to Dorothy.
- One scene focuses on an encounter with a scarecrow in a cornfield who's wearing a green shirt.
- A later scene with Pearl riding her bicycle frames her, in villainy and costume, like Miss Gulch in Oz.
- The film ends with a twisted take on "There's no place like home", as Pearl's first audition fails and she takes it as the permanent death of her dream, resigned to returning to the farm she didn't then or by the end want to live on.
- Pearl's situation also parallels Dorothy's specifically from the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the version of the story the character could have been familiar with in 1918), as there are no farmhands to be her companions and she is miserable with just her older two family members around.
- Honor Before Reason: Pearl's family has fallen on some seriously hard times, to the point where Ruth keeps track of literally every penny. However, they refuse to accept the roast pig that Howard's mother offers, something that would provide two people (and a third with seriously reduced dietary needs) with quite a few meals, because Ruth refuses to accept charity (which the pig may very well be; Mitzy lets it slip that she and her mother intend to deliver four more pigs to other families, possibly other local poor families).
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Projectionist attempts to drive away from the farm when he realizes there's something really off about Pearl, but just as he starts the car, Pearl sticks him in the torso twice with all three prongs of her pitchfork as he's about to start the car. He then tries to drive away while rapidly losing blood, but Pearl catches up to him, drags him out of the car onto the ground, and finishes him off by driving a prong from the pitchfork through his mouth.
- The Immodest Orgasm: While masturbating with a scarecrow, Pearl has one so loud that it scares an entire flock of crows out of a cornfield.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Pearl breaks down in loud, heavy wails when her rejection by the dance troupe sets in, having to be physically dragged out of the audition room, being found by Mitzy with ropes of snot coming out of her nose from crying so hard, and getting mascara stains on her face that stay for the rest of the day.
- Informed Poverty:
- Pearl and her family are supposed to be impoverished farmers, but their home contains beautiful wallpaper and furniture more appropriate for a millionaire's home. This may be an indication of how far the family has fallen with the father's sickness.
- Similarly, it makes no sense for a theater projectionist in 1918 to have his own car (it may be that he is "borrowing" a car that belongs to someone else).
- Innocently Insensitive: Mitzy genuinely doesn't seem to realize that her sister-in-law, who has fallen on seriously hard times, might not want to see her pretty new dress.
- Iris Out:
- The film irises out on the image of Pearl kissing the Projectionist in the rain and being swept away to sleep with him.
- The end credits include an agonizing 30-second-long iris, focusing solely on Pearl's face until it fades to black.
- Ironic Echo:
- In Ruth's argument with Pearl, she bluntly tells her daughter that she expects her to fail the audition and be miserable afterward, saying, "I want you to remember what it feels like, because that's how I feel every time I look at you." Ruth suffers accidental third-degree burns in the ensuing fight between them, and as Pearl keeps her in the basement to die, she repeats the line back to her.
- Ruth tells Pearl that life is not about getting what you want, but instead "making the best of what you have". Pearl repeats the line to Mitzy as she's about to kill her when Mitzy begs for her life by promising to do whatever Pearl wants. This instance wraps the line with an obviously far more sinister meaning.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Pearl's mother is strict at best and abusive at worst, but she correctly points out to Pearl that maintaining the farm with one less pair of hands, very little money, caring for a paralyzed husband, and a national environment prejudiced against German immigrants is very hard work, and that Pearl's flights of fancy aren't helpful. Not to mention that wanting Pearl to stay on the farm during a pandemic isn't ungrounded, especially seeing as her father's stroke is heavily implied to be a complication of the flu.
- Keep the Home Fires Burning: Pearl's husband, Howard, is off fighting in World War I for much of the movie, and his absence starts to take a toll. He returns at the very end to find his wife with the corpses of her parents.
- Kensington Gore: The bright red blood seen in old horror movies suitably makes a triumphant return here.
- Kick the Dog: The Judges turn Pearl down after she dances her heart out at her audition. What makes this an example is that they have her do the audition in full, only to admit that they had no intention of hiring her no matter how good her dancing was because she isn't "young and blonde".
- Lady in Red: Pearl takes a red Pimped-Out Dress out of her mother's closet for the dance audition.
- Leave the Camera Running:
- Pearl's confession to Mitzy about her resentment toward Howard, miscarrying his child, harboring feelings of alienation and loneliness, and having a history of murdering animals and people unfolds in one unbroken close-up that totals at around seven minutes in length.
- When Howard returns home, Pearl smiles to greet him and continues to do so for around three minutes while the credits roll, through which we see her face straining and tears starting to run as she struggles to maintain the smile.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: Used in the final shot of the film, with the strings of its orchestral music cue progressively getting drawn out and strained over time to a very tense, unsettling effect.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Because her husband is away at war, Pearl uses a scarecrow as a masturbatory aid while fantasizing about the Projectionist.
- The Mentally Disturbed: From the very beginning, the film establishes that something is seriously wrong with Pearl as she has no compunction murdering small animals, and this is before she graduates to people roughly halfway through. Pearl's mother is more aware of this than she lets on and states it's one of the reasons she refuses to allow Pearl to leave the farm, as she knows exactly what her daughter is capable of. In addition to her more severe symptoms, Pearl acts like a child instead of the married adult she is, and loses herself in fantasy to the point of hallucination.
- Messy Maggots: Pearl’s mother-in-law brings over a roast pig for Pearl’s family. Pearl’s mother refuses it, calling it charity. She leaves it on the porch and we see the pig infested with maggots as the film goes on.
- Morton's Fork: Mitzy is presented with one at the end of the film. After Pearl confesses to her murders in front of Mitzy, she suspects her of having won the part in the dance troupe. Mitzy initially denies it, angering Pearl, who thinks that it's Condescending Compassion and demands to hear the "truth". At this point, Mitzy is in a no-win situation. If she says she's telling the truth, it will only enrage Pearl further for "lying". If she says she won the part, it confirms Pearl's preconceived notions that Mitzy always gets what she wants. Either way, Pearl will kill her.
- Mummies at the Dinner Table: At the end of the film, Pearl seats her parents’ corpses at the dinner table.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Pearl names the farm animals after her favorite movie stars: Charlie, Mary, Francis and Theda.
- Nature Versus Nurture: Does Ruth correctly identify that there's something intrinsically wrong with Pearl, thereby necessitating her keeping Pearl within the boundaries of the farm as much as possible? Do Ruth's constant put-downs of Pearl's dreams, which at least partially stems from the former's bitterness over her own unrealised full and vibrant life, manage to infect the latter with Generational Trauma/ill thoughts, only fatal to others on top? Or is Pearl's transformation from a slightly odd young woman to a full-blown unrepentant serial killer a result of both inputs?
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: The alligator from X is still present, eating a goose, being implied to eat the Projectionist, and finally eating pieces of Mitzy's dismembered body.
- No Name Given: The Projectionist and Pearl's father are unnamed.
- Parents as People: An unusual case of an arguably abusive parent as a person. Pearl sneaks in from one of her adventures and finds Ruth sobbing inconsolably, obviously breaking under the many stresses and tragedies of her life. In a different movie, this would be the turning point that would lead to some sort of understanding and reconciliation between the two characters. But this is the prequel to a slasher film...
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: The film serves as the origin story for Pearl, the female half of the Big Bad Duumvirate from X.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ruth's interactions with Pearl consist almost entirely of these, culminating in a truly epic one that turns out to be one too many.
- Red Is Violent:
- Pearl's house has harsh red wallpaper at the stairs, which is underlined whenever Pearl does something especially violent.
- Pearl wears a bright red dress when she auditions for the troupe, kills her father beforehand, and later kills Mitzy.
- The Resenter: Pearl's mother, Ruth, forbids her daughter from pursuing her dreams partly because she's revealed to be incredibly bitter about her own life landing her as a busy farmer who has to look after her paralyzed husband and never pursue her own desires. It's pretty obvious Pearl's own resentment for younger people in X at least partially stems from her.
- Retraux: As is typical for Ti West. This time, he takes inspiration from old Hollywood, especially melodramas of the 1950s (even though it is set in the 1910s).
- Riches to Rags: The fact that Howard was one of several farmhands for Pearl's family suggests that they were quite prosperous before her father's illness.
- Rule of Symbolism: Mitzy's mother brings Ruth and Pearl a roast pig from their farm as an act of community between them, but Ruth is too stubborn to accept it and leaves it on the porch. As the film goes on, the pig rots and gets covered in maggots, representing the family's descent into murder and madness.
- Sanity Slippage: The film chronicles this process for Pearl, though it's implied from the beginning (and ultimately confirmed by her mother) she was always dangerously unstable.
- Saved by Canon: The existence of X guarantees that Howard will return safely from the war.
- Scenery Dissonance: Several of the film's gruesome kills not only happen in broad daylight, but one soaked in a bright Technicolor style.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Two fatal examples.
- The Projectionist joins Pearl for what he hopes will be a good second time. But between the rotting pig on the front porch, Pearl being callous about the disturbing sounds coming from below, Pearl getting caught in the lie about a dog she doesn't have, and her increasingly possessive and unstable behavior, the Projectionist realizes there's something really wrong with Pearl. He attempts to drive away from the farm with the intention of never having anything to do with Pearl again, but Pearl stabs him to death with her pitchfork before he can escape.
- Mitzy is likewise freaked out by Pearl's confession of having killed at least three people, which combines a Motive Rant and "The Reason You Suck" Speech directed at Howard in absentia. She also tries in vain to hightail it out of the farm, only for Pearl to cut her down with the axe.
- Self-Made Orphan: Pearl openly wishes for her parents to die and considers dumping her wheelchair-bound father in the pond with an alligator. She ends up giving her mother ultimately fatal burns and smothers her father to death as she prepares to pursue her path to stardom.
- Single Tear: Pearl's father cries one seeing her wearing Ruth's Pimped-Out Dress (one of the few times he manages to express something given his paralysis).
- Small Role, Big Impact: Played with regarding Howard, as it's not what he does with his limited screentime that leaves an impact, but rather his absence due to fighting in the war. Pearl married Howard because she was enticed by his upper-class lifestyle and saw him as her ticket to leave the farm, and thus felt betrayed when he left her to enlist in the Army. This is not an insignificant factor, either, as Pearl's monologue near the end of the film is almost ten minutes of her venting just how much Howard leaving for the war affected her.
- Smalltown Boredom: Pearl hates both the dull routine of the farm and the fact that she has to live with her parents, one of whom is a very controlling presence. She sees the audition for the dancing troupe as a potential escape (as well as a route to being famous).
- Spoiled Sweet: Mitzy comes from a privileged background and is Innocently Insensitive enough to not realize that her impoverished sister-in-law might not want to see her pretty new dress, but she is nothing but nice to Pearl in their interactions, supporting Pearl in trying out for the dance troupe even though they're competing for the one spot, and trying to comfort her when she loses.
- The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: While Pearl's father initially seems to have suffered a stroke, her mother later references his catatonia being due to a "sickness", though whether it's advanced polio, MS, or something else entirely is never made clear.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: In addition to her litany of other mental instabilities, Pearl outright hallucinates on more than occasion. First, she envisions the face of the Projectionist on the scarecrow, then envisions being rejected at the dance audition by Howard, her now-deceased parents, and the Projectionist. In the closing moments of the film, she snuggles with her mother's long-burnt remains while envisioning her still alive and singing to her.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Mitzy, Pearl's sister-in-law, is a kind young lady from a privileged background who has an amicable enough relationship with Pearl that she supports her dream to become a star, even as they're competing for the only available spot in the troupe. After Pearl is rejected, Mitzy comforts her and accompanies her back home where she lets Pearl vent her frustrations... which leads to her confessing to having already murdered three people, and brutally murdering Mitzy to keep her quiet.
- Tragic Villain:
- Building off of their portrayals in X, this film reveals exactly how and why Pearl and Howard ended up the way they did. Pearl suffered from an impoverished home life, an emotionally abusive mother, a sickly father that she and her mother struggled to take care of, and a myriad of mental health issues that only worsened due to the above factors, eventually causing her to snap. Howard, meanwhile, was away fighting in one of mankind's most horrific wars, and came back home to find that his beloved wife had murdered his sister and parents-in-law during an extended psychotic break. Not wanting Pearl to suffer any more than she already had, Howard never turned her into the police and began to enable her murderous behavior, leading to the Unholy Matrimony seen in X.
- Ruth's abuse of Pearl stems from her being Properly Paranoid of the flu pandemic during the 1910s, the stresses of having to care for her paralyzed husband, and her desire to protect the world from Pearl's dangerously unstable behavior. Unfortunately, said abuse only makes Pearl worse, which inevitably leads her daughter to snap and kill her during a physical altercation.
- Tranquil Fury: After Pearl gets Mitzy to (dubiously) confess to having been selected to the dancing troupe after her own effort failed, she maintains enough composure to play it off as if it weren't a big deal, but her dialogue makes it clear that she's very resentful. It's partly the reason she chases her down and slaughters her with an axe mere moments after.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By Mitzy telling Pearl about the upcoming church audition, she unwittingly causes Pearl to further succumb to her insanity.
- Doubled down on after she suspects Mitzy won the part.
- Villain Holds the Leash: It's revealed that the alligator from X is named Theda (after actress Theda Bera) and that Pearl has been training it for an indeterminate amount of time to eat the small animals she kills. Before the end of the movie she's graduated to feeding it human corpses.
- Virtuous Character Copy: Pearl's mother Ruth is a more reasonable version of Carrie's mother Margaret from Carrie. While she's still presented as a jerk who's responsible for a lot of Pearl's suffering, she has a very good reason to resent her daughter, knowing that she's violently insane, kills things for fun, and is willing to do anything to achieve her dream of stardom.
- Vorpal Pillow: How Pearl offs her father, though she uses the casing instead of the pillow itself.
- Weapons of Their Trade: Farmgirl Pearl uses a pitchfork and an axe as murder weapons.
- Wham Line: For Pearl herself after finishing her audition:Judge: Thank you...but it's going to be a no.
