Nightmare Fuel / X (2022)

• The antagonists Howard and Pearl, the latter especially. She at first appears to be a senile old woman but is in reality a rabidly jealous and bitter old husk of a woman who is simultaneously jealous and lustful of the film crew (to the point of molesting them) out of frustration from losing her own youthful good looks and loss of sexual intimacy from her husband due to his weakened heart. And it's shown that this wasn't the first time that Pearl and Howard had done this if Lorraine discovering the corpse of a previous victim is any indication.
  • Even more terrifying is the implication - disregarding the prequel trailer - that Pearl and Howard have been pushed to this point by a lifetime of heartbreak and disappointment that's culminated in their living to be very physically frail, mentally infirm people. A lot of slasher villains are motivated by either pure evil or much darker impulses, but the things driving Pearl and Howard - loneliness, a need to feel loved/attractive, dissatisfaction with a life they'll never get back, sickness - are recognizably human. A dark undercurrent running through the film is the idea that anyone on the crew really could turn out like them - just like anyone in the audience could.
• When Maxine is skinny dipping in the lake near the farm, a large alligator notices her and begins to make its way towards its next meal. In an overhead shot, we see Maxine, completely oblivious to the danger she's in, slowly swimming back toward the dock as the alligator enters the frame from the right and closes in on her. You're outright begging her to get out before she's eaten, which she thankfully does.
• Lorraine discovers the corpse of a naked man chained up in Pearl's basement. This leads to her letting out a bloodcurdling scream, with the image of her face twisting in terror (see here)◊ becoming one of the most prominent images used in the film's advertising.
• The various deaths of the film crew towards the end of the film. The film doesn’t tackle this like usual slashers would after 10 or so minutes, instead taking us to the final act of the story before ruthlessly killing off its cast; if you hadn’t known what the film was about before going, you’d be given a very nasty shock.
  • RJ’s death is expected after he decides to abandon the group following him having to shoot his girlfriend Lorraine’s scene in the film against his will. As he leaves, he encounters a despondent Pearl who has again been rebuffed by Howard. After rejecting her advances, he tries to return to the car before Pearl suddenly stabs him in the neck...and keeps stabbing him over, and over, and over, and over. His corpse is not a pretty sight, to say the least, considering that his throat has essentially collapsed.
  • Wayne’s death is pretty tense, to say the least, as he’s trying to find RJ in the barn and steps on a nail in an already tense scene. Dealing with the pain, he hears a noise near the end of the barn and thinking it’s RJ goes looking in the three peepholes to find him. Whilst looking in the third, the camera rapidly zooms in on his eye as he’s stabbed with a pitchfork. It’s made worse when we get an icky shot of the pitchfork being removed from his eye.
  • Jackson’s death is similar to the two above but is lighter in execution. He has a jump scare moment like RJ when he encounters Howard whilst searching for Pearl & the two engage in an unnerving conversation, as the audience already knows the latter is in on these murders before he shoots Jackson off-screen.
  • Bobby-Lynne's death is brutal: When Pearl pushes Bobby-Lynn into the creek, a massive alligator erupts from the water and clamps its jaws around her head before driving her down. It then enacts its death roll to slice off chunks of her flesh.
  • Lorraine’s death gives the audience a very nasty jolt when watched for the first time. She is given a Hope Spot when freed by Maxine, but she explodes in anger at her, believing the crew’s actions are what led to all her misfortune at Howard’s hands. She runs outside, only to be shot in the face by Howard the second she steps on the porch. The force of the blast sends her flying, as she flips in midair before slamming on the ground, but what makes it worse is that despite us seeing (in excruciating detail) that roughly only half her face survived the shot. It doesn't kill her on impact, meaning her last moments (like her boyfriend’s) were incredibly painful.
• Howard and Pearl's deaths are pretty gruesome too, even if they had it coming. Howard's heart gives out when Lorraine twitches and gasps, giving him a nasty shock. Pearl meanwhile gets run over by Maxine using the couple's old truck after breaking her hip trying to shoot Maxine with the shotgun and getting injured by the recoil.