Add two more X’s to this movie’s title, and you would be watching the exact type of movie the characters in this film are making. A porno movie shoot becomes a bloodsoaked nightmare in Ti West’s X, a new slasher flick from A24. The film opens with a detective investigating an empty house. The floors are stained in blood, and we then cut back to 24 hours earlier in a classic case of a film opening with the ending scene. This sets the stage for an original, entertaining throwback slasher right out of the ’70s and ’80s with a dark and humorous twist.

When a slasher movie is done right, it can be an incredible combination of fun and disturbing. In 2022 alone, we have already gotten slashers such as Scream and Texas Chainsaw Massacre as Hollywood has attempted to relaunch classic franchises. But an original slasher has arrived on our doorsteps, and it is pretty enjoyable. Moreover, it’s a surprisingly unique take on a genre that hinges on all of its movies having similar premises.
The thing with slashers is that they boil down to the same essential ingredients: a group of people is stalked and killed by a murderer. But X has original ideas that make the film unique. Many slashers feature a killer in a scary mask, and some will wait until the final act for the killer to take it off, revealing it was one of the main characters. However, this movie’s story is structured differently. The killers don’t wear masks, and you have a good feeling of who the killers will be from the beginning. The fact that the movie doesn’t feel the need to keep you guessing while also not needing scary masks to make the killers scary makes this movie sublime.