Pearl: Martin Scorsese Shares Praise for Ti West’s Horror Films

Thanks to films like The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers, and The Sacrament, filmmaker Ti West has earned a passionate following in the horror community, though his acclaim has now grown to an even higher level, with legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese recently sharing his admiration for West’s latest film Pearl. Scorsese passed along his reaction to the X prequel to studio A24 Films, noting that he thought the prequel was both enthralling and disturbing, to the point that he had trouble getting to sleep, while also pointing out the deep love that West clearly has for cinema. Pearl is in theaters now.

“Ti West’s movies have a kind of energy that is so rare these days, powered by a pure, undiluted love for cinema,” Scorsese shared with A24, per /Film. “You feel it in every frame. A prequel to X made in a diametrically opposite cinematic register (think ’50s Scope color melodramas), Pearl makes for a wild, mesmerizing, deeply — and I mean deeply — disturbing 102 minutes. West and his muse and creative partner Mia Goth really know how to toy with their audience … before they plunge the knife into our chests and start twisting. I was enthralled, then disturbed, then so unsettled that I had trouble getting to sleep. But I couldn’t stop watching.”

Scorsese isn’t the only one praising the film, as Pearl currently sits at 87% positive reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. X is also faring quite well with critics, as that sits at 94% positive reviews, making it one of the best-reviewed horror movies of 2022.

A24 Films describes Pearl, “Filmmaker Ti West returns with another chapter from the twisted world of X, in this astonishing follow-up to the year’s most acclaimed horror film. Trapped on her family’s isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl finds her ambitions, temptations, and repressions all colliding in this stunning, technicolor-inspired origin story of X‘s iconic villain.”

Luckily, the world of X hasn’t concluded quite yet, as A24 confirmed just last week that a third film in the series, MaXXXine, will be moving forward and will follow Maxine (Goth) in the wake of the horrifying ordeal she survived in X.

Pearl is in theaters now while X is available on home video.

What did you think of the movie? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!