Beginning in March 2022, Ti West and Mia Goth have unfolded a decades-spanning saga with what’s commonly referred to as the “X Trilogy,” which of course kicked off with 1970s-set slasher X and continued with the 1918-set prequel Pearl and now the 1980s-set MaXXXine.
It’s of course extremely uncommon to get an entire trilogy of movies in just over two years, but what’s also incredibly unique about Ti West’s trilogy is that each film is a completely different beast altogether. The movies may not be massive box office hits but they’ve damn sure made their mark on pop culture, and they’ve even caught the attention of an all-time cinema great.
In a letter to The New York Times, Martin Scorsese has expressed his appreciation for what Ti West has been able to accomplish with the X Trilogy, and he seems particularly impressed by the way each movie in the trilogy represents “a different type of horror, related to different eras in American moviemaking.”
In Scorsese’s own words, X represents “the ’70s, the slasher era,” while Pearl represents the “’50s melodrama in vivid saturated color.” As for this year’s MaXXXine, the final installment in the trilogy reflects 1980s Hollywood, which Scorsese describes as “rancid” and “desperate.”
The three movies, Scorsese goes on to explain, collectively tell “three linked stories set within three different moments in movie culture, reflecting back on the greater culture.”
The New York Times sums up the gist of Martin Scorsese’s letter as follows, “By smuggling thoroughly modern ideas into films that were also steeped in the aesthetics of the past, Scorsese thought, West had done something bold and thoroughly cinematic.”
MaXXXine is now playing in theaters nationwide. It’s been advertised as the final installment in the Maxine/Pearl saga, but Ti West did recently tease a “weird idea” for another installment.
We’re up for it. And we’re thinking Martin Scorsese probably is too.
‘Pearl’