Ian’s review published on Letterboxd:
71/100
“I'm married!”
Although I found my experience with Ti West’s first film in this now upcoming trilogy to be a rock-solid new age slasher, I still found myself not completely falling in love with it like a lot of other people had. Then, when this was announced and I saw how much different the aesthetic was for the entire film I knew that I might have a slight preference to this one and I was completely right. Pearl is a slow burning, psychological horror film that is tied together with the absolute brilliant performance from Mia Goth.
I knew instantly within the very first ten or so minutes of this film that I was going to love it. Just the entire atmosphere and look of the film gave off such an uneasy feeling since I knew something was going to unroll itself to create this character that I already know. Ti West’s ability to create such an uneasy and emotionally unsettling film is easily the best part of the film - all at the same time allowing for everything to just build and build and even though something does snap, I love how subtle it is. I heard some complaints that maybe it needed a bigger finale, but I honestly prefer how much of a small crack in sanity resulted in this ending.
Maybe I need to go back and watch X *after* watching this, but I have to admit this was a much more unsettling and interesting film to me than it’s predecessor. My naïve self was so impressed with what Ti West did with these first two films that I actually though he was a new director. Definitely feel like I need to go check out all his other stuff after seeing these two. It’s creepy, a weirdly perfect time capsule of both when it was filmed and when it takes place, and overall just a solid psychological horror film. Mia Goth is easily the center of attention - so if anything watch Pearl just for her.
