Ti West has made a career out of deconstructing the horror genre with films such as “The House of the Devil,” “The Innkeepers,” and “The Sacrament.” The 40 year-old writer-director made the best movie of his career in 2016, “In a Valley of Violence,” by delving into the Western genre with Ethan Hawke, John Travolta, and Taissa Farmiga
“X” is Ti West’s much-buzzed SXSW return to horror. Think “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” meets “Deep Throat.” Set in the late ‘70s, the plot has a group of young filmmakers setting out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts realize what is being shot next door, well, they’re not too happy about it.
The film crew get killed off one by one. There’s nudity, gross-out humor and a lot of neck stabbing. It’ll be very hard for you not to be repelled by the added subplot involving our elderly host’s sexual awakening, his heart can’t take it, but she wants it bad. You don’t know whether to laugh or shriek in horror.
There’s nothing original about West’s highly stylized film, it’s just a down and dirty horror jam with a good batch of jump-scares. It also bears a lot of resemblance to 1974’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” — in fact, “X” feels more like a successor to that film then the recent Netflix reboot.
In the end, “X” is what you might call a “retro slasher,” banking on its setting and cheap thrills to lure its audience into the sordid stakes. That’s all fine, as long as you accept what the film truly is and go along with the sleaze. A24 is producing, but one could have seen this be a better fit for Blumhouse. [B-]