A24 has unveiled the first full trailer for horror prequel Pearl, the follow up to Ti West's slasher flick X – and it's predictably blood-soaked and bonkers.
In the promo, which you can watch above, Mia Goth's titular antagonist proves she'll stop at nothing to become a star and escape her humdrum country-living existence. Heck, she'd murder the whole town if it meant that she could see her name in lights just once.
"Trapped on her family's isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother," the official synopsis reads. "Lusting for a glamorous life like she's seen in the movies, Pearl' ambitions, temptations, and repressions all collide, in the stunning, technicolor-inspired origin story of X's iconic villain."
"If only they would just die," Pearl mumbles during a chat with some charming producer-type in the clip. "Pardon?" he replies, worried. "Nothing," she states, before the next scene shows her pushing her wheelchair-bound pops out to the edge of a dock, and dangles him in front of an alligator.
Elsewhere, she pitchforks a goose (and several people, by the looks of it), crushes an egg with her bare hands, fills her bathtub with animal corpses, blows someone up, gets intimate with a scarecrow, and auditions for a religious propaganda movie. You know, the usual...
David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, and Emma Jenkins-Purro round out the supporting cast.
West and Goth wrote the movie together and secretly shot it while filming X, which takes place in the 1970s and sees Goth play both aspiring porn star Maxine and wizened antagonist Pearl. The original movie looks to be set in the same location as X, only much less run down, which means viewers already know Pearl's dream of escaping her town doesn't work out. Though that shouldn't come as a shock; in X, Pearl was so bitter over Max's youth and rising stardom, she offed all of her friends before trying to kill her.
Pearl is set to release in US theaters on September 16. While we wait, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies coming our way in 2022 and beyond.
