Pearl Movie Timeline: How Long Before X It Takes Place (2024)

A24's horror Pearl is uncovers the origin story of Mia Goth's titular villain, but the X prequel is set many decades before the first movie in the duology. Pearl released just six months after X due to director Ti West co-writing and finalizing the prequel's script while producing X. Mia Goth is the only returning actor from the gore-filled X and plays a youthful Pearl, having previously donned prosthetics to portray an elderly version of the character in the horror film series' first installment.

2022's X is one of the most shocking horror movies released in the 2020's so far, and features some of the decade's most inventive scares. West's ambitious movie focuses on a group of young filmmakers, including Mia Goth's Maxine, who shoot an adult film on a rural Texan farm, much to the disdain of the land's two elderly owners. One of the owners, Pearl, also played by Mia Goth, is jealous of Maxine's youthful looks and brutally kills the members of her group. Pearl then delves into the backstory of Pearl, showing how she became the murderous woman the characters in X became victims of.

When Does X Take Place

X Captures The Adult Movie Culture Of The Late 1970s

Both X and Pearl could be considered period pieces due to the fact neither is set in the modern era, although the periods they're set in are decades apart and couldn't be more dissimilar (which feeds into the themes of both movies, and also is integral to the journey of Pearl as a character). Ti West's X is set in 1979, and the movie is purposely made to look as if it was shot in that time period using a more grainy style of film. The setting was a key part of the appeal of the A24 horror movie, as was the profession of the central cast of characters.

X focuses on a group of adult movie stars and filmmakers who rent out a barn on the farm of Pearl and her husband, Howard, in rural Texas. The adult film industry was experiencing a boom in the late 1970s, and this context plays into X significantly. Through skillfully written dialogue, the characters discuss much that made the era so significant, including the rising prevalence of certain narcotics, misconceptions about female sexuality, and the prevalence of blatant racism at the time.

The decade is also key to the horror aspects of X. Modern horror movies have to contend with the existence of technology like cellphones and social media, both of which means characters have plenty of ways to seek outside assistance when under threat. By being set in the 1970s X manages to sidestep these problems, making for a much more terrifying experience. What's more, the sexual liberation of the era in general makes an essential backdrop for Pearl's return to murder after the events shown in the prequel, as the era she grew up in couldn't have been more repressed by comparison.

What Year Pearl Is Set In

Pearl Takes Place During The First World War

With Pearl being an origin story of X's villain, it was, of course, set before X, though it was many, many decades earlier. The prequel focused on Pearl in her twenties (the older version of Pearl in X is around 80 years old). Pearl takes place in 1918, when America was still in the grips of the First World War, which is where Pearl's husband Howard is throughout most of the X prequel.

The World War I backdrop doesn't play a significant part in Pearl's killer backstory. Of greater importance is that Pearl is stuck on the farm with her German parents, who have incredibly conservative views even for the early 20th century. The farm is the same one she and Howard own in X, and the prequel shows how it came into their possession following the grizzly death of Pearl's parents.

Pearl focuses on how Mia Goth's aspiring young actress turns into a murderer, meaning it has clear parallels to X and explains Pearl's motivations for her massacre of Maxine's group in 1979. Pearl ends up killing her parents so that she can pursue her dream of becoming a movie star, but on her journey, she stumbles into the adult film industry, just like Maxine in X. Pearl inevitably survives the prequel, as she becomes X’s main killer 60 years later, but, despite being a villain, she ends up also being an incredibly sympathetic character.

When Will MaXXXine Take Place

The Third Movie In Ti West's Trilogy Explores The 1980s

2024 will see the arrival of the next installment in Ti West and Mia Goth's trilogy, titled MaXXXine. Unlike Pearl, MaXXXine will be a direct sequel to X. Pearl has been seen in the trailer and presumably will appear through flashbacks only, but Mia Goth's other character in X, Maxine, will be a central character. There was some speculation over when MaXXXine would take place, with some theorizing it would be another prequel given the number of decades that take place between X and Pearl. While there will be a time-jump between X and MaXXXine, it will be in the other direction and won't be anywhere near as large.

MaXXXine is confirmed to take place in 1985, six years after the events of X. From the trailer it's already clear that the decade will factor into the tone and feel of the movie significantly. Just like the conservative repression of the 1910s and the narcotics-fueled debauchery of the unregulated adult movie industry in the 1970s, the 1980s were also a decade that saw many changes and had unique contextual obstacles an actress like Mia Goth's Maxine would have to face.

What's more, the 1980s were a period that saw an incredibly high number of active serial killers in the U.S., and this will be a key part of the plot of MaXXXine. After surviving the murderous impulses of Pearl, Maxine finds herself the target of L.A. serial killer the Night Stalker. Little else has been revealed about the story, but it's already clear that MaXXXine will be a movie that leans heavily into its timeline just as X and Pearl did before it.

4/10

Pearl

R

Pearl, a prequel to the film X, follows the story of a young woman named Pearl residing on a secluded farm during the early 20th century. Directed by Ti West, this psychological horror explores Pearl's descent into madness, delving into her troubled psyche and the haunting circumstances that surround her. Starring Mia Goth, the film provides a chilling backdrop and a character study of ambition and isolation gone awry.

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Director

Ti West

Release Date

September 16, 2022

Studio(s)

A24

Writers

Ti West , Mia Goth

Cast

Mia Goth , David Corenswet , Tandi Wright , Matthew Sunderland , Emma Jenkins-Purro

Runtime

102 minutes