The best Ti West films, ranked
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Over the course of the past 20 years, Ti West has gone from a film student producing his own horror shorts to a famous director premiering his latest work at the prestigious Venice Film Festival. That's quite a trajectory. But even more remarkable is the fact that he's done all this without losing his maverick status.
West has remained loyal to the horror genre throughout his career, with only one real deviation: the 2016 throwback Western In A Valley of Violence. The keyword there is "throwback," a consistent element of West's filmography; his best and most celebrated movies have taken their inspiration from bygone eras, particularly the gritty grindhouse fare of the 1970s. He's also known for his slow-burn approach, which inevitably gives way to brutal violence and intense scares as his films wear on.
West is a distinctive and influential voice whose filmography reflects not only his personal style as a director, but also the trajectory of horror filmmaking in the 21st century. Some of this modern master of horror's experiments work better than others, and EW has ranked them from worst to best below.
10. <i>Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever</i> (2009)
West himself would probably agree with ranking Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever low on a list of his work. The director disowned the final cut of this Lionsgate-produced sequel to Eli Roth's 2002 directorial debut, saying that the final product reflected studio executives' vision more than his own.
Because West was not a member of the DGA at the time, however, his request to replace his credit with the pseudonym "Alan Smithee" was denied, and his name remains on the film. Given how nonsensical Spring Fever turned out to be, with its key setting shifting from the woods to a high school prom, West's hesitation is understandable. But the film's one saving grace — its over-the-top violence and gore — is something to be proud of.
9. <i>The Roost</i> (2005)
West shelled out for 16mm film to shoot his first feature film, which was a smart move considering that the built-in production value of celluloid elevates the look of this otherwise very silly low-budget zombie movie. With The Roost, the director understands that there's only so much that can be done with the kind of resources this movie has to work with, and this understanding of its limitations has its pluses and minuses.
On the plus side, the film never takes its story, about a group of friends trapped in a barn under siege by zombie bats, all that seriously — and that's always fun. On the negative end, however, West had yet to master the art of sustaining tension at this point in his career, and the film grinds to a halt between campy kills.
8. <i>In a Valley of Violence</i> (2016)
On paper, In A Valley of Violence should be a great film based on the cast list alone. Ethan Hawke is indeed compelling in the lead role — a classic "drifter with a mysterious past" Western archetype — as is John Travolta as the sheriff of a one-horse town whose son makes the fatal mistake of messing with Hawke's wayfaring stranger. (That's not even mentioning very good girl Jumpy, the stunt dog that dominated press coverage of the film back in 2016.)
It's clear that In A Valley of Violence was made by a horror director, given the copious blood flow once the inevitable shootouts begin. But something just doesn't click in this awkwardly edited, oddly clunky and airless film, whose flat digital photography erases whatever majesty might be gleaned from West's old-fashioned-in-a-good-way compositions and modern, mobile direction.
7. <i>Trigger Man</i> (2007)
Trigger Man was made before Ti West really broke out as an indie-horror darling, with the increased exposure (and increased budgets) that come with that kind of status. In some ways, Trigger Man plays like a dry run for The House of the Devil, starting with an everyday premise — three men go on a hunting trip in the Delaware woods — that lures the audience into a sense of calm before a horrific twist sends the film plunging into shocking violence that's worthy of a '70s grindhouse movie.
The problem with Trigger Man, though, is that it was shot using digital technology, which was still relatively primitive in 2007. As a result, the film looks washed out and pixelated, and combined with the handheld camerawork that was presumably meant to make it seem raw and real, Trigger Man comes out just looking cheap.
6. <i>The Sacrament</i> (2013)
Ever resourceful and willing to experiment, West returned to found footage with 2013's The Sacrament, a movie that puts a true-crime twist on the director's signature slow-burn style. The movie is framed as a faux-Vice documentary, which is extremely 2013. That being said, the story reaches back to November 18, 1978, the day when nearly a thousand people died after drinking poison Flavor-Aid on cultist Jim Jones' compound in the jungles of Guyana.
West changes just enough of the details to make The Sacrament legally distinguishable from the Jonestown story, but the inspiration is obvious enough to make the shocking finale a foregone conclusion for all but the most sheltered viewers. That dulls the film's edge, making The Sacrament simply interesting, and not scary.
5. <i>The Innkeepers</i> (2011)
The Innkeepers is the rare Ti West film set firmly in the present day, and over a decade later, it's fun to go back and see how the internet of 2011 compares to the internet of today. More importantly, however, The Innkeepers also delivers plenty of good old-fashioned thrills. Like most Ti West movies, the first half of this film is quieter than the second.
But this is a ghost story, a subgenre of horror where the still moments can be just as frightening as the loud ones. That's very much the case here, as West immerses the audience in the creepy supernatural aura that surrounds a failing New England hotel on its last weekend in business before dialing up the intense supernatural terror. The technology in this film may be instantly dated, but good scares are forever.
4. <i>V/H/S</i> "Second Honeymoon" (2012)
Don't think too hard about the digital logistics of Ti West's segment in the original V/H/S. It might spoil what's otherwise a pretty perfect found-footage horror short. "Second Honeymoon" cleverly marries its story — a couple played by Sophia Takal and Joe Swanberg go on vacation in Arizona in hopes of reviving their failing relationship — with its format, letting Swanberg's character's insistence on filming everything inform his bickering with Takal's.
The first-person perspective of found footage also informs the film's biggest scare, when the tape suddenly cuts to footage of Takal and Swanberg sleeping, filmed by an unknown third party. And that's not even the famous Ti West third-act twist, which we won't spoil here.
3. <i>Pearl</i> (2022)
Pearl and X are companion pieces, which makes it difficult to judge either of them as individual films. Each has different things going for them: Pearl, which delves into the bloody origin story of X's demented old lady villain, is a wackadoo character study that doesn't play by any of the genre rules that X does so well.
The film's period setting is similarly loose, which is bound to irritate the more pedantic members of the audience. But those willing to go over the rainbow with Ti West and the film's co-writer and star, Mia Goth, will find that Pearl is an intriguingly cracked vessel whose disturbed mind is reflected in the cartoonish filmmaking and brought to life by Goth's committed performance. Goth and West are a match made in Hell, and they're already making a third film together.
2. <i>X</i> (2022)
After a decade of bold but uneven experiments, X re-established Ti West as a major force in the indie-horror world. Set in the swinging '70s and centered on a group of would-be pornographers secretly filming an XXX movie on a farm owned by an uptight elderly couple. With its Texas Chainsaw Massacre influence in tow, X is a slasher movie with more on its mind than most. It also shows an unusually high level of craft for this usually disreputable sub-genre, combining experimental editing techniques and bold camerawork with grisly violence and freewheeling sex and nudity.
West's decades of experience show in how smoothly the film toggles between its various modes. And the film's cast, led by Mia Goth and Jenna Ortega, further upgrade the material. X has its bloody, transgressive cake and eats at the "elevated" table, too, which makes its uneven patches easy to forgive.
1. <i>The House of the Devil</i> (2009)
The House of the Devil is Ti West's most elegantly constructed film, taking inspiration from muted '70s proto-slasher mysteries like Black Christmas and combining them with the blunt, brutal flashes of violence seen in his early work. Set in the early '80s and starring Jocelyn Donahue as a college student desperate for cash who takes on a shady babysitting job to pay the deposit on her new apartment, this film is famous for a few things: First, a perfectly placed needle drop (The Fixx's "One Thing Leads to Another") that turns an otherwise quiet section of the movie into a spellbinding exercise in tension.
Second, a pre-fame Greta Gerwig, who co-stars in a Farrah Fawcett haircut and has a memorable on-screen death. And third, the onslaught of Satanic bloodshed toward the end of the movie, which took audiences totally by surprise. The House of the Devil is Ti West at his best, bringing together his pet aesthetic obsessions and favored filmmaking techniques to shocking, spine-tingling effect. It's no wonder this was his breakout hit.
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