'X’ Director Ti West Is Making the Most Shocking Horror Trilogy… Maybe, Ever

Here at Men’s Health we’re all about feeling alive. And is there any genre of entertainment that helps anyone feel more alive than the one where the threat of someone being knocked off is always right in front of you? We love horror, and we’re celebrating it this year with MH Horror Week. The following story is part of a collection we’ve curated celebrating some of our favorite films, TV shows, filmmakers, and performers in the genre. We hope you enjoy—and maybe find a few new scares along the way too.

You can find all of our MH Horror Week 2022 coverage right here.

WHEN WRITER AND DIRECTOR TI WEST made a movie in 2013 called The Sacrament, his crew built an entire community. There were (fake) homes, hospitals, pavilions, and offices, and the world they created was populated, for 12 hours a day for a full month of filming, with actors and extras everywhere. Sure, it wasn't real, but it certainly seemed like it. It felt weird, then, that upon finishing the movie—where for weeks he'd just seen people eating, and hanging up laundry, and generally just living—the entire set was torn down and sold off as lumber.

This experience stuck with West well into production on X, an A24-produced, Texas Chain Saw Massacre-inspired slasher about the making of an adult film that was his first feature film in six years. The movie was filmed in New Zealand during peak COVID, and the set underwent a similar transformation—X doesn't take place in New Zealand, but rather Texas. And to really sell it, the crew built a barn, a bunkhouse, and generally created a farm and settings that looked like, well, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But filming in New Zealand, at a time when, essentially, movies weren't being made anywhere else in the world, set the lightbulb above West's head off. Why tear this set down when he could use it again?

There was one big problem: he didn't want to just make a sequel to X right away. Not to spoil anything that happens in the movie, but you know how slashers go. "I don't want, just, more people to go to a farm and get killed," he remembers thinking. "So what would it be?" He started talking ideas with his lead, actress Mia Goth, who plays the dual roles of the hero, Maxine, and the villain, Pearl, about where things could go from there. That's when the idea of a prequel—and the genesis of Pearl, an origin story focusing on X's geriatric villain—came up.

He started talking with A24, who didn't quite get it at first. They were supportive of expanding on X, but at first suggested that West and the crew come home, wait out to see if the movie worked, and then later return to do the synthy, neon, '80s-set sequel to follow-up on X's gritty '70s vibe. But West started thinking even bigger—he did have an idea for a sequel, but it would only work if he made Pearl, the prequel first. A tough sell, but he managed to pull it off with an easy hook: a Back to the Future reference. "We have to go back into the Biff Tannen timeline, and fix it, before we can go forward to make the '80s movie that you're imagining," he told them.

A24 was in. West worked closely with Goth to make sure Pearl had a solid script, and three weeks after production wrapped on X, it began on Pearl—no set teardown necessary.

Fast forward to October 2022, and West and A24 have teamed up to make two of the year's best-reviewed horror films—and without question the most unexpected trilogy/franchise in horror movie history. 2022 saw the conclusion to 40 years of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode drama with Halloween Ends, but for horror fans—who love to see their favorite genre immersed with fresh ideas and new life—the trilogy closer to keep an eye on is West's next: MaXXXine, which is currently in production and will hit theaters at some point in 2023.

We spoke with the busy writer/director about his experience making both X and Pearl (which will be available on digital and VOD platforms on October 25), fitting the pieces of this ambitious puzzle together, and why the fun part of this trilogy (and the upcoming MaXXXine) is keeping it all a big secret.

MEN'S HEALTH: What keeps drawing you back to horror over and over?

Ti West: As a filmmaker, what's cool about horror is you're not really as confined as you are in other genres. Like, if you're making a straight drama, or a romantic comedy, without the concept of the romantic comedy being really crazy, you have to stick somewhat in reality. And if you go too far outside of the visual norms, it will bump the story and be weird. Whereas in horror, you really can do anything. It's like a borderline experimental film genre. So, you can have a plot that motors along and all that, but you can get as as realistic or as unrealistic as you want.

How about as a fan growing up? Do you remember a pinpoint moment when you first realized, Wow, I really love horror movies?

Growing up, for me, movies were mostly from the video store. And so that was always the section that had the best, most interesting box covers. And it was almost like you were dared to watch the movies. And that may make some people just turn away from them, but that made me lean in. And I was always interested—what's the thing I'm not supposed to see? And why am I not supposed to see it? And what is the thing that's supposed to be so intense that you can't handle? I want to know what that's all about.

Those sort of extremes of what movies could offer... there was something appealing to me about the taboo nature of that.

Let's talk about X and Pearl. These movies are of a piece with one another—to the point where there's a line in X—where Pearl says something along the lines of "You know I don't like blondes"—that only makes sense after seeing Pearl.

Right. It's a long way to go for a blonde joke.

Did you always know that was going to fit together like that? Is there anything else along those lines that no one has really caught yet?

The big pitch for A24 doing Pearl was like, it's already enough that I'm asking you to make this movie. But even worse, I need you to say OK before we start X, because then I can put all this stuff in there. And it will be better than if we don't do that. And so I just kept coming, like, I'm back with another awful ask, but but like, you know, come on.

And so, yes, I knew it beforehand. I had written the script before we even filmed X. I can't remember if the blonde thing that she says was in X prior to getting to New Zealand, because it's all a blur. That probably was in there. And then I probably retrofitted that into Pearl. If I remember correctly, when I wrote the Mitzy [Pearl's sister-in-law who is, you guessed it, blonde] thing, I was like, I'm going to make her blonde, because I know where I'm going with this. And it was really helpful, because I knew we were making it before.

As far as things people have not seen, I mean, her father's wheelchair is in X. That blonde reference is there. It's very hard to hear, but on the radio they talk about the 65th anniversary of the dance auditions on the radio in the car. Her bike is next to the barn. I made an effort to try to make it really rich, so that when you keep watching, you keep discovering new things.

All of your films to this point have been standalone, one-off films. Was there any part of you that was questioning yourself as you felt a two or three movie idea coming together?

No, because when I was thinking if we could make a sequel, I was just bored to death by the idea from the beginning. So that caused me to think of it as a prequel, which then made it a standalone movie. And it makes all three of them standalone movies. They are enriched by one another, and there are some things that will be slightly better or slightly more informed if you've seen the other ones, but if you see Pearl and haven't seen X, you're fine.

And if you see it in a different order from one another, it's fine, and vice versa. Same thing with MaXXXine. Like, there's a couple of things in MaXXXine that's like, it might be a little better if you know certain things, but if you didn't know them, you'd figure it out, or the movie would eventually inform you on it. The connective tissue is the thematic elements and the cinematic elements. That was always the goal of the world.

I know X was very clearly influenced by Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I saw that you referred to Pearl as like a demented Disney movie. But in terms of planning a series of films that fit together, was there anything that inspired you there?

Yeah, I mean, MaXXXine—and I'm not going to go into it too much, because the joy of these movies has been keeping them a secret—is as different from X as Pearl is from X. It's nothing like Pearl, but it's a big, like, Oh shit, this is a different thing.

And that's what was fun about doing it. There's a way to make different kinds of movies that are still related to this world, because the world, if you will, is like the cinema of them. Yes, the themes of acting, and show business, and aging, and all these sorts of things like that, is throughout all three of them. But so is the filmmaking aspect, like, you feel the filmmaking that I am bringing to the movie, but you also feel that filmmaking is affecting these characters in the movie. And it does that in MaXXXine as well—it just does it in a very different way.

You've collaborated super closely with Mia Goth on these three films. How integral has that been?

Much like with A24, there would be no three movies without Mia. I met Mia to play Maxine, and I suggested the idea of her playing both, and she'd really leapt at that opportunity. And then once the idea for Pearl came along, the reason I wanted to collaborate her from the conception on that is because she was Pearl.

Without her, there is no movie, if she doesn't say in New Zealand to do it, there's no movie to be made. I can't put somebody else in it, and if I'm going to put her in it, and I haven't even written yet, and she's playing Pearl, we should just from the conception figure this out together.

And then the evolution that goes into MaXXXine—I mean, now I know her so well. And we have this rhythm going, but we're changing it up, and MaXXXine is a different kind of evolution of that character. And it'll just be fun to get to see her do something else, again, within this sort of world.

I knew from meeting Mia, I was just like, A) she's perfect for this movie and B) I can't believe someone hasn't given her this lead role before me. We get along really well, and it's a really easy collaboration. And that's key for doing something that's going to turn into basically four years of our lives.

I felt like the the deaths in X, and in Pearl for that matter, were very unique and inventive. I would say if there's anything that's analogous to, like, Freddy's claws or Jason's machete, is Pearl's alligators. Where did that idea come from?

It came from, because they're in the South Texas, Galveston kind of area, that there are alligators. I don't remember why I ever thought of a movie that there were going to be alligators in. But I did. And then once I thought of that, I knew that the mural on the strip club was going to have an alligator, and it was very much because it was set in this South Texas, Bayou-y area.

And I think also it probably just came from wanting to make something that really celebrated the craft of filmmaking, and then, more idiosyncratically, celebrated horror filmmaking. And so there were all different kinds of horror things in the movie, and this sort of creature element, the Jaws type of element, was just one more way to lean in. The goal with X was to make you think about filmmaking, and think about horror filmmaking, and hopefully just be like, pumped. And so having a monster/alligator kind of thing, that that just felt like, well, we have to service this somewhere in there.

Another scene I loved in X, and it's it's rare to have a more quiet scene in a slasher, but I love the "Landslide" scene in the middle of the movie. Were you always going to include that as a sort of a "calm before the storm" moment?

It was always in there, and it was always meant to be the sort of transitional scene in the movie. And Brittany nailed it. It was a very hard scene to put together, because of the momentum of the editing and all that.

As you said—slasher movies don't usually stop for a "Landslide" performance. And so getting it right, I remember, like right down to the very end, while editing, was kind of driving me crazy. Because it was also the kind of scene that people were skeptical that it would work. Not in a negative way, but it was sort of like, well, if that doesn't work, we'll just bail on it.

I was very adamant, like, No, this is going to be a real, identifiable feature of the movie. And so it caused me a lot of sleepless nights trying to get it just right. But it's become, for a lot of people, their favorite part of the movie. So I feel like the hard work was worth it. But [Brittany Snow] does most of the heavy lifting there.

You've explored a lot of different subgenres of horror. X is a slasher. We talked about Pearl as the demented Disney movie. Innkeepers is a ghost movie, House of the Devil is a cult movie. Is there any subgenre of horror you haven't gotten to explore that you want to?

Yeah, there's a few. MaXXXine will scratch one of those itches, for sure. I mean, I've never made an alien movie, or a vampire movie, or a Werewolf movie. There's plenty of things that I haven't that haven't done. I will say, MaXXXine has neither vampires nor werewolves in it, or aliens.

But it's different. Pearl is a really different movie from X, and MaXXXine is a really different movie from X also. It'll track, and as Part 3, having seen Pearl helps, because you're now prepared. Everyone had to adjust with Pearl, being like, Whoa, it's really different. And so when you go into MaXXXine, now you're like, I'm prepared for it potentially being really different.

You've built your own original through line with these characters of Pearl and Maxine. Would you ever want to take on an existing horror character?

I don't think so. I think for me, starting from scratch and making it up myself... I prefer that. Never say never, of course, like, who knows?

But to jump into another pre-existing franchise kind of thing is like, I'm not really sure why. And maybe there's a reason why, and then maybe we would talk years from now, and here I am, going, well, here's the reason why.

But for now, I mean, the most compelling reason, and I don't mean this for me personally, but it would be because it's an enormous financial opportunity, not just for the budget of the movie but for everything. I mean, you could go into a well known franchise and have the biggest movie in the world. Right now, Halloween Ends is the #1 movie in the world. That's an intoxicating opportunity to be a part of. But from a creative aspect during that time, it's like, what could you bring to it that would make it worth getting up at 4 a.m. every day for 12 hours and going through the trauma of making the movie. And there may be an answer there, but at this point in my life, I have yet to find a situation where that's something I want to do. But being a part of something that's that massive is not lost on me. That's very cool. But if I could find a way to just as a grunt, keep working along and do it myself, that to me, is just more satisfying creatively.

Scratch those same itches in your own way.

Yeah. But I mean, you never know. Like I said, maybe years from now we'll be talking and I'll have the Freddy Krueger glove on, or the Michael Myers mask, and I'll be like I've figured it out! I figured out how to do it.

I know you're playing it pretty close to the vest with MaXXXine, but what more can you tell us? Do you have any idea when we might be able to see it?

Yeah, but that's no fun. Kind of the fun thing about this surprise trilogy of movies is that we've kept it a secret. And in 2022, very little is kept secret about movies. I mean, you know everything about the movies, and the trailers show everything about movies.

It's fun to be able to not only make these three movies, but if I was a fan, and someone else was making these two movies, and there was a third one coming, and I know what the third movie is, I think the less you know, the better. It'll preserve the experience, and the experience of these three movies is the goal. I can certainly say seeing the movie and knowing very little will be more satisfying than hearing a tidbit about a plot or something.

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