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

Directed by Ti West

Universal, in cinemas now

In 1918, a young woman on the brink of madness pursues stardom in a desperate attempt to escape the drudgery, isolation and lovelessness of life on her parents’ farm.

Ti West’s prequel to his 70s-set grindhouse horror movie X is a solid, entertaining American Gothic melodrama with plenty of gore, but it doesn’t have the bite (pet alligator notwithstanding) of its predecessor.

Pity poor Pearl (Mia Goth), who dreams of becoming a starlet, but is constrained by a loveless and cruel mother and having to tend to her severely disabled father. We know from the very beginning that something is not right with the girl. The delight on her face as she pitchforks an errant goose and then feeds it to a ’gator, is one of the many alarm bells that start ringing. She then quaffs her daddy’s morphine tincture while at the cinema and has simulated sex with a scarecrow.

Things come to a head when she auditions for a role in a dance troupe and doesn’t take the rejection well. As with X, the movie references or is influenced by a whole swathe of horror movies, from Eaten Alive to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Psycho and a whole bunch of other grindhouse classics.

The movie is never boring, and Goth is a force of nature as Pearl (she co-wrote the script with West). It just doesn’t feel as accomplished or shocking as X, and I can’t help feel that there’s not enough going on here to justify a whole movie – maybe it would have been better as an extended flashback in another instalment. But even as an inferior movie to its predecessor, Pearl is still great fun to watch – I look forward to seeing what we get in the upcoming third instalment, MaXXXine.

Verdict: Goth is a mesmerising presence in this tale of a young girl’s descent into murder, but ultimately it’s not a patch on X. 7/10

Nick Joy