Pearl (2022)

Pearl is a period psychological horror set in 1918 on an isolated family farm. The film follows Pearl, a young woman suffocating under the harsh, devout rule of her mother and the heavy burden of caring for her ailing, wheelchair-bound father. Obsessed with the glamour of the movies and desperate to become a dancer, she dreams of escape from drudgery, lovelessness, and the small-town life that traps her. As Pearl’s fantasies about fame and romance collide with the realities of war, pandemic, poverty, and familial repression, the picture becomes darker: frustration, desire, and violent impulses build until they boil over. This is an origin story of the villain seen in X (2022), charting the slow-burn descent from hopeful dreamer to a woman undone by rage and craving for attention. Watching Pearl you’ll experience a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere of rural isolation and period detail, punctuated by vivid, sometimes grotesque bursts of violence. The film alternates between dreamlike dance-and-movie fantasies and grim domestic reality, so expect both lyrical, theatrical moments and unsettling, brutal scenes. The central performance drives empathy and horror simultaneously: you’ll feel Pearl’s longing and pain even as her actions become increasingly transgressive. Overall, Pearl is a haunting, tragic character study that mixes melodrama and horror. It’s a slow-building, emotionally raw film that culminates in intense, memorable set-pieces—designed to leave viewers unsettled, sympathetic to a deeply damaged protagonist, and thinking about the costs of repression and the corrosive hunger for fame.

Actors: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright

Director: Ti West

Genre: Horror

76 /100 7.0 /10 7.3 /10