Pearl

Synopsis:  1918 Texas… A crazy young woman who wants to be a star can’t control her temper.

Let’s get this out of the way right now:  Pearl, 1918 Texas farmgirl, is a psychopath. Mia Goth plays the character with a starry-eyed rosy innocence, so you think there might be some good in her. You hope. Unfortunately, she has some troubling tendencies that I will get to later.

Pearl is the prequel to X, written by director Ti West and actor Mia Goth. Both films were shot in New Zealand during the pandemic. In X, set in the 1970’s, Pearl is an old woman. A crazy old woman. How did she get that way? Pearl explains.

It’s 1918 and American soldiers are coming home after victory in the First World War. There’s also a deadly flu sweeping the globe. Pearl is a young woman with a husband, Howard, who’s been away at war. Pearl is stuck at her parents’ desolate farm with an invalid father (Matthew Sunderland) and mean mom (Tandi Wright). You’ll feel sorry for Pearl as she has so much work to do at the farm, including caring for a semi-comatose parent. The mom pinches pennies, always reminding Pearl of how destitute they are.

Pearl tries to keep her spirits up and her dream of starring in a dance movie alive. While feeding the barn animals, she dances about, doling out hay and grain. A goose enters the barn. She picks up a pitchfork. Avert your eyes!

I know that Pearl lives on a farm and all, where killing animals is part of business as usual, but I also know that harming animals is an early sign of conduct disorder in children. Scary!

At first, I felt sorry for Pearl, in the middle of nowhere, her husband gone and a mother who spits out invectives with a cold German accent. If you know a part of Germany where the accent sounds warm, I’d like to know. Anyway, her relish in killing small trusting animals repelled me. Bad stuff in real life, but I reminded myself that this was a horror movie, and this stuff happens. Still, I would rather see her savagely hoeing at a row of vegetables on the farm.

Okay, so I’m guessing this is supposed to be East Texas because in the little lake near the farm, there is a gator. Pearl has named the gator Theda after one of her matiness idols, the silent screen actress Theda Bara. Pearl likes the gator and when she approaches the water with fresh kill, she calls out “Theda!”  The gator swims to her, its powerful body cutting a quick path to Pearl.

Killing isn’t Pearl’s only hobby. She’s obsessed with movies and her dreams of stardom. Sometimes she bicycles into town, fast as a witch on a broom.  She’s supposed to be buying supplies. But her real destination is the town’s little cinema. First, she pops into the pharmacy for her father’s codeine. Inside the theater, she settles into the dark, takes a swig of dad’s liquid narcotic and enjoys the silent film. She dreams of being a follies dancer.

After the movie, the projectionist (David Corenswet) approaches her, and strikes up a conversation. Pearl doesn’t have much to say beyond breathlessly informing him that she wants to be a star. The projectionist smiles; she’s a pretty girl with a husband overseas. 

This is all early in the film, and I don’t want to give too much away, but I have to tell you about the Scarecrow… So, Pearl is bicycling home when she stops at a cornfield along the way. She walks into the field, parting stalks as she goes. I was afraid she’d get lost. But something scarier happens; she sees a scarecrow.

The figure looks crucified. An old top hat is perched upon the head that wears a very creepy plaster face mask. Pearl is intrigued. She walks to it and clambers up on a haystack to kiss it. Blech! She sets to unroping it from its post. Now she can dance with the scarecrow, just like it is a dashing gent in a ballroom. 

Okay, well, it’s weird, but what’s the harm? Then! She flings the scarecrow away from her, screaming, “I’m married!” It’s really too bad that the thing can’t rush off into the corn rows. Next… have you seen the movie Saltburn? Pearl makes like the murderous creep played by Barry Keoghan and gets all sexually depraved. Finally, to add insult to injury, she takes the figure’s top hat.  I mean, the scarecrow was just minding its own business and deserved what she did no more than the freshly tilled soil deserved human humping in Saltburn.

I was glad that Pearl didn’t live in a city. Not only would she be going after stray cats, but can you imagine what she’d do to the store mannequins? I also was thinking that once she inevitably starts killing people, at least she is pretty isolated from any others out on the farm. The only townspeople she interacts with are the projectionist (who tells her he wants to move to the big city and become a pornographer) and her sister-in-law Mitsy (Emma Jenkins-Purro).

Pearl seems glad when Mitsy arrives in a car with her mother. While the mom visits on the porch with Pearl’s mother, Mitsy and Pearl chat in the barn. Mitsy delivers the news that there will be an audition in town for a dance pageant that will be traveling across the state. Pearl is thrilled beyond measure. Not even the scene that is playing out on the porch can dim her spirits: her scowling mother harshly rejecting the foodstuffs Mitsy’s mom wants to leave. “We don’t take charity,” she spits.

All I can say is that it would be unwise of anyone to try to interfere with Pearl’s audition. 

Now, I’m sure that counseling services were nonexistent in rural areas at the time (and now too), but Pearl was fortunate that a friend visits. The friend asks her to imagine what things she will tell husband Howard when he returns. After Pearl rambles about her activities and thoughts, the stricken listener manages to eke out, “I better get going.”

Have you heard of the Macdonald Triad? In 1963, psychiatrist John Macdonald published a paper that sought to uncover predictors of murderous behavior. It was based on observations of one hundred psychiatric patients (55 men and 45 women) who had threatened to kill someone. MacDonald said that a pattern emerged. The most violent individuals had reported that, as children, they had engaged in animal cruelty, fire setting and bedwetting. Bedwetting? Okay, the first two make sense, but enuresis? MacDonald hypothesized that bedwetting into mid-childhood would make the child feel humiliated then vengeful. That’s an interesting motive for murder, I’d say. “Run everybody! Here comes Pee Pee Pants with a gun!”

Anyhow, the triad theory has essentially been debunked. Later studies demonstrated that it is rare to find all three traits documented in killers’ forensic files. However, as MacDonald stated, parental brutality against subjects as children was common. Let’s breakdown the triad…

1. Future violence to other persons is strongly correlated with animal cruelty.
2.  Persistent fire setting is more common in children and adolescents who have suffered trauma or neglect.  (Children younger than ten typically set a fire because they are curious.)
3. Bedwetting is too common to be related to violence. (Among other developmental and medical reasons, stress of abuse can lead to bedwetting.)

We see that Pearl is not to be trusted around animals and, while she does do some fire setting, we don’t learn if she has a history of bedwetting. That probably would’ve made her severe German mother angry.

On occasion, Pearl asks for answers about her failing mental health. “What’s wrong with me?” “Why don’t you like me?” But people are reluctant to be honest with her because she’s usually standing near an ax, pitchfork or killing shovel. 

Because this is a horror film, I didn’t hold out much hope that Pearl would get the mental healthcare she needs. And when Pearl puts on a long red gown and weirdly smiles at her reflection in the mirror, I knew all hope was lost. Also, because the movie’s running time was nearly up.

If you are interested in more of Pearl’s legacy, MaXXXine, is in theaters. I bet there will be a sociopath in this movie too. No word on whether they wet their bed.

P.S. There are sociopaths who are not killers. That’s the good news. The bad news is, they have a suite of traits that wouldn’t make them good friends. Traits of antisocial personality disorder include:  1) No remorse for harm they cause 2) Lying, deception, and manipulation for profit or amusement 3)Repeated physical aggression. (DSM-5) And if the potential friend is name Pearl, research them online!

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  B+

Cut to the Chase:  Too gory for me, but it’s a good psychological study. And Mia Goth is fantastic as Pearl.

Humor Highlight: When Pearl screams at the scarecrow.