Independent entertainment company A24 has made a name for itself as the distributor and producer of some of the best horrors in recent years. Notable examples includeRobert Eggers’The Witch, Ari Aster’sHereditaryandRose Glass’Saint Maud. These modern horrors, as per A24’s brand, are characteristically offbeat and unsettling and take on a more serious tone. That looks to change, however, with the studio’s next big project.
A recently released trailer for the simply titledXseems to keep the unsettling and swap the serious forsexy, campy, fun. This supposed change in direction has excited fans of the studio and horror alike; “In A24 we trust” they say, and wait patiently forX’s arrival. Fortunately, as the trailer reveals, this won’t be very long. In a couple of months,Xwill be here, and all questions will be answered. But for those who can’t wait, here’s everything we know about the movie so far.
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The Director
Indie filmmaker Ti West will directXwith Jacob Jaffke, Kevin Turen, Sam Levinson, and Ashley Levinson working alongside him as producers. Ti West gained a cult following from hislow-budget horrorswhich includeThe House of the Devil,The Innkeepers,andThe Sacrament, andXmarks his first movie sinceIn a Valley of Violencewhich came out in 2016. With the latter being a Western, West’s last horror movie was the aforementionedSacramentin 2013 though he has directed episodes of several horror shows in the meantime.
The Plot
The upcoming raunchy horror is set in 1979 and follows a group of adult filmmakers prepped to make a movie (titled “The Farmer’s Daughter” according to the trailer). Needing a backdrop, the group head out to rural Texas and stay at an elderly couple’s farmhouse wherestrange occurrences ensue. Neither of the hosts knows what the group are up to, and some distance is probably best based on the husband’s comment, “My wife is not well, it happens after dark.”
The sick woman does some very strange things in the trailer, from nakedly touching a sleeping member of the group to aimlessly wandering the farm fields at night. These terrifying scenes, which are reminiscent ofM. Night Shyamalan’sThe Visit, are made all the more creepy by quick cuts of blood and violence, and out-of-context dialogue between the stars: “If Daddy catches us there’s no telling what he might do,” “You don’t wanna leave do you?”
Unsurprisingly, comparisons betweenXand the moviesTexas Chainsaw MassacreandBoogie Nightsare abundant in the trailer’s YouTube comment section, with people citing the filming style and location of the first, adult subject matter of the second, and 70s setting of both. And while it does seem thatXwill be a blend of the two, knowing A24, nothing is off the table.
The Cast
The cast ofXincludes Mia Goth, Jenny Ortega, Brittany Snow, Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi), Martin Henderson, Owen Campbell and Stephen Ure. Mia Goth is a familiar face in horror, having starred in the horror mysteriesA Cure for WellnessandMarrowbone,and the horror thrillerSuspiria.Jenny Ortega, who is well known for her roles inJane the VirginandYou, has also starred in several horror movies, includingThe Babysitter: Killer Queenand, more recently,Scream(2022). Ortega will also play the titular character of Wednesday Addams in the upcoming Addams Family-inspired Netflix series. Brittany Snow is known for her roles in chick flicks such asJohn Tucker Must DieandPitch Perfect, though she is no newbie to horror herself. Snow played the lead in the 2008Prom Nightremake, and starred in the horror thrillerWould You Rather.
Scott Mescudi, also known as Kid Cudi, is an American rapper that dabbles in the acting scene. In 2011 Mescudi played the killer in Shia LaBeouf’s short slasherManiac,and he recently starred in the Netflix disaster comedyDon’t Look Upalongside A-listers Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, and more. Martin Henderson is best known for his TV roles inGrey’s Anatomyand Virgin River, though horror fans might recognize him as the actor fromThe RingandThe Strangers: Prey at Night. Owen Campbell has appeared in several thrillers, of whichSuper Dark Timeshe is best known for. And Stephen Ure portrayed two Orcs inThe Lord of the Rings, though nobody would know from his transformation.
The Studios
Xis a co-production between A24 and Bron Studios. The former reached peak weirdness late last year with its release of thefolk horror movieLamb. Directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson,Lambcenters on a childless couple living in Iceland who try — with disastrous effect — to raise a newborn human/sheep hybrid as their own. As per Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was better received by critics (86%) than general audiences (61%), and this appears to be the pattern for other A24 horrors too. It remains to be seen ifXwill change that.
Bron Studios is a media and entertainment company whose notable productions includeJoker,Queen & Slim, andBombshell. Last year, Bron producedGhostbusters: Afterlife,House of Gucci,andLicorice Pizza.No stranger to horrors, Bron also producedthe Jordan Peele-producedCandymanrebootin 2021, so it’s safe to sayXis in bloody good hands.
