Pearl (2022), directed by Ti West and co-written with Mia Goth, is a mesmerizing and twisted psychological horror film that stands as both a prequel to West’s earlier film X (2022) and a disturbing character study of obsession, ambition, and the price of fame. Set in 1918, Pearl tells the origin story of the titular character, a young woman whose dreams of stardom and escape from her isolated farm life lead her down a path of madness and violent destruction. With a stunning performance from Mia Goth, who plays the titular role, Pearl is a visually striking and unsettling exploration of desire and delusion, one that pushes the boundaries of horror and blends genre with a deeper, almost operatic emotional intensity.

The film begins during the closing days of World War I, in a rural American farmhouse where Pearl (Mia Goth) lives with her ailing, overbearing mother Ruth (Tandi Wright) and her paralyzed father (Matthew Sunderland). Pearl is a young woman who is desperate to escape the confines of her life on the farm, dreaming of becoming a famous dancer in Hollywood and escaping the stifling constraints of her family and her small-town existence. She is passionate, ambitious, and full of youthful energy, but the oppressive forces around her—especially her controlling and harsh mother—seem determined to crush her dreams at every turn.

Pearl’s longing for a different life is made all the more urgent by the fact that she lives in a world recovering from the Great War and dealing with the aftermath of societal upheaval. She wants fame, she wants beauty, and she wants to be adored, but these desires begin to fester into something darker and more violent when she meets a traveling projectionist (David Corenswet) who comes to town to show a movie at the local theater. The projectionist offers her the potential for escape, and Pearl is consumed by the idea of being discovered, of moving far away from her stifling life and the burden of caring for her mother.