Ti West’s incredibly clever homage to the origins of the slasher genre, X, pays tribute to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho, among others, as it explores the cinematic foundations of porn, horror and art.
Horror and sex have been intrinsically linked since the creation of the motion picture. From the rampant sexuality of the vampire, as it sinks its teeth into a victim, to the sexual vulnerability of two stalked young teens making out before their murder. Sex, fear, and horror go hand in hand. The slasher sub-genre, in particular, is often viewed as being driven by sex. Here, not only is the ‘final girl’ regulary threatened by a male murderer, but she is generally a virgin who doesn’t engage in sex like the other girls who are offed in the opening hour.
Meanwhile, in the rare case of a ‘final boy‘, the young man’s sexuality is often placed under the microscope because a dominant male figure threatens him. Both porn and horror understand that fear and excitement are linked in the human brain and often converge like an exhilarating but petrifying rollercoaster ride.
Ti West’s incredibly clever homage to the origins of the slasher genre, X, pays tribute to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho, among others, as it explores the cinematic foundations of porn, horror and art. But far from being a mere blood-soaked cinematic seminar, West adds a new layer to the frame: our fear of sex and age.
If Good Luck to You, Leo Grande explored the power of rediscovering your sexual identity in older age; X demonstrates the horrors of an ageing body, the terror of losing your sexual identity and the fear of becoming sexually invisible. In West’s film, porn, sex, and pleasure are playthings of the young and the beautiful, and he isn’t wrong – look at the world of porn and moviemaking. In porn, careers are brief, and a mere wrinkle is the equivalent of a life-ending cancerous growth, while in Hollywood, youth and beauty always have and always will reign supreme.
West’s discussions on age, sexuality and horror certainly aren’t new; older people are regularly viewed as horrifying in films, from Norman Bates’ mother to the woman in the bathtub in The Shining. But West builds upon these depictions by further unpicking human fears of sex, age and sexuality in a world built upon youthful looks and ideals. Here, he asks whether the porn industry and the film industry helped create a world where people feel discarded in later life, or whether we made that world ourselves due to our obsession with youth and beauty.
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