Ti West wrote X’s slasher sequel in quarantine so he could make the movies back-to-back

polygon.com:

Director Ti West’s new horror film X is a wonderful throwback to old-school slashers. It’s set in a remote cabin, features teens who are mostly doomed, and includes plenty of gruesome kills. Of course, a truly classic slasher also needs a sequel, and X’s is already on the way.

In a recent Zoom interview with Polygon, West explained how he filmed X and its sequel, Pearl, back-to-back, and how one of X’s stars is the key to making both movies work. In case you still need to catch up on the first movie before the sequel arrives, X is now available on VOD from services like Apple Movies, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video.

[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for X.]

The plan for X started with just one movie about a group of young people who rent a cabin in Texas where they plan to shoot a softcore porno. Before they can finish their movie, they end up hunted by the strange old couple who owns the property. While most of X plays out like a traditional slasher, one of its big twists is the double casting of Mia Goth as both Maxine, the porno’s lead, and Pearl, the old woman murdering every young person in sight.

“The goal was always to [double cast], but I didn’t know if I’d be able to pull that off,” West told Polygon. “But that’s a complete credit to Mia. Once I met Mia, I was like, ‘We can pull this off.’ Also WETA [Workshop] for making amazing prosthetics. We had a world class performer and a world class effects company so we were able to do it.”

Pearl will bring Goth back to play the younger version of X’s murderer. While X includes bits and pieces of the character’s backstory, Pearl will show us exactly what happened to the character in the mid-20th century to turn her into an octogenarian killer. While all of this