I’m so happy you’re home.

Mia Goth as Pearl in PEARL (2022) dir. Ti West

I know what I've done, the bad things, terrible, awful, murderous things. I regret them now, but I liked how they felt. I wish I didn't, but I did. At first, it was only animals smaller than myself. Nothing with feelings. Nothing that could hurt me back. It felt good. Killing's easier than you think, till recently with Mama and the boy from the picture house. They were different. They were more meaningful. I hurt them so they too might know what it feels like to suffer, but poor Daddy didn't deserve that. I wish I hadn't done what I did. Mama meant well. She had a hard life. She only wanted a home to feel safe in. I can see that. I thought I hated her, but I just want to feel safe, too. Lord... I made such a mess of things. I don't know how much more I can take. I need to clean this up. All of it.

PEARL (2022) dir. Ti West

No thoughts, head empty, just Pearl end credits

PEARL 2022 | dir. Ti West

howard came home from ww1 to find out his wife is a serial killer, his sister had been brutally murdered and fed to an alligator and his wife's parents had been positioned at the dinner table all weekend at Bernie's rotting and festering with a dead pig full of maggots and. He was still dtf. King behaviour.

Now that I’ve had time to reflect on it, the thing that’s resonated with me most about Pearl is the tragedy of the mother and daughter relationship.  It seems impossible that both of them, but Pearl especially, can be so sympathetic and yet so terrifying at the same time, and it’s mostly down to Mia Goth and Tandi Wright’s incredible performances.  But at the same time, the writing is very nuanced.  The stand-out moment for me is near the end when Pearl wraps her now dead mother’s arms around her and imagines her still alive.  “Ich liebe dich,” her mother says, and Pearl repeats it.  This is the only time Pearl speaks German.  Even though her mother berates her in German frequently, Pearl only replies in English.

I’m not sure what to make of that.  Life has been made very hard for both of them by forces outside their control, and they take their frustration out on those who have less power than themselves (the mother on Pearl and Pearl on the farm animals) because there is no one else there to bear the brunt of it.  And yet they have a strong desire for connection with each other that is thwarted by their own cruelty, resulting in misery for everyone!

It reminds me a bit of the mother and daughter relationship in The Vvitch (2015).  Obviously, the two are different in that Thomasin has not actually done any of the things Katherine accuses her of while Pearl’s mother has apparently been watching her butcher their livestock and feed them to the alligator for some time.  But, the family being isolated from other people.  The mother being so hard on the daughter because she’s the only person over whom she has power who is able to stand up to the pressure of so much responsibility (until she isn’t!). The daughter wanting affirmation and affection from her mother that is never forthcoming.  Definitely food for thought!

All I really want is to be loved. I’m having such a hard time without it lately.

PEARL (2022) dir. Ti West

As much as Pearl is a bad and deeply fucked up person, the way her psycho/sociopathy is depicted and talked about feels almost sympathetic? Like during that monologue near the end, she says that she feels like she's missing something that the rest of the world has and that scares her... and how she regrets killing her parents and regrets her infidelity... Idk, in a genre saturated with villains who are only villains because they're mentally ill, seeing one that feels so humanized while still being terrifying is refreshing

Howard arriving home: O_O ...Well this isn't ideal, but I did just experience WWI so I've seen much worse then this and hey... it means I get to take over the farm earlier then expected, so there's that

Ok so Pearl and Midsommar are the only A24 horror movies I’ve seen but I really love the stark differences in morality. In Midsommar, you LOATHE these fucking characters. Josh, Mark, and Christian are just shitty people. But at the end of the movie you know that no matter how much you hated them, they didn’t deserve to die the way they did. With Pearl, it’s the exact opposite. You see that most of these supporting characters have good intentions but the second Pearl pulls out her axe/pitchfork you’re like girl noooooo stop 😂 Ah shit there she goes again lol

Setting her mom on fire was an accident, but it definitely unlocked something in her to make her kill others without remorse

Pearl (2022)

Somebody more capable than I needs to draw Pearl as a Cuphead boss. Her first stage being Old Pearl with a knife, the 2nd Pearl in her overalls with a pitchfork, and the final being emotional breakdown Pearl with an axe. And have like the background be the barn with doors closed so the doors can show their “X” braces, and have Theda and the scarecrow and Howard and her parents and farm animals in the background. I need it.

when did she rape anyone? that wasn’t in either movies, i’m confused

while we never actually see it on screen, it is heavily implied in X that she and her husband kidnap young men and women for her to have sex with and keep them locked in the basement.

hell, howard even says they do it since pearl’s sexual urges are so high and he can’t give her what she wants.

this is shown/alluded to when lorraine is in the basement and we see a naked, young man, dead and hanging from the rafters. he was most likely sa’d and tortured.

i mean, pearl even gets into bed naked while maxine is asleep and starts to practically m*lest her…

Finally getting to watch Pearl!