Pearl (I'm so disappointed)

I know, I know. You're saying, "Judy, how can you be disappointed? This was such a well-done movie! Beautifully shot, terrific acting, amazing costumes, and lots of bloody kills. What's not to like?"

Lemme tell you...

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! X AND PEARL SPOILERS AHEAD!

I loved X, the movie that came before, but to which Pearl is actually a prequel. I loved it because, to my mind, it was the story of an old woman who longed for the days when she was young and desirable. Now she was old, saggy and wrinkly and yet she still wanted to have SEX, which her husband could not provide because of his health. She was so frustrated that when a man rejected her (the first kill) she was so upset that she just had to whack him, and from that trigger came all the rest.

I've never seen the topic of geriatric sex portrayed in a horror movie, and now that I'm advancing in age (Oh my GOD I'm 63???!!!!!!) this is something that's been on my mind. I'm gonna be brutally honest here and say that I'm still extremely attracted to my hot husband and our love life is alive and well. We may need a little help from certain RXs, but the desire is NOT what is lacking, and we are still having a wonderful time, thank you very much.

So I was quite interested in the fact that, in X, we have an old woman who wants to get it on so badly that she violently kills people because she can't. Or, at least, that's what I thought. In fact, I was so convinced that this was at the core of the character Pearl- I mean, let's face it, one of the things that set her off was that all these virile young people were making a porno right under her nose-that I spouted off about how much I loved it all over Twitter. I even pontificated on a podcast, during which the young female host- who was otherwise wonderful- told me that the scene that horrified her the most in X was the scene when the old man finally does his marital duty and takes his wife for a romp in the sack.

Yes, this young woman was actually repulsed by the geriatric sex more than she was horrified by the extremely gory murders!

So, imagine my disappointment to learn in the prequel that Pearl has just been a raging serial murderer since she was a girl, and her rage in X had absolutely nothing to do with sexual frustration. Which I think is too bad, because it was a GREAT premise for a movie. But nooooooooo, Pearl has just been a wackadoodle all her life, and what she wanted is not sex but fame! I guess if you're going to look at the movie just by itself as a slasher it is very stylishly done and if your jam is blood all over your screen (I love horror, but that's not really why I watch it) then you'll absolutely love this movie. But if you were hoping that there'd be more substance to it, that you'd actually find out what makes Pearl tick and why she became a frustrated old later who needed sex so badly that she was willing to kill when she didn't get it, then you'll be disappointed.

Looking at the reviews, it seems I'm the only freakazoid who actually saw X that way, so never mind.

But at least now you know why I was disappointed.

I saw Don't Worry Darling the other day and I thought it was just plain stupid. Florence Pugh was great, but I wasn't impressed by the rest. Maybe I missed something? Please, tell me what I'm missing!

I'm headed out to see Smile now. Hopefully,

I'll have something good to write about it later!

In the meantime, I'd love to know what you think of my assessment of Pearl and how it relates to X! Leave me a comment!