The 10 Best Kills in Ti West’s ‘X’ Trilogy, Ranked
Ti West’s X trilogy has some of the violent and terrifying kills in the genre. Ranked below are the best 10 kills in all three films.
Ti West established himself as a horror auteur with the massive success of the X film series. The writer-director’s immense love for the film and the genre is reflected in all three movies, paying homage to cinema from a bygone era in each. X (2022) evokes grindhouse and exploitation films of the 1970s, while completely turning classic tropes on their head. The twisted tribute to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) was shot with special lenses and light fixtures to mimic the grainy 16mm film look of the time. The vibrantly explosive Pearl (2022) took inspiration from The Wizard of Oz (1939), with Pearl drawing a parallel to Judy Garland’s Dorothy. The origin story of the iconic villainess was made to look like it was shot on three-strip Technicolor. MaXXXine is a rich love letter to Giallo films and 1980s B-movies that delivers on style.
Mia Goth, who co-wrote Pearl with West, gives an electric dual performance in the trilogy as Maxine Minx and Pearl Douglas, cementing herself not only as one of horror’s biggest stars, but one of Hollywood’s most powerful forces. In X, she brings to life a strong final girl who owns her sexuality and saves herself in the end, while also portraying a bitter, old woman who goes on a killing spree. The monologue she delivers in Pearl is one for the ages, mesmerizing the audience as we watch her go through a chilling range of emotions. MaXXXine sees the lengths a determined Maxine will go to in order to grasp the stardom that’s so near within her reach.
The film series has become a fan favorite among the horror community, not only for its stunning aesthetic, profound themes, and strong acting, but also for its savage kills. All three pictures have murder galore, some more brutal than others. Below are the 10 best kills in the franchise, ranked (with hopefully more to come)
10. Ruth (Tandi Wright), Pearl (2022)
The death of her mother was a major turning point in Pearl’s life. It’s the first human life Pearl takes, albeit unintentionally. Ruth may rule over her daughter with an iron fist, but below the surface, she’s terrified of Pearl. As she points out before their heated argument, she sees the things Pearl does when she thinks no one’s watching. “You can’t keep your true self hidden forever,” she says, warning Pearl that people will fear her, which turns out to be prophetic. Ruth’s aware her daughter has an affinity for causing pain to living creatures, and fears the day Pearl will cause great harm to another person. Keeping her confined to the farm was Ruth’s way of protecting others from Pearl.
Highlighting the complexity of their relationship, their blow-out is one of the most passionate, dramatic scenes in the trilogy, driven by a powerful performance between Goth and Wright. Things turn physical, leading to Ruth’s dress catching on fire. Pearl instinctively douses her mother with boiling water, and drags her into the basement, where she’s left to suffer a slow, painful death until the end of the film. Pearl wrestles with the remorse and pleasure of watching her mother suffer. Before heading to her audition, she tells an agonizing Ruth, “I want you to remember what it feels like. ‘Cause that’s how I felt every time you looked at me,” mirroring an earlier statement by Ruth, and kicking her body back down the stairs. In the end, Pearl wraps her mother’s lifeless arms around her and imagines her still alive telling her the words she always wanted to hear from her: “I love you.”
9. Wayne Gilroy (Martin Henderson), X (2022)
The optimistic producer of The Farmer’s Daughters foreshadows his own death earlier in the film when talking to the cameraman and director, RJ (Owen Campbell), about the cinematic quality of their elevated porno and its imminent success: “Whatever you’re doin’, you keep doin’ it. People’s eyes are gonna pop out of their damn skulls when they see this. We’re gonna be rich! Feel how hard my cock is!” Wayne is willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill the potential of their production and make it in the industry, so he sees the advantage of having RJ’s mousy girlfriend, Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), step in front of the camera.
After RJ has a meltdown and leaves, Wayne goes looking for him barefoot. Searching the nearby empty barn, he steps directly on a nail, leaving him bloodied and limping. When he hears a noise outside, he peeks through a hole in the wall to take a closer look, the camera zooming in on his eye, building tension. As a horror fan, you know what’s about to happen…and in goes a pitchfork prong jammed into each eyeball. Poor Wayne never saw it coming!
8. Bobby-Lynne Parker (Brittany Snow), X (2022)
When the audience first meets the vivacious Bobby-Lynne, she’s walking out of the strip club with a painted mural of an alligator tugging on a blonde’s underwear, foreshadowing her bone-crunching demise. There’s a lot of tension built up around her death. Maxine wakes up hysterically screaming after waking up to a decrepit Pearl molesting her in bed, awakening Bobby-Lynne. Realizing her boyfriend and costar, Jackson Hole (Kid Cudi), is missing, she goes outside to look for him and finds a seemingly confused Pearl on the dock. Bobby-Lynne tries to get the old woman to step away from the water, comforting her, and wrapping her blanket around her.
Like another blonde in Pearl’s life, Bobby-Lynne’s act of kindness would lead to a vicious fate. Pearl clearly doesn’t want her help, slaps Bobby-Lynne and calls her a wh*re, resentful of her youth and the fact that she gets to “have it all.” An angered Bobby-Lynne tells “the mean old ugly b*tch” to move out her way, and in response Pearl pushes her into the water. “B*tch,” grunts Pearl, right before Theda clamps her teeth on Bobby-Lynne’s skull, robbing the horror genre of one of the greatest should-have-been final girls.
7. The Projectionist (David Corenswet), Pearl (2022)
Lonely Pearl finds someone to talk to in the handsome, kindly projectionist who takes a liking to her. With him, she can express herself freely. For the first time in her life, someone makes her feel like her dreams are possible. The unnamed projectionist is the only person who has ever taken real interest in her desires. The relationship between the two turns sexual when Pearl turns to him for comfort after the big blow-out that led to her mother’s eventual death.
Soon after, he makes the mistake of disappointing Pearl. After encouraging her dreams of escape, Pearl deludes herself into believing he’ll take her to Europe with him. Accurately sensing something is amiss at the farmhouse—and off about Pearl—he goes cold on her. Feeling used and heartbroken, Pearl goes on a rage, validating his suspicions. As he’s about to drive away, she stabs him in the torso with a pitchfork. Pearl drags him out the car still alive and drives the farm tool into his mouth, letting out a guttural scream as she violently puts an end to his life. “Au revoir, Poor Johnny,” yells Pearl in one of the most iconic lines, referencing the recurring “Oui Oui Marie” as she dumps his car and corpse into the lake. It would be the first victim and vehicle of many.
6. RJ Nichols (Owen Campell), X (2022)
When RJ’s girlfriend decides to take part in an impromptu scene in front of the camera, he completely spirals, exposing his hypocrisy and misogyny. After taking a self-pity shower, he angrily decides to take the van and abandon the group, blasting Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” as he takes off. Before making it out the driveway, a seemingly vulnerable Pearl emerges in the headlights.
He gets out to help her. To his surprise, the elderly woman tries to seduce him. His rejection and obvious disgust enrage a touch-starved Pearl, who viciously jams a knife into his neck, sending him tumbling into the dirt, where she straddles him and repeatedly stabs him with surprising force. She looks ecstatic—almost orgasmic—as she quenches her bloodlust. The budding auteur’s blood covers the headlights, re-lighting the scene with a gorgeous red-tinged glow. It’s simple, but one of the most visually stunning scenes in the trilogy. “Don’t Fear the Reaper” keeps playing throughout the kill. Pearl doesn’t stop until his head detaches from his body. Feeling alive and rejuvenated, she breaks into a dance from her youth over RJ’s corpse, the music changing to “Oui Oui Marie.”
5. Leon (Moses Sumney), MaXXXine (2024)
Leon’s death is one of the most stylistic in the trilogy. The video store clerk is murdered with his own knife, which he had left out on the counter. A masked Ernest slashes the back of his neck, sending blood gushing out. This is followed by a beautiful, giallo-esque shot of a black gloved hand holding up the knife against the backdrop of a red neon “VIDEO” sign. The hand comes down, slashing Leon’s eye. Leon is repeatedly stabbed after falling to the ground. Bright, scarlet blood gorgeously splatters over shelved VHS tapes, in a shot that would make Argento proud.
His savage death is not only one of the most aesthetic, but also one of the most emotionally impactful. His death is a critical moment in the film, a loss that pushes Maxine to confront her tormentor. He was her best friend, probably the dearest person in her life. She let him in as much as she could let anyone in. Leon was someone she could count on. She was crushed witnessing the gruesome aftermath of his demise when his body was transported out on a gurney the next day. His gory murder may have been one slasher fans enjoyed watching play out, but it was also tragic.
4. John Labat (Kevin Bacon), MaXXXine (2024)
Sleazy P.I. John Labat, brilliantly played by Kevin Bacon, finds out the hard way that Maxine doesn’t play nice. Throughout the film, he stalks her, harasses her, and threatens her on behalf of his mysterious client. Maxine has had enough and decides to take control of the situation to keep her past from being exposed. Her agent and entertainment lawyer, Teddy Knight (Giancarlo Esposito), is all too willing to help her. Setting up a trap and luring him through a nightclub and out the back, they manage to subdue Labat. Suddenly, he’s shown handcuffed to the steering wheel of his car, bloody from being knocked out with the baseball bat. Thinking it’s just a threat, he insults Maxine, before realizing his life is in actual danger.
When Labat hears the compactor and realizes he’s about to experience an excruciating death, he starts pleading for his life to the woman he just told to f*ck off and called a b*tch. Realizing she’ll show him no mercy, the self-proclaimed atheist starts reciting the Lord’s Prayer, while Maxine stands there looking her hottest and Teddy sucks on a cigarette. Labat is brutally crushed to death, with blood and gore oozing out of the car. The dogs sure did think he was tasty.
3. Mitsy Douglas (Emma Jenkins-Purro), Pearl (2022)
Pearl’s sister-in-law, Mitsy, was the only friend Pearl ever knew, and perhaps the only person who ever extended true kindness to her. When Pearl is distraught after being rejected from the dance troupe, Mitsy walks her home and consoles her. Ultimately, her compassion would be her demise. Giving Pearl a safe space to vent leads to that iconic 8-minute dialogue, in which Pearl confesses her resentment towards her husband, her affair with the projectionist, her psychopathy, and her murderous transgressions. Stunned, Mitsy tries to act normal before leaving, reassuring Pearl her secrets will stay between them. Pearl can’t help but ask if she landed a spot in the troupe, an answer she coerces, and which of course, leaves her feeling envious of a “younger and more blonde” Mitsy.
It’s all the fuel for Pearl’s rage. Just when Mitsy thinks she has made it out safely, Pearl walks out the front door with a determined, maniacal look and picks up an ax. She chases her sister-in-law down the driveway, knocking her down with an ax to the spine. Mitsy pleads for her life, swearing she won’t tell anyone, and promising to do anything she wants. “It’s not about what I want anymore, Mitsy. It’s about making the best of what I have,” says Pearl, embracing her vicious nature, chillingly no longer ashamed of her depravity. Standing over her, she hacks away at Mitsy, driven by the fury of knowing she’ll never leave the farm. She then dismembers her body and feeds her to Theda. And so, the audience learns the origin of Pearl’s disdain for blondes.
2. Ernest Miller (Simon Prast), MaXXXine (2024)
Maxine and Pearl both have conservative, domineering parents who try to control their lives, whom they eventually end up killing. For Maxine, it was her estranged father, the televangelist preacher, Ernest Miller, first introduced to the audience in X through multiple TV segments. At some point, Maxine escaped her ultra-religious home in pursuit of a more liberated life in which she could pursue her dreams of fame. Pearl is, in fact, emblematic of everything Maxine could have become had she not escaped her religious shackles. After making a name for herself in the porn industry, Maxine lands the lead role in The Puritan II. She’s so close to making it in mainstream Hollywood, but someone’s murdering those close to her and threatening to expose her past at the farmhouse.
It’s revealed that it’s good, ‘ol dad, who wants to make her the star of his movie, in which he exposes Hollywood’s “Satanic ways.” Filming her tied to a palm tree, he tells Maxine to repent for her sins and accept god, or be literally branded with the mark of the beast, leading to a shootout between the cult and the detectives. Maxine chases Dad to the Hollywood sign, where he lies shot and incapacitated. Standing over him, she asks him to say it with her one more time, “I will not accept a life I do not deserve,” and thanks him for giving her the “divine intervention” she needed, before blasting his face with a shotgun, blowing up his head into chunks. It’s bloody, graphic and beautiful. Maxine leaves her religious trauma behind, stepping into a life of stardom.
1. Pearl (Mia Goth), X (2022)
Pearl’s grisly end was poetic. The rapey, murderous psychopath was killed by that which she coveted and envied most—a young, beautiful woman with the determination and promise to achieve stardom. Both held aspirations for fame, but only Maxine possessed the tenacity to manifest her dreams, whereas Pearl gave up when faced with her first obstacle. The aged woman resents Maxine not only for having X factor, but for being liberated and self-empowered enough to live the life she desires. Pearl succumbed to defeat and repression, living out the rest of her days on the farm she always loathed and yearned to escape. When Maxine says “I’m nothing like you,” she’s almost making a promise to herself to not end up bitter like Pearl by failing to realize her potential: “I will not accept a life I do not deserve.”
Maxine shoots at Pearl, realizing the handgun she’s holding is empty. Pearl picks up Howard’s (Stephen Ure) shotgun and shoots at Maxine, but it recoils, sending her frail body flying back past the porch. Lying there with a broken hip, Pearl’s resentful and embittered to the very end, yelling at Maxine that she’s nothing special and will end up just like her. Maxine puts the truck she’s escaping in in reverse, running over the old woman’s head, sending her brains splattering everywhere. No one in the world but Howard ever knew Pearl’s name. Chelse Wolfe’s cover of “Oui Oui Marie” drones on as Maxine drives off to chase the future she envisions for herself.
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