Synopsis
Trapped on her family’s isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl’s ambitions, temptations, and repressions collide.
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Cast
- Mia GothPearl
- Tandi WrightRuth
- David CorenswetThe Projectionist
- Emma Jenkins-PurroMitsy
- Matthew SunderlandFather
- Alistair SewellHoward
- Amelia ReidMargaret
- Gabe McDonnellWoman
- Lauren StewartPianist
- Todd RipponDirector
Recommendations
- 100
The Guardian
The film itself is terrifically accomplished and horribly gripping, with golden-age movie pastiche and dashes of Psycho and The Wizard of Oz. - 93
TheWrap
Pearl isn’t just great; it retroactively makes its predecessor great, too. It’s a handsome and sad horror drama, with scenes and shots and performances that will make you wonder if you’re supposed to laugh, cry or shriek. Until you realize that the best part of this film is that you are absolutely supposed to do all three. And you probably will. - 85
Slashfilm
Pearl is an ambitious and bold work of horror that calls into question what it means to deserve love and the bad things we sometimes do to receive it. - 80
The Telegraph
In her first outright lead role Goth is straightforwardly tremendous, and gets to move through the considerable breadth of her talent even within individual shots. - 80
Total Film
Clever, violent, and wicked, with a fabulously unhinged turn from Goth, West’s period psycho tale truly does have the X Factor. - 80
Screen Daily
This new instalment stands on its own unsettlingly odd merits. - 75
The Playlist
Flimsy logic notwithstanding, Pearl is the superior of the two heavily-stylized slashers, partly because it dedicates so much time to building the eponymous antiheroine from the ground up. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
As a cleverly packaged pandemic production with narrative echoes of that global anxiety, it’s at the very least something fresh. A gruesome portrait of another young woman hungering for a life greater than the fate she’s been handed, it makes an amusing companion piece to X.
