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Published Oct 6, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT
Shrishty is a decade-old journalist covering a variety of beats between politics to pop culture, but movies are her first love, which led her to study Film and TV Development at UCLAx. She lives and breathes cinema and sometimes wakes up with the close-up shot of Ryan Gosling's hands playing piano in La La Land, in her head.
She has worked with numerous media outlets, including Burda Media (MSN News), DKODING Media, The Voice of Fashion, Hindustan Times, and more. Throughout her career, she has interviewed an array of people, from CEOs and politicians to filmmakers and farmers.
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The slasher subgenre includes some of the most compelling horror entries: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Candyman, and the Scream franchise, among others. The audience gets an adrenaline rush when a possible victim runs and hides from the villain and eventually comes out on top. But in many movies, it’s the villain’s backstory that takes the cake, like Tobin Bell's iconic Jigsaw in the Saw franchise or Robert Englund's Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street.
In contemporary times, Mia Goth’s Pearl in Ti West’s X trilogy is one such villain. Goth is a universally praised actor, but her dual performance in the trilogy spells its own success. The franchise started with X, set in 1979 and follows a group of young filmmakers who rent a rural Texas farmhouse to shoot an adult film. Things take a turn when their elderly hosts catch them, and the shoot turns into a bloody fight for survival. The slasher became a big hit owing to its performance, setting, and a brilliant story by West and Goth.
The success was promptly followed by a prequel, Pearl, which was shot back-to-back with X. Set in 1918 Texas, Pearl acts as a prequel or a psychotic origin story for its titular antagonist as we see her aspiration to become a movie star leading to her committing gruesome violence. Goth garnered award buzz for her disturbing and tragic portrayal. The 93% Rotten Tomatoes-rated feature sees Goth delivering a devastating, unbroken 6-minute monologue and a credit-rolling manic smile that would linger long after the movie ends. It became another success, earning $10 million worldwide. It was followed by MaXXXine, which explored the story of its titular character, who pursues her big break in mainstream Hollywood, but her dark past threatens to catch up with her. Another hit, the feature seamlessly ties back to X, while the overall trilogy gives a heart-wrenching look at ambition, aging, and isolation.
Pearl Is Slashing the Streaming Charts
As the spooky season arrives, fans are revisiting Pearl as it returns to HBO Max’s top 10 global charts, as per FlixPatrol. It stands tall among features like DC’s Supergirl, Halle Berry’s supernatural horror Never Let Go, Paul W. S. Anderson’s In The Lost Lands, Crazy Old Lady, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt’s Interview with The Vampire, and more.
Check out Pearl on HBO Max and stay tuned to Collider for more such updates.
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