Deep diving into Jenna Ortega’s filmography, and let me be clear, this is pure artistic admiration, not some weird fanboy crush. No daydreams about dates here (I’m 31, happily single). It’s just… refreshing to appreciate an artist’s talent without things getting creepy, you know?
X: A Depraved Sinkhole
Speaking of appreciating talent, I just finished “X,” the 2022 horror film with Jenna in a supporting role. Let me tell you, this movie was a wild ride – the most depraved thing I’ve seen in years. Now, I wouldn’t call myself a horror buff. I gravitate towards wholesome stuff, comedies, rom-coms. Horror? Occasional indulgence. Used to love it (think Final Destination), but lately, real-world horrors have kinda soured the genre for me.
Except… here’s the thing. Horror isn’t supposed to be existential. It’s about manipulating emotions through shock, gore, and terror. And “X” does that masterfully.
A Mindless Descent into Terror
Forget the initial premise about a shady adult film shoot. The real horror lies in these two deranged elderly killers. It’s gloriously mindless, a throwback to the most unsettling horror I’ve seen. The acting is superb, realistic, and avoids cheesy caricatures. You truly believe they’re terrified.
The tragedy unfolds perfectly within the short runtime. It never feels rushed, the story flows, and it’s easy to follow without being predictable. Sure, predictability builds anticipation, but “X” keeps you guessing about the “how,” not the “what.”
A Smoothly Crafted Pop-Horror Gem
The pacing is excellent – not repetitive. There’s tension-building before the scares, and moments where the film lingers on the tragedy before ramping up again. It’s a craftsmanlike horror film.
The gratuitous moments? Necessary for the genre. But the intervals are well-balanced, except maybe the simulated porn (which, oddly, isn’t that gratuitous). It’s like a good pop song – easy to understand, delivers the scares, and doesn’t leave you traumatized (unlike Final Destination, which gave me paranoia for days).
Themes sprinkled in for good measure.
Themes like sexual liberation, identity, toxic religion, and the pursuit of fame all complement the film’s depravity. It’s the classic “band of dreamers” story, but with a dark twist – using the adult film industry as a springboard. It connects to real-life horrors because, well, the industry itself can be pretty dark, and depravity breeds more depravity.
Rated R. Shocking? Not really.
So, should you watch it? If you enjoy good horror that won’t scar you for life and you can forget most of it by morning, then go for it.
Full disclosure: I wrote this article with Gemini, Google’s AI chatbot. I rambled to it and asked it to make sense of that rambling — to organize my thoughts better, and edit it the best way it can. I have a day job, I want to do other things, but I still want to blog. So I use AI to make that possible for me. I would go through the generated article a few times over. I would go back-and-forth with Gemini to at least make sure it still had my voice and the stuff that I actually wanted to say in my original rambling. It’s great help, but please don’t do this in your school essays or work (if you aren’t allowed to do so, obviously). This disclosure notice, though? No AI here. And you probably felt that because it sucks.