- Director: Ti West
- Year: 2022
Overview
Set in 1918, Pearl is a young woman trapped on her family's isolated farm during the influenza pandemic. She doesn't want to spend her life caring for her paralyzed father and serving her overbearing mother. Instead, she dreams of escaping to become a glamorous chorus girl. When her husband is away fighting in World War I, Pearl sees an opportunity to audition for a traveling dance troupe. When her mother tries to crush her ambitions, Pearl snaps. Her desperation to escape the farm leads to a series of gruesome murders as she eliminates anyone who stands in the way of her freedom.
Takeaways
Pearl's life is a nightmare of loneliness and chores, trapped on a farm during a pandemic with a sick father and a controlling mother. Her mother uses constant guilt trips to keep her in line, crushing any hope of a different life. Pearl clings to the dream of becoming a famous dancer just to keep going, but once she fails the audition, her hope dies and she completely snaps. The awful violence she commits is all that bottled-up anger exploding at once. It shows how pushing someone to their absolute limit in isolation can drive them completely insane, destroying everyone around them.