"X" Director Ty West An ambitious film disguised as a traditional horror film, its theme is "passion for filmmaking" [Director's Interview Vol.221]

In 1979, a pornographic film crew visits a rural area of ​​Texas for a location shoot. The elderly couple living there are actually murderers. The terrifying elderly murderous couple massacre young people one by one. With just this information, horror fans will surely remember that classic film and grin. However, "X" is an ambitious work that pleasantly betrays the expectations and hopes of such movie fans. This film has a unique theme and perspective that has not been seen in previous horror films, which gives a completely different feeling after reading it than the many slasher films.

We spoke to director Ti West about the production of the film, its innovative theme, and the surprising way they managed to survive filming during the coronavirus pandemic.

Index

• A love letter to filmmaking
• The character is the director himself
• Why "aging" became the theme
• Surprising ideas to survive the coronavirus pandemic

A love letter to filmmaking

Q: "X" contains the essence of various horror movies. I especially felt the strong influence of Tobe Hooper's "The Texas The Texas Chain Saw Massacre " (1974) and " The Texas Chainsaw Massacre " (1976). This film does not just sprinkle the essence of past horror movies, but also dismantles them and seems to have a strong will to reconstruct them in the director's own way.

West: As you say, I think there are strong elements of The The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in X But if the setting is 1970s Texas, with young people traveling in a van, it inevitably ends up being similar (laughs). So I was conscious of surprising the audience who watched the first half and expected a movie like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by developing the movie in a completely different direction.

I love horror movies from the 70s, but I'm a fan of all genres of American movies from that time. So I was conscious of the tone of American movies from the 70s throughout the film. I also love filmmaking itself, and I think of this film as a love letter to filmmaking. So it's not just a horror movie.

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Q: The setting is unique, with the main characters heading to rural Texas to make an independent porn film.

West: Although 1970s pornographic films were pornographic, many of them had well-constructed stories, so I think they are a genre that allows you to feel the joy of filmmaking. I feel that horror and pornography have something in common in the sense that they are Outsider expressions. I think they are genres that can be made independently and freely, without being incorporated into the production system of major Hollywood studios. Because of this affinity, I made the characters into pornographic filmmakers.

The character is the director himself