Pearl

Ti West's Pearl — the prequel to X — is a Technicolor nightmare disguised as a 1918 melodrama. Mia Goth co-wrote the screenplay and delivers one of the most unhinged, emotionally raw performances in horror history. Pearl is a young woman trapped on a remote farm during the Spanish Flu pandemic, desperate for the glamorous life she sees at the movies. Her descent into madness and murder is simultaneously sympathetic and horrifying. The six-minute monologue near the film's end — shot in a single, unflinching take as Pearl confesses her murders — is a tour de force of acting. The closing credits, held on Goth's frozen smile as tears stream down her face, is one of the most disturbing final images in modern horror.