That Scene: X and the Irrelevance of an Aging Woman
That Scene is a periodic short essay focused on one scene in a horror film. A scene that is not scary and transcends the genre.
Crying at a horror movie? It happens more than you may think. If you don’t get a little sniffly at the end of Train to Busan I’d like to check your pulse, and I’ve already written my thoughts on the depiction of grief in Two Storms (ep. 6 from The Haunting of Hill House 2008).
In recent memory though, no single scene caught me so emotionally off guard as this scene in Ty West’s ‘X’, released in 2022.
Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega & Brittany Snow lead the cast of this layered film.
Leading up to the 2-minute clip I include here, Pearl, an elderly woman is rejected by her husband. After a small group of young adults who are staying in a cabin on their farm property, settle in for the night, she found the courage to be seen. Observing the ‘youthful beauty’ of the group (including Jenna Ortega, Kid Cudi and Brittany Snow) and the fact that one of the young women is a dead ringer for her, inspires Pearl to apply makeup, style her hair and wear a silky dress. Probably for the first time in decades. Feeling beautiful herself, she makes an advance toward her husband only to be flatly, rejected.
In his excuse “my heart, you know, my heart” we hear the weary echoes of years of avoidance. Of longing, unrequited.
Cue the music.
What I see happening is so much more than just a fleeting moment of not-getting-what-you-want.
As Brittany Snow sings Landslide (accompanied by Kid Cudi’s guitar), split screen images contrast the wistfulness of the lounging guests with the broken essence of Pearl.
They are relaxed, enjoying the moment in time with each other. She is removing her makeup; combing out her hair, and erasing all indications of ever having tried to be seen as beautiful.
Maxine, the doppelganger played by Mia Goth, is a cruel, funhouse image of Pearl. Glowing. Full of life. A life that still holds surprises and opportunities. Perhaps this was how Pearl saw herself again, if ever so briefly.
Or perhaps, this is how she sees herself every day and it is the world that ignores her desires.
This is a woman whose own husband, her only companion in the world, refuses her advances. She knows she will never be embraced. Never be kissed again. Never be fulfilled.
At this moment, Pearl is an aging woman who sees the crone that life has turned her into. The crepiness of her skin shares the screen with the dewy complexions of youth. Slowly, every remaining ember of her desire is losing its glow.
Here is a woman facing a fate worse than mortality. In her reflection, she witnesses her own irrelevance.
She lived out her days with her husband on the farm as the world moved on. Her fire. Her desires. Her dreams. All are hidden from the world because she herself, no longer with the promise of youth, is invisible.
As a woman, this scene tore me to pieces. The desire to feel a connection in a world that doesn’t see you. To accept the truth that you will never be embraced again. To accept that there is no time left to start over, no more second chances. To accept that the life you wanted will never be. There is no opportunity for a woman like her. No mystery.
Reflected in the mirror is a surrender beyond sadness.
It is the reflection of a woman who merely exists.
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