‘X’ Fans Uncover Easter Eggs That Foreshadow the Kills
Ti West’s X is getting a whole lot of love from critics and audiences. The horror movie delivers a mix of dark comedy, 1970s slasher, and an abundance of sex. X only just recently hit theaters, but fans are already pointing out Easter eggs that foreshadow all of the kills in the movie. It’s clear that the film is already an audience favorite.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from X.]
‘X’ is a slasher that takes place in rural Texas
X takes place in 1979. Wayne (Martin Henderson) comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme that he believes will work – porn that people can watch in the privacy of their own homes. He brings his cast and crew with him to a rural part of Texas, where a reclusive, elderly couple named Howard (Stephen Ure) and Pearl (Mia Goth) owns a cabin close to their own home. Wayne believes this to be the perfect filming location for his movie.
However, the elderly couple has no idea what these young folks are planning to do while they rent the cabin. When they do find out, the guests will have to fight for their lives to survive the night. The antagonists might not look like much, but they perfectly understand how to properly use the element of surprise on their victims.
Fans uncover Easter eggs that foreshadow the characters’ deaths
A Redditor posted about the kills in X. They pointed out the foreshadowing in several of their deaths. Some of them are really quick moments that most audiences would likely miss, but they all fit rather nicely into the narrative.
The elderly woman brutally stabs RJ (Owen Campbell), but his girlfriend, Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) realizes that he’s missing. She asks Wayne for help to look for him. The amateur porn producer searches in the barn, where he accidentally steps on a nail. He hears something coming from the other side of the back wall, but he doesn’t find RJ when he looks through the peepholes. Rather, a pitchfork suddenly emerges and stabs him in the eyes.
Earlier in the film, Wayne says regarding the porn film: “people’s eyes will pop out their heads when they see this.” This is a clear piece of foreshadowing for what’s to come in the character’s future.
Next, Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) tries to help the elderly woman when she spots her near the lake. However, she doesn’t take Bobby-Lynne’s kindness too well. As a result, the old woman pushes the young woman into the water, where an alligator brutally kills her.
If you look closely toward the beginning of X, Bobby-Lynn can be seen leaving a building with the image of a blonde woman having her swimwear ripped off of her by an alligator.
Jackson (Scott Mescudi) also tries to help the elderly couple when Howard asks for his help in looking for Pearl. They search the darkness together, but they separate for a short time. The old man ultimately shoots Jackson and kills him.
When the group first arrived in the cabin, Jackson mentioned his military service. He explained that farmers pointed their guns at him back in Vietnam, so he would prefer to not deal with that back in the United States.
Finally, Maxine (Goth) kills Pearl during the film’s climax. She manages to get in the van with the keys, but the elderly woman continues to taunt her. Maxine decides to put the van in reverse and run over Pearl’s head, turning it into mush.
When the group is headed to the cabin in X, they pass a truck that hit a cow. The front of the vehicle and the ground are covered in its blood and guts. A shot prominently shows the tires running through the cow’s guts, displaying a very similar shot to Pearl’s demise.
‘X’ offers some additional bits of foreshadowing
The deaths missing from the Redditor’s post include RJ, Lorraine, and Howard. However, the film certainly does drop some clues to their deaths, as well.
RJ’s motivations to film the adult film include making a quality movie that will allow him to break into cinema. He’s constantly talking about getting the right shot and tries to capture the drama in what he’s shooting. RJ gets the most artistically-shot death, as Pearl has a short, ethereal dance sequence covered in his blood after killing him.
Wayne calls Lorraine a “church mouse” because she’s so soft-spoken. However, she understandably becomes a blubbering mess in the third act. As a result, she takes it out on Maxine and runs out of the house shouting, ultimately taking a gunshot to the face. X constantly pulls attention to her quiet nature, as characters try to get her to speak up. Her death is perhaps the loudest in the movie.
Finally, Howard ultimately dies of a heart attack when Lorraine’s final sounds in her death trigger it. However, the foreshadowing of his death is perhaps the most obvious. Howard is noticeably winded throughout the movie and he even talks about having a poor heart as the reason why he can’t have sex with Pearl.
X is now playing exclusively in theaters.
