'MaXXXine' Prequel 'Pearl' Slashes Its Way Onto Netflix in August
The second installment in Ti West's 'X' trilogy hits Netflix on Aug. 1.
Pearl is officially comin' to Netflix! As fans fill theaters to catch the final installment of Ti West's X trilogy, 2022's prequel slasher Pearl, starring Mia Goth in the titular role, is finding a new streaming home, Netflix confirming the news with the release of its August 2024 titles.
Paying homage to classics like The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Mary Poppins (1964), Pearl is set more than 60 years before the brutal events of X amid a backdrop of the Influenza pandemic and centers around Goth's Pearl, the slasher trilogy's villain. Despite her dreams of becoming a Hollywood star, Pearl find herself stuck in a smalltown life, tending to her ailing father and under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother as her husband Howard is away serving in the military. But as her desire for fame grows, her "ambitions, temptations, and repressions" collide into acts of violence.
Pearl marked the second installment in West's iconic trilogy and is the highest-rated film in the trilogy by audience members, holding an 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a 92% critics score, with X's rating only slightly higher at 94%. The film will officially make its way to Netflix on Thursday, Aug. 1, the streamer confirming the news on X (formerly Twitter) by using Pearl's iconic line, writing, "SHE'S A STAR. Pearl is comin' to Netflix on August 1."
Pearl will join Netflix's lineup less than a month after the third and final installment in the X trilogy, MaXXXine, debuted in theaters on July 5. Set more than 5 years after the events of X, the film follows Maxine Minx, the final girl from the brutal massacre at the rural Texas farm. Now living in Los Angeles, Maxine is pursuing her dreams of becoming a star, but as she lands in a horror film called The Puritan II from director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), "a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past" as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood.
MaXXXine is currently available in theaters, with X available to rent on various streaming platforms and Pearl still available to stream on Paramount+ (you can subscribe up here) ahead of its move to Netflix. The film is one of several horror titles heading to the streamer in August, with six Child's Play films – Bride of Chucky, Child's Play 2, Child's Play 3, Cult of Chucky, Curse of Chucky, and Seed of Chucky - arriving on Aug. 1 alongside Gil Kenan's beloved 2006 animated supernatural horror comedy film Monster House.