Netflix Adding One of 2022's Best Horror Movies

Horror lovers have plenty to get excited about next month. Ti West's critically acclaimed A24 slasher movie X is headed to Netflix in February. The streamer's full list of titles arriving in February 2024, released Wednesday, revealed that that X will be available for streaming beginning Thursday, Feb. 1. Netflix had a placeholder for the film in the streaming library with the upcoming Netflix release date prior to unveiling the TV shows and movies arriving next month.

Written, directed, produced, and edited by West, and drawing comparisons to iconic '70s slashers like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, X stars Mia Goth as both a young woman named Maxine and an elderly woman named Pearl. Per the official synopsis, "in 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives." The movie also stars Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, and Scott Mescudi.

Debuting in theaters in the U.S. in March 2022, X grossed a worldwide total of $15.1 million against a $1 million budget, making it a box office success. The film was also well-received by critics and currently holds a 94% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 75% audience score. A critics consensus reads, "a fresh spin on the classic slasher formula, X marks the spot where Ti West gets resoundingly back to his horror roots."

Upon its release, X was widely praised as a standout film in the slasher genre. Variety's Owen Gleiberman called the film "a deliberate, loving, and meticulous homage" to films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with Parade's Samuel R. Murrain writing that the film is "a love letter to the best of horror, and further, freedom of expression." X was so well-received that it even appeared on numerous outlet's lists of the best horror films of 2022, with Rotten Tomatoes ranking it No. 1.

X will be making its way to Netflix ahead of the upcoming release of Maxxxine, the third and final installment in West's X trilogy. Following Pearl, which released in 2023, Maxxxine will center around Goth's Maxine, the only survivor of the bloody incidents of X. Along with Goth, the cast includes Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Lily Collins, Halsey, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon. The film is currently expected to release in 2024.